Interact to Edify

Dear Family,

Yes winter has begun

Winter has begun. I forgot how bothersome the cold nights of tracting
were a year ago. The Canadians are so confused when we knock on their
door. They think we have lost our minds. I will say that Monctonians
get really offended when you tell them you know what a Canadian winter
is like because you went through one in Halifax. It's the "No one
suffers like I suffer mindset." They're children of God and we love
them.

This past week I read a great talk by Elder Bednar about leadership.
The importance of interacting to edify. The purpose of meetings in the
church is 1. Provide instruction and 2. Edify others (Doctrine and
Covenants 43:8). There are four ways to teach people depending on the
nature of the principle and the nature of the person. For simple tasks
and simple people we merely just need to tell them what to do and they
will do it. For simple tasks and complex people we need to explain why
they should do something. It's a simple thing to repent, but unless
someone understands why they won't do it. This is the instruction part
of verse 8. People need a reason to do something. In terms of
edification this is where we have demonstrate. People need to be shown
how to do things that appear complex. We could write pages on how to
hit a baseball but unless we are with someone who knows how to hit a
baseball then we will never figure out how to hit a baseball. The same
applies for missionary work and really any field where skills are
necessary. We realized that people will never understand how to
properly teach unless they are shown how to do it. The fourth way of
teaching is delegation, but I won't go into that. I know that through
demonstrating how, people will understand the principles that we

teach.

Zone Training was awesome. We got a stage for a live role-play so
everyone could see the demonstration. It was great

This past week we had a great zone training. Elder Tincher and I
trained on asking questions and discernment. In teaching in the
Saviour's way there are four fundamental questions we can ask when
teaching from the scriptures: 1. Context/concrete 2.
Discovering/Analyzing 3. Testimony/Feeling 4. Application. When
following-up on a reading assignment such as Mosiah 18 we may begin by
asking "Who is speaking in this chapter?" "To whom?" These are
concrete questions that paint a picture for the principles about to be
discussed. This is foundational. As humans we learn both by study and
faith (D&C 88:118). The Holy Ghost not only teaches us through our
minds by also in our hearts (D&C 8:2). We then move on to asking
discovering questions such as "What is baptism?" "Why should we keep
the Sabbath Day Holy after we are baptized?" These questions deal with
the intellectual side of the gospel. Then we can ask testimony
questions such as "What would it mean to you if you were baptized by
proper authority" or "When in your life have you felt the blessings of
going to church?" These questions bring out our emotional
understanding of gospel principles which is equally important as our
intellectual understanding. Finally, we won't gain knowledge of
something until we take the leap of faith and live a teaching (Alma
32:34). Knowledge defined in webster's dictionary is "understanding
based on experience." We then may ask "What could you do to keep the
sabbath more holy?" or "Will you keep the Sabbath Day holy?" That was
basically half of our zone training. The other half was on
discernment, but I'll have to save that for another email.

We found a great new family to teach this week. It's nice to actually
teach a family. The Johnsons are a family from Toronto.
They investigated about ten years ago in Vancouver but lost contact
with the elders. They now live in Moncton and we tracted into them.
Gabriel the mom has a very strong faith in Christ. She is open to the
idea of Joseph Smith being a prophet but doesn't know for 100% that he
is one. He daughter just had a new baby girl named "Neveah" Heaven
spelt backwards. Yes it's a party. We're having peanut butter cookies
next Tuesday for our appointment.



HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire