TEACH, TEACH, TEACH
As a MISSIONARY, you are sent forth for one purpose--to teach.
How and what to teach will be
a challenge for your entire mission. Let’s
start by broadening your vision
of whom you are to teach. You might
say you are to teach nonmembers
the six standard discussions. True,
but it hardly describes the scope
of your stewardship. Let's consider
some other areas of responsibility
First, you are under divine command to teach yourself: Almost a
year before the Church was formally
organized in this dispensation,
Hyrum Smith felt a great urge
to share the gospel with others. The Lord
gave Hyrum's younger brother,
Joseph, a revelation for Hyrum, which
reads:
Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain
my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if
you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea,
the power of God unto the convincing of men.
But now hold your peace; study my word which hath
gone forth among the children of men, and also study my
word which shall come forth among the children of men,...
until you have obtained all which I shall grant unto the
children of men in this generation, and then shall all things
be added thereto (D&C 11:21-22).
In teaching yourself, you will discover quickly the holes in your
understanding of the gospel.
If you were so unwise as to waste your
youth (and so many of us did!),
then you will have to redouble your
efforts to
catch up. On the day I arrived in Samoa for my first mission,
the elders who met the plane
took me to visit an old Catholic priest. I
did not know
they did this with all new missionaries.
After the introductions
were over,
this good man kindly (sometimes not
so kindly) beat me about
the head and
shoulders with my own doctrine. He knew much more about
what I believed and where it
was found in the scriptures than I did. I felt
like a total
failure. Had there been a plane heading back to the United States,
I probably would have been on
it. But since there was only a weekly flight
to Hawaii, I was stuck. So I
determined at that time never again to be
embarrassed like that.
I started an intensive study program that has continued for the
twenty-nine years since then
and will likely continue until death halts my
earthly study. When you are not
preaching, spend your time studying the
gospel. Study the scriptures
("my word which hath gone forth") and the
teachings of the latter-day prophets
("my word which shall come forth").
Once you master the scriptures
and the teachings of the latter-day prophets,
you can broaden your study to
other sources--but this will likely not happen
while you are in the mission.
Next, you have a responsibility to teach your companion. As a
"greeny,” you may think your
trainer has the sole responsibility to teach
you. In many things that will
be true. He or she has served longer, has
more experience, and is therefore
more qualified to teach you the practical
points of effective missionary
work. But no trainers have perfected
themselves to the point that
they have no need to continue learning.
Perhaps they come from a less-active
family and have little background
in the gospel or how to live
successfully in a family. If you have expertise
in areas where your trainer is
lacking, don't be shy about sharing your
understanding with him or her.
After you've been in the mission awhile, you'll discover that there
are no perfect missionaries.
Every time you get a chance to share the
truths you take as commonplace,
the Spirit will lift you up. Be careful
not to come across as a know-it-all.
No one likes to be talked down to
or treated like a little kid.
In Doctrine and Covenants 43:8 the Lord
commands, "I give unto you a
commandment, that when ye are assembled
together ye shall instruct and
edify each other, that ye may know how to
act and direct my church, how
to act upon the points of my law and
commandments, which I have given."
The discussions provide golden opportunities to share your insight
without the tone of preachiness.
Sometimes, waiting until your advice is
sought is infinitely more effective
than trying to interject your thoughts
when they arenot welcomed. Be
sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit.
Believe it or not, you are also responsible to teach the members.
Many of them are eager to do
member-missionary work, but they just
don't know how. It is a natural
reaction to become frustrated at their
lack of know-how. But remember
that a natural reaction is not necessarily
correct. “The natural man is
an enemy to God" (Mosiah 3:19). Come down
off your high horse and assume
that people are basically good and want
to do what their Heavenly- Father
expects of them. Whenever members
foul up, it is to your advantage
to give them the benefit of a doubt. Step
back, as philosophers do, and
ask, “Is there a prior question?" In plain
English that means, “Is there
something even more basic that I need to
explain so they can successfully
do what I am asking them to do?"
If you train your mind to ask “prior questions,” you will almost
always find some point you need
to teach or reteach. Be very careful
not to come across as the hypocritically
pious, more-holy-than-thou
missionary who passes outtidbits
of celestial counsel. Be humble and
sincere in your approach.
People respond warmly when they perceive
that you are genuinely interested
and are trying to help. They will shut
you off in a minute if they feel
you are condescending or insincere in
your attempts to help.
You should never tire of trying to help others
do better. Remember, your Heavenly
Father (whom you represent) did
not give up on you, even though
as you look back on your youth, you
may not understand why he didn't!
Included in the member group you are to teach are priesthood
leaders and other officers. The
bishop, a very busy man, wants to be
totally successful. The fact
that he doesn't devote every meeting to
missionary work does not mean
he is not interested. He may not know
how to integrate missionary work
into his regular schedule. Here is
where you can offer to help.
Don't demand time in the priesthood
executive committee (PEC) meeting
or the ward correlation council
(WCC). Suggest to the bishop
that you have some ideas you would like
to share with the leaders of
the ward at a convenient time. You might
be surprised how receptive the
bishop is to your teaching.
As you work with the ward mission leader, you may be tempted
to criticize him because “he's
a returned missionary and should know
better!" He may have been back
ten years and is struggling to keep his
family fed, clothed, and housed.
The pressures of his postmission
experience may have left very
little time to be involved in missionary-
related activities. He may even
doubt his effectiveness as a missionary.
Build him up; make him look good;
give him ideas on how to involve the
entire ward. Do not become his
adversary. If he becomes your enemy,
you can cancel your plans for
nightly dinner appointments, forget getting
members to go on companion exchanges,
commonly called splits, with
you and your companion, and dismiss
the idea of member referrals.
Without the assistance of the
ward mission leader, you will be at best
only marginally successful.
Even if you baptized a dozen people without the ward mission
leader's help, who knows how
many other people you might have been
able to reach with his help.
You may use the same rationale with the
Relief Society president, the
Young Men president, and the elders
quorum president--all key people
who can make or break your efforts
in the ward. Even though missionaries
were there years before you
arrived, you may still have a
massive teaching job before the ward
functions the way the Lord intended.
Nonmembers or prospective members constitute what you may
have viewed as your primary teaching
role. There are generally thousands
of them in your area. The problem
is finding those who are prepared to
be taught. How can you recognize
them? The Lord gives the answer in
Doctrine and Covenants 35:12:
“There are none that doeth good except
those who are ready to receive
the fulness of my gospel, which I have
sent forth unto this generation."
Look for those who go quietly about
doing good. The news
media floods us with stories of murder, gang
violence, and scams. Contrary
to common belief, criminals do not
constitute a majority of the
population. I prefer to believe the Lord's
promise, “There are many yet
on the earth among all sects, parties,
and denominations, who are blinded
by the subtle craftiness of men,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive,
and who are only kept from the
truth because they know not where
to find it” (D&C 123-12).
If you can learn to look at your fellow sojourners on earth the way
the Lord does, your approach
to them will be entirely different. A familiar
scripture suggests that we “remember
the worth of souls is great in the
sight of God" (D&C 18:10).
How great is that worth? This question helps
me to think in terms of potential.
How much money would it take to “buy"
God? You may think this is a
ridiculous question. But remember, every
person on earth has the potential
to become like our Heavenly Father.
For you to say, “0h, that person
is a waste of our time" is to say that the
Savior's atonement was in vain.
Remember again, "The Lord your Redeemer
suffered death in the flesh;
wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that
all men might repent and come
unto him" (D8~C 18:11).
Some investigators are presently more prepared to receive the
gospel than others. Learn to
use your time most productively. When you
are not formally teaching a discussion,
teach, teach, teach whomever
will listen. The great condemnation
given by the Lord to the missionaries
is this: "With some I am not
well pleased, for they will not open their
mouths, but they hide the talent
which I have given them, because of
the fear of man. Wo unto such,
for mine anger is kindled against them.
And it shall come to pass, if
they are not more faithful unto me, it shall
be taken away, even that which
they have" (D&C 60:2-3). I don't know
of any missionaries who died
from teaching too many people. However,
some thought they would die of
boredom because they did not share
their knowledge of the gospel
with others.
Alma, in trying to prepare his sons for missionary work, taught
Shiblon, "Use boldness, but not
overbearance" (Alma 38:12). In our
zeal to make rapid progress,
we sometimes fail to respect others'
agency. Not every nonmember will
accept the gospel. Not every member
or leader will implement your
teachings and become more effective in
member-missionary work. Not all
of your companions and fellow
missionaries will heed your counsel
and become more Christlike.
Many will not--but some will.
What should you teach? The Lord is firm and clear in his directions:
"And again, the elders, priests
and teachers of this church shall teach the
principles of my gospel, which
are in the Bible and the Book of Mormon,
in the which is the fulness of
the gospel" (D&C 42:12). Why doesn't he
mention the Doctrine and Covenants
and the Pearl of Great Price? The
answer is that they weren't yet
published when the revelation was given.
His unmistakable counsel is to teach "my gospel" from the
scriptures. You are not
sent forth to teach your personal ideas. You
must teach the doctrine from
the scriptures or from Latter-day prophets
or not teach at all. The Lord
put that restriction in place when he said,
"Let them journey from thence
preaching the word by the way, saying
none other things than that which
the prophets and apostles have
written, and that which is taught
them by the Comforter through the
prayer of faith" (D&C 52:9).
The Lord counseled the early brethren who
wanted to teach their own ideas,
"They shall give heed to that which is
written, and pretend to no other
revelation" (D&C 32:4).
The Lord, through the proper channels, has provided you with an
official set of standard missionary
discussions. Use these until they are
modified by the Brethren. Many
young missionaries have discovered to
their embarrassment that the
Brethren were wise in teaching only basic
doctrines. One big mistake that
missionaries make is trying to teach
beyond the basics. Remember,
you don't understand everything, and
the investigator is just beginning
to comprehend what is being taught.
Stick with the scriptures and the Brethren. If you fail to heed the
counsel, you may learn by sad
experience that the Lord knows what is
best. For more than one hundred
and sixty years, missionaries have
been teaching the same basic
gospel doctrine--and have had much
success doing so.
In order to be more prepared, take the challenge to research,
organize, and write two talks
per month on a gospel topic. Prepare
them as though you were going
to be asked to present them in a zone
conference, sacrament meeting,
or stake conference. If you write them
from the time you arrive, you
would have forty-eight (or thirty-six for
sisters) scripturally oriented
talks at your fingertips.
You will be prepared when asked at the last minute to speak,
saving yourself apologies and
embarrassment. Someday that
"minuteman" preparedness will
pay big dividends. In addition, your
understanding of the dozens of
topics will be much deeper and better
researched than if you were to
deliver an impromptu talk. Perhaps as
a concluding remark, the Lord's
charge is most appropriate: Teach the
gospel from the scriptures by
the power of the Spirit (see D&C 50:13-14).
Follow this counsel, and you
will be on solid ground when the floods of
false doctrine rage around you.
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