A baptism as a result of the book
I have an experience about the principle “What People Are Interested In.”
I am an Elder’s Quorum (EQ) president and received your book as a gift for from my father. I decided to read it and make it the focal point of a two-part lesson on the first Sundays with the EQ. The section that taught the principle of ‘what interests you about the gospel may not be what interests others’ sunk deep into my thoughts. I wanted to prove the hypothesis right or wrong with a real-world test case. On Sunday when I was teaching, I asked those in the EQ that joined the church through missionaries to come to the front of the room. As eight men stood in front of the quorum, I simply asked, “What was it that first attracted you to find out about the church?” As they went down the line, each and everyone of them mentioned it was the example of a member in their life. I then turned to the class to ask, “What did you hear them say?” Almost in unison they responded, “These men wanted in life what they had observed in this person they admired.” I then asked them, “What didn’t you hear them say?” The reply, “NONE of them said it was doctrine that had brought them in.”
The next Sunday as I was conducting EQ, one of the brothers asked if he could make a statement and I agreed. He told me that the previous week during my lesson on missionary work, a non-member was attending an LDS church for the very first time. He said that this man, John, was so impressed by the stories and testimonies of the men in front of him in that panel that he too wanted what they had. “Those men seemed like me and my situation now,” John thought. John ended up taking the lessons from the missionaries and joined the church.
Who would’ve guessed that a lesson on missionary work would have resulted in missionary work?
The book inspired me to teach its principles. The principles inspired me to test them. The test resulted in a panel discussion, which resulted in a young man’s heart being touched, which resulted in his conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I’d simply like to say ‘thank you’ for the challenge to be better, more effective everyday missionaries.
Sincerely,
President Levi Fisk
Richmond Texas Stake, Richmond 2nd Ward
August 10, 2013 Uncategorized
You’re welcome. Thank you, Levi, for taking on the challenge. And now because you did, John’s life will never be the same!
‘What interests you about the gospel may not be what interests others’ — this sentence also resonated within me when I read it. I live in an age-restricted community with many gated subdivisions. The missionaries in my area don’t have much opportunity to tract or to teach, so when they do find someone, or when one of our ward members asks them to share a message, it’s a really big deal.
It seems to me the full-time missionaries in my ward now don’t listen to the people they are teaching. They plunge ahead, and teach whatever they have planned out during their companion study time. As a result, they are not having a lot of success. I’m to the point with them that I won’t ask them to teach my friends, but am anxiously waiting until transfers hoping that the next pair will be more sensitive to the responses of the people being taught.
Nina, you’re really keen on this principle which is great. I’m replying from Boy Scout camp right now so this quote from the Boy Scouts founder, Robert Baden Powell, seems apropos: “If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.”
And I think you have a sense of how radically different the missionaries’ service could be if the people they are teaching had the experience of being listened to. Since we’re all in this learning together, what’s something you think you could do to have them get a sense for how they are / aren’t listening now and the power and upside of listening to find out what interests people?