The Power of Follow-Up

In the April 2014 General Conference, Elder Ballard expressed his feelings on the power of follow-up in missionary work. And that's what I'm going to do with you here today.

Last week, I talked about three people/miracles that occurred. This week, I'll tell you about their progress.

The woman in the park: We taught her again just this last Saturday the full first lesson about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She talks a LOT, but she's so eager to learn more that she's setting up our future appointments with her!

The high school senior: She dropped us. ("Drop" is missionary lingo for saying she doesn't want us to come by and teach her anymore.) There's too much going on in my life, she says. It was devastating. Heart-wrenching to hear that. I couldn't believe it. My heart sunk and created a pit in my stomach. That may or may not be exaggerating, but that's just exactly how I felt. We followed-up with her on her reading and praying. She even read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and the testimonies. She prayed about it. She's prayed every night. She used to pray once a week. She was progressing! Then she dropped us. She did say that she might want to learn more sometime in the future. Just not now. I hope future missionaries in Arvada 6th will be able to witness her take those steps toward baptism.

The Temple Square tourist: No updates here. The elders tried to contact him, but nothing's come from their contacts.

On the other hand, HOWEVER! We did pick up 2 former investigators! One of them, we didn't know was a former investigator and the other we pulled in with family history! The latter was so fascinated with our vast knowledge of family history and our equally as vast library of family history resources. SO GREAT! They were quick to judge the missionaries who visited them first because I think they dived right into the first lesson without seeing where they're at in life. Both of our first lessons with these former investigators were just downright, hardcore listening. There's a quote in Teaching, No Greater Calling that I enjoy. Not sure what it says exactly, but it's something along the lines of: sometimes we need to sacrifice expressing what we know in order to listen to the person....It was a lot more profound and eloquent than what I just said, but it was something like that.

Love the eloquent,
Sister Wen