Dear Family,
Thank you for the birthday wishes! I really appreciate that you
remembered! I can't believe that tomorrow I'll be 20 years old. Last
year for my birthday I was in Halifax and it was a fast sunday. I got
up to bear my testimony about missionary work and a less-active who
had previously denied us coming over then came up to me after the
meeting and said that we could stop by around 3. We didn't have much
going on in Cole Harbour. Just lots of knocking and lots of phone
calls. Not too many people to teach. I was feeling pretty down about
the work there. Then we got a phone call from President Leavitt and he
invited us over for dinner and to make a training video for the whole
mission to watch about our purpose as missionaries. It was nice
because he didn't even know it was my birthday and I got steak and
cake. Tender mercies.
This past week we focused a lot on the Book of Mormon with the
families we visited. We committed three families to read it in 100
days and then write their testimony in the copy we gave them so that
we can then hand it out to a friend of theirs (or they can personally
hand it out.) I'm not much for reading the Book of Mormon in X amount
of days but if anything it keeps people in the scriptures. I think
it's interesting how we need somewhat of the Law of Moses to get us
into the scriptures. We have prizes in primary for memorizing the
articles of faith like candy or icecream, we have missionaries that
are getting cars for serving a mission, there are dinners held for
young women because they beat the young men in who could do the most
member-missionary work. Here's the thing about prizes. Prizes motivate
people to get prizes. Fame among church members gets a lot of people
to serve missions, do their home teaching, or get their kids to church
on time. We like to look good to others and we like to accumulate
things. When the prizes stop people stop. To be honest, I memorized
the 13 articles of faith when I was in primary so that I could get
candy. Now guess what, I don't have the articles of faith memorized.
People need something more than prizes. Fame motivates people, money
motivates people, prizes motivate people. However, none of these
things motivate people like love motivates people. Passion is the best
motivator. We need examples of great theologians if we're going to
properly motivate people to read the scriptures. People need an idea.
A story. As Babe Ruth once said "Heroes get remembered, but legends
never die." Prizes don't belong in the Lord's church.
This past week we were blessed to find two new investigators to teach.
The first one is David from West Virginia. West Virginia sounds like a
beautiful place I'm telling you what. David is very gung-ho about the
bible and the Saviour and he asks a ton of questions. I think that if
I wasn't called to serve in the Maritimes I would have been called to
serve in the south. David just moved up here and we had a great lesson
about the Restoration and focused primarily on the apostasy. He
doesn't think he's worthy to be baptized yet so we'll be working on
that with him. He wants to take us moose hunting. If only we were
allowed to handle guns as missionaries. Anyway, it was a great lesson.
The next investigator we found was Dan. He's an older man that is
involved with the NRA up here in Aroostook County. He taught us the
'Let My Aim Be True" prayer: "Lord, make me fast and accurate let my
aim be true and my hand faster than those who would seek to destroy
me. Grant me victory over my foes, and those that wish to do harm to
me and mine. Let NOT my last thought be, if I only had a gun, and lord
if today is truly the day that you call me home, let me die in a pile
of empty brass…" Amen. Dan had a concern about modern day prophets but
once we showed him in the scriptures how it was all put together he
understood it. He has a very strong testimony of repentance. He has
really worked through a lot of his problems which is really good
because the heavy lifting is already done for getting ready for
baptism.
Carla is now on date for April 9th so we now have three people getting
ready for baptism! The lesson with Carla was powerful. We read through
the testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and she was just amazed that
not everyone knew about the Restoration. We had invited her to be
baptized a week earlier and she accepted. I made a really dumb folly
and forgot to select a date. In this lesson she was like "So when
would I be getting baptized?" Obviously she needs a date! She's
excited to be baptized by immersion. We're cooking with peanut oil
now!
Jason needs a lot of prayers right now. He is still meeting with us
but the word of wisdom is a giant roadblock for him. We've been
calling him every day and doing push-ups with him when he gets an urge
to smoke, but I think he needs some more help. He loves the church
videos like Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration and The
Testaments:of one fold and one shepherd. He reminds me a lot of Darren
in Newfoundland. Good heart, but just having a hard time living the
commandments. Also if you could pray for Tia because she dislocated
her shoulder and is now in the ER.
Things are coming along in Caribou lou. We get to go all the way to
Halifax this weekend for the French temple trip (Elder Von Trapp is a
French missionary). Thank you for writing me every week everybody!
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Monday, February 29, 2016
Monday, February 22, 2016
Cheer and Bless and Brighten
Dear Family,What an amazing week! I'm starting to love Maine more and more. When I
first showed up I was really missing Canada and all of its little
perks. I miss Newfoundland the most but Maine is growing on me. I
really love how no one here knows much about Canada, even New
Brunswick. It's really bizarre because New Brunswick is literally 20
minutes north. That's just how Americans are though.
I read a great talk this week by President Uchtdorf. In "It works
Wonderfully!" In there he makes the point that many questions people
ask often lead them to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. I studied one of his questions this morning during personal
study. Do I really believe in God? Obviously I believe in God
otherwise I wouldn't be on a mission but I looked at it more as "Why
do I believe in God?" I want you to think why you believe in God. For
me it comes down to this. God is the most supreme and intelligent
being in the universe. He teaches us by calling prophets. By obeying
the words of prophets we can grow in knowledge and eventually become
Godlike. I know for sure that I believe in improvement and growth.
Becoming better to the point of being God (that's the goal), is the
reason why I believe in God (Mosiah 4:9)
This past week we were blessed to hit the mission standard. I haven't
hit the mission standard since the week before Christmas. Before that
I had hit it every week for 6 months. It was nice to get back on
track.
We found three new investigators this week. The first was a lady named
Carla. She's about Mum and Dad's age. She just went through a divorce
and moved out to Northern Maine and she was looking for a church to go
to. It was kind of cool how we found her. She's actually a former from
3 years ago and when we went by to her old address her ex-husband told
us to beat the feat and that he wasn't interested. Not really a
problem because that literally happens every day. We were then
contacting some other people up the road and while we were walking
back to the car her ex-husband yells out for us to help him push his
truck off the icy driveway. We went over and pushed him out and then
he said that we could have Carla's phone number. We then called it a
couple of hours later and Carla picked up. She gave us her address
which was a little outside of Caribou and then we drove up to teach
her last Friday. She accepted to be baptized and she came to church!
 |
| Cats are everywhere in Maine. it's great |
We get a text from Church Headquarters about a lady that wanted a Book
of Mormon. She lived out in Presque Isle which is 10 minutes from
Caribou. We don't have a gps but we have a map from the gas station so
we just headed out to Presque Isle on a prayer that we'd find the
house. After getting lost for half an hour we finally found the
address...to a trailer park which had dozens of trailers (I can see
your frustration with trailer parks Dad!) we didn't know which trailer
to knock on so we just tried a random one and BOOM. We found Tia and
Riley. Tia is originally from Cedar City, Utah. She was meeting with
the missionaries out there, but crap hit the fan with her family so
she ended up moving out to Presque Isle with her boyfriend. We taught
both of them and they are like a young power couple that want to serve
missions and get married in the temple. They are on date for the
weekend after general conference. skadoosh!
So yes it was a great week!
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
 |
| Zone Training in Fredericton! I didn't have to prepare it for once :D |
Elder McGuire
Rapstoration
Yes you could say missionaries are cool
https://www.facebook.com/
https://www.facebook.com/
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Forward Pressing Forward
Myldsmail was down the other day but we got permission to resend things today
Dear Family,
Greetings from Caribou, Maine! I'm back in America. It's weird to be
back in the States. When I was in Canada I didn't really feel that
much different than when I was back home in Arizona but in comparing
the two there are a lot of differences. I would say in general
Americans are a lot more honest about rejecting us than their Canadian
counterparts. There's about 6,000 people that live in Caribou and we
also work in Presque Isle which is about 10 miles (weird to say miles)
south. Why anyone would live this far north in the states beats me.
Maine is for sure the coldest area I have been in. It's like a dry
cold too because we are inland away from the sea. I don't really
understand Fahrenheit anymore but it got as cold as -30F the other
night. Don't worry we weren't out in the thick of it til later in the
day. So yes, Maine is cold.
I have been studying a lot about faith lately. Faith has sort of been
the theme for the past 6 months for me. In the scriptures, miracles
occur in response to faith. When we lack faith we lack intelligence.
This is because faith is what leads to knowledge. Faith is not merely
believing in a principle of the gospel, it is the application of that
principle. Faith and works are as inseparable as fire and light are
inseparable. The Brother of Jared's faith was dormant when he saw the
finger of the Lord. This is because he exercised faith to the point of
obtaining knowledge. This is why the Nephites were not as intelligent
or wise as the Ammonites (Alma 30:20). When faith stops the miracles
stop. Think of Martin Harris in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 5:28).
I know that it is by faith that miracles are wrought.
This past week was bittersweet leaving Moncton. We said good bye to
our investigators and a few of the members. I'm going to miss teaching
Judith. She was progressing well and she was almost certain that she
needed to be baptized under the proper authority. I was learning all
sorts of Kirwandan as well. I now know how to say: hello, thank you,
good bye, I want a banana, come to church, and elephant. Shock
enzohfoe means I want an elephant. So it's going to be a bummer not
seeing one of my favourite families every week.
We also said good bye to Brother Williams. He is seriously the rock
for that ward. He's the only one that really cares about the work of
salvation there. He would literally go to every appointment with us
because other members were unwilling. As a momento he gave me his
Phantom of the Opera leathermans jacket that he's had for 20 years
going out with the missionaries. I was feeling honoured. I thought I
had two more transfers in Moncton and then somewhere else but I guess
the Lord had other things in mind.
Now here in Caribou I'm serving with Elder Von Trapp from Dohah,
Qatar. He's been on his mission about a year and has been in Caribou
about three months. He's a hard worker and very bold. We are going to
get a lot done this transfer.
My first day that I got here we found a YSA to teach, Jacob. He was
very gung-ho about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We put him on
date in the first lesson and committed him to come to church. The very
next day we got a text from him saying that he doesn't want to be
baptized because he's not ready to give up his lifestyle. SO CLOSE.
Not to worry though we found two other investigators to teach. Jason
is originally from Van Buren which is down state a bit. He has been
taught before but it didn't really go anywhere a few years back. We
put him on date for March 19, taught him the Plan of Salvation and
committed him to live the Word of Wisdom. #can'tholdus. The other
investigator we found through trying to find an old potential
investigator from a few months ago. Devin has a young family and let
us right in when we explained who we were. The church has a really
strong presence here. The ward has about 200 active members. There's
also a different dynamic here. It's more American. People wearing guns
to church. Young families. It's weird too because mostly everyone has
a solid understanding of the basic fundamentals of the gospel. I'm
loving it here. Even though New England is the least religious part of
the country we're seeing some success. It's a lot smaller than
Moncton, but the people give us more time to preach to them.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Dear Family,
Greetings from Caribou, Maine! I'm back in America. It's weird to be
back in the States. When I was in Canada I didn't really feel that
much different than when I was back home in Arizona but in comparing
the two there are a lot of differences. I would say in general
Americans are a lot more honest about rejecting us than their Canadian
counterparts. There's about 6,000 people that live in Caribou and we
also work in Presque Isle which is about 10 miles (weird to say miles)
south. Why anyone would live this far north in the states beats me.
Maine is for sure the coldest area I have been in. It's like a dry
cold too because we are inland away from the sea. I don't really
understand Fahrenheit anymore but it got as cold as -30F the other
night. Don't worry we weren't out in the thick of it til later in the
day. So yes, Maine is cold.
I have been studying a lot about faith lately. Faith has sort of been
the theme for the past 6 months for me. In the scriptures, miracles
occur in response to faith. When we lack faith we lack intelligence.
This is because faith is what leads to knowledge. Faith is not merely
believing in a principle of the gospel, it is the application of that
principle. Faith and works are as inseparable as fire and light are
inseparable. The Brother of Jared's faith was dormant when he saw the
finger of the Lord. This is because he exercised faith to the point of
obtaining knowledge. This is why the Nephites were not as intelligent
or wise as the Ammonites (Alma 30:20). When faith stops the miracles
stop. Think of Martin Harris in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 5:28).
I know that it is by faith that miracles are wrought.
This past week was bittersweet leaving Moncton. We said good bye to
our investigators and a few of the members. I'm going to miss teaching
Judith. She was progressing well and she was almost certain that she
needed to be baptized under the proper authority. I was learning all
sorts of Kirwandan as well. I now know how to say: hello, thank you,
good bye, I want a banana, come to church, and elephant. Shock
enzohfoe means I want an elephant. So it's going to be a bummer not
seeing one of my favourite families every week.
We also said good bye to Brother Williams. He is seriously the rock
for that ward. He's the only one that really cares about the work of
salvation there. He would literally go to every appointment with us
because other members were unwilling. As a momento he gave me his
Phantom of the Opera leathermans jacket that he's had for 20 years
going out with the missionaries. I was feeling honoured. I thought I
had two more transfers in Moncton and then somewhere else but I guess
the Lord had other things in mind.
Now here in Caribou I'm serving with Elder Von Trapp from Dohah,
Qatar. He's been on his mission about a year and has been in Caribou
about three months. He's a hard worker and very bold. We are going to
get a lot done this transfer.
My first day that I got here we found a YSA to teach, Jacob. He was
very gung-ho about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We put him on
date in the first lesson and committed him to come to church. The very
next day we got a text from him saying that he doesn't want to be
baptized because he's not ready to give up his lifestyle. SO CLOSE.
Not to worry though we found two other investigators to teach. Jason
is originally from Van Buren which is down state a bit. He has been
taught before but it didn't really go anywhere a few years back. We
put him on date for March 19, taught him the Plan of Salvation and
committed him to live the Word of Wisdom. #can'tholdus. The other
investigator we found through trying to find an old potential
investigator from a few months ago. Devin has a young family and let
us right in when we explained who we were. The church has a really
strong presence here. The ward has about 200 active members. There's
also a different dynamic here. It's more American. People wearing guns
to church. Young families. It's weird too because mostly everyone has
a solid understanding of the basic fundamentals of the gospel. I'm
loving it here. Even though New England is the least religious part of
the country we're seeing some success. It's a lot smaller than
Moncton, but the people give us more time to preach to them.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Forward Pressing Forward
Myldsmail was down the other day but we got permission to resend things today
Dear Family,
Greetings from Caribou, Maine! I'm back in America. It's weird to be
back in the States. When I was in Canada I didn't really feel that
much different than when I was back home in Arizona but in comparing
the two there are a lot of differences. I would say in general
Americans are a lot more honest about rejecting us than their Canadian
counterparts. There's about 6,000 people that live in Caribou and we
also work in Presque Isle which is about 10 miles (weird to say miles)
south. Why anyone would live this far north in the states beats me.
Maine is for sure the coldest area I have been in. It's like a dry
cold too because we are inland away from the sea. I don't really
understand Fahrenheit anymore but it got as cold as -30F the other
night. Don't worry we weren't out in the thick of it til later in the
day. So yes, Maine is cold.
I have been studying a lot about faith lately. Faith has sort of been
the theme for the past 6 months for me. In the scriptures, miracles
occur in response to faith. When we lack faith we lack intelligence.
This is because faith is what leads to knowledge. Faith is not merely
believing in a principle of the gospel, it is the application of that
principle. Faith and works are as inseparable as fire and light are
inseparable. The Brother of Jared's faith was dormant when he saw the
finger of the Lord. This is because he exercised faith to the point of
obtaining knowledge. This is why the Nephites were not as intelligent
or wise as the Ammonites (Alma 30:20). When faith stops the miracles
stop. Think of Martin Harris in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 5:28).
I know that it is by faith that miracles are wrought.
This past week was bittersweet leaving Moncton. We said good bye to
our investigators and a few of the members. I'm going to miss teaching
Judith. She was progressing well and she was almost certain that she
needed to be baptized under the proper authority. I was learning all
sorts of Kirwandan as well. I now know how to say: hello, thank you,
good bye, I want a banana, come to church, and elephant. Shock
enzohfoe means I want an elephant. So it's going to be a bummer not
seeing one of my favourite families every week.
We also said good bye to Brother Williams. He is seriously the rock
for that ward. He's the only one that really cares about the work of
salvation there. He would literally go to every appointment with us
because other members were unwilling. As a momento he gave me his
Phantom of the Opera leathermans jacket that he's had for 20 years
going out with the missionaries. I was feeling honoured. I thought I
had two more transfers in Moncton and then somewhere else but I guess
the Lord had other things in mind.
Now here in Caribou I'm serving with Elder Von Trapp from Dohah,
Qatar. He's been on his mission about a year and has been in Caribou
about three months. He's a hard worker and very bold. We are going to
get a lot done this transfer.
My first day that I got here we found a YSA to teach, Jacob. He was
very gung-ho about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We put him on
date in the first lesson and committed him to come to church. The very
next day we got a text from him saying that he doesn't want to be
baptized because he's not ready to give up his lifestyle. SO CLOSE.
Not to worry though we found two other investigators to teach. Jason
is originally from Van Buren which is down state a bit. He has been
taught before but it didn't really go anywhere a few years back. We
put him on date for March 19, taught him the Plan of Salvation and
committed him to live the Word of Wisdom. #can'tholdus. The other
investigator we found through trying to find an old potential
investigator from a few months ago. Devin has a young family and let
us right in when we explained who we were. The church has a really
strong presence here. The ward has about 200 active members. There's
also a different dynamic here. It's more American. People wearing guns
to church. Young families. It's weird too because mostly everyone has
a solid understanding of the basic fundamentals of the gospel. I'm
loving it here. Even though New England is the least religious part of
the country we're seeing some success. It's a lot smaller than
Moncton, but the people give us more time to preach to them.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Dear Family,Greetings from Caribou, Maine! I'm back in America. It's weird to be
back in the States. When I was in Canada I didn't really feel that
much different than when I was back home in Arizona but in comparing
the two there are a lot of differences. I would say in general
Americans are a lot more honest about rejecting us than their Canadian
counterparts. There's about 6,000 people that live in Caribou and we
also work in Presque Isle which is about 10 miles (weird to say miles)
south. Why anyone would live this far north in the states beats me.
Maine is for sure the coldest area I have been in. It's like a dry
cold too because we are inland away from the sea. I don't really
understand Fahrenheit anymore but it got as cold as -30F the other
night. Don't worry we weren't out in the thick of it til later in the
day. So yes, Maine is cold.
I have been studying a lot about faith lately. Faith has sort of been
the theme for the past 6 months for me. In the scriptures, miracles
occur in response to faith. When we lack faith we lack intelligence.
This is because faith is what leads to knowledge. Faith is not merely
believing in a principle of the gospel, it is the application of that
principle. Faith and works are as inseparable as fire and light are
inseparable. The Brother of Jared's faith was dormant when he saw the
finger of the Lord. This is because he exercised faith to the point of
obtaining knowledge. This is why the Nephites were not as intelligent
or wise as the Ammonites (Alma 30:20). When faith stops the miracles
stop. Think of Martin Harris in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 5:28).
I know that it is by faith that miracles are wrought.
This past week was bittersweet leaving Moncton. We said good bye to
our investigators and a few of the members. I'm going to miss teaching
Judith. She was progressing well and she was almost certain that she
needed to be baptized under the proper authority. I was learning all
sorts of Kirwandan as well. I now know how to say: hello, thank you,
good bye, I want a banana, come to church, and elephant. Shock
enzohfoe means I want an elephant. So it's going to be a bummer not
seeing one of my favourite families every week.
We also said good bye to Brother Williams. He is seriously the rockfor that ward. He's the only one that really cares about the work of
salvation there. He would literally go to every appointment with us
because other members were unwilling. As a momento he gave me his
Phantom of the Opera leathermans jacket that he's had for 20 years
going out with the missionaries. I was feeling honoured. I thought I
had two more transfers in Moncton and then somewhere else but I guess
the Lord had other things in mind.
Now here in Caribou I'm serving with Elder Von Trapp from Dohah,Qatar. He's been on his mission about a year and has been in Caribou
about three months. He's a hard worker and very bold. We are going to
get a lot done this transfer.
My first day that I got here we found a YSA to teach, Jacob. He was
very gung-ho about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We put him on
date in the first lesson and committed him to come to church. The very
next day we got a text from him saying that he doesn't want to be
baptized because he's not ready to give up his lifestyle. SO CLOSE.
Not to worry though we found two other investigators to teach. Jason
is originally from Van Buren which is down state a bit. He has been
taught before but it didn't really go anywhere a few years back. We
put him on date for March 19, taught him the Plan of Salvation and
committed him to live the Word of Wisdom. #can'tholdus. The other
investigator we found through trying to find an old potential
investigator from a few months ago. Devin has a young family and let
us right in when we explained who we were. The church has a really
strong presence here. The ward has about 200 active members. There's
also a different dynamic here. It's more American. People wearing guns
to church. Young families. It's weird too because mostly everyone has
a solid understanding of the basic fundamentals of the gospel. I'm
loving it here. Even though New England is the least religious part of
the country we're seeing some success. It's a lot smaller than
Moncton, but the people give us more time to preach to them.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Monday, February 8, 2016
I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea
Well it's transfers time again! After serving as a zone leader for 10
transfers I am now released and will be serving as a normal missionary
in the land of the free and teh home of the brave. My new assignment
is Caribou, Maine. I will be serving with Elder Von Trapp from Qatar.
This should be super exciting. I really didn't expect to be leaving
Moncton this soon. I have only been here for two transfers and we've
just barely started to get things going. I had the same thoughts when
I left Bridgewater (almost a year ago!) and went to Newfoundland. It
was worth it.
 |
| I'm going to miss the gang |
Lately I have been studying Heavenly Father. Many scriptures in John
teach us about the doctrine of Heavenly Father. Many protestants like
to point out John 1:18 concerning that no man has seen God at any
time. God is able to be seen (D&C 67:11). He is real. He is our Father
and He loves us. Were man not able to see God then there would be no
restoration of the church. I know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus
Christ. I know because I have read the Book of Mormon.
This past week we had our big leadership conference. Here are the
notes that we put together to give our training. Elder Tincher and I
plus the stls trained the whole mission on communication.
Communication
Brick activity- Creative writing prompt you give the missionaries 5
min. to write about the uses of a brick but you will encourage them to
get as creative as possible to think outside the normal uses of a
brick. The purpose of this activity is to get missionaries to start
thinking creatively for the rest of your training.
Transparency
It is necessary to be transparent in each component of communication,
because it builds trust. The people we talk to won't trust us when we
are being fake. If they don’t trust us, nothing else we say will
matter to them.
Bad Example: How are your lessons on repentance going?? (missionary
has no context and will be confused..they’ll probably ask you why
anyways)
-What?
Tell them what you are doing!
Example: We want to ask you how your lessons on repentance are going.
-So what?
Tell them why you are doing it!
Example: The Mission President wants us to be applying the training
from the Worldwide Missionary Conference.
-Now what?
Give them the next step- something they can/should do. What do you
want them to do?
Example: Can you think of things you want to improve on from that training?
Communicating to be understood
Be aware of your body language and tone of voice
-posture
-mimic
-no fidgeting
-sound happy
Simple and specific
-detailed not general
-specific questions like: “what can we do….”
“How can we help….”
“what is their name? how were they found?”
Sources: http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/
Roleplay ideas:
1. Body language car game (10 minutes). Requires four missionaries and
four chairs. The “driver” decides what the rest of the car will do for
ten seconds (ex. rollercoaster, at a movie, at a football game etc.)
The rest of the car mimics the driver. If the driver can’t think of
something for the rest of the car to do the car rotates and there is a
new driver.
2. Headbands game: each person will be given a card with the name of a
person, place, or thing on it. they will attach it to their forehead
without looking at it and will walk around, asking specific questions
to find out information about the thing on their card. After the
roleplay, discuss how the activity could apply to their missionary
work, specifically gathering information about investigators.
Listening
Active Listening vs Passive Listening
Active listening is the ability to ask questions to make sure the
listener correctly understands what the person speaking is saying.
-It is not helpful to sit still and just listen. Ask questions to
understand what their needs are.
There are two different kinds of questions you can ask:
Clarifying Questions: repeat what they said to make sure you understand
Example: “my biggest struggle is that I really miss my family.”
“So you are feeling pretty homesick right now?”
Follow-Up Questions: Helps you get more information to further clarify
what they are feeling
Example: “Do you feel that missing your family makes it hard to focus?”
-Active listening means to engage in a dialogue with the speaker to
clarify what the speaker is asking from the listener.
-Understanding rather than just hearing
-Let the listener know that you are listening by responding
-Remember the details
Passive listening is serving as a receiver for the speaker's emotions,
and hearing the speaker talk about needs.
-the person needs someone to vent to rather than someone to get advice
or help from
-The passive listener nods while listening (not speaking)- sometimes
all they need is someone to listen
-Let them talk themselves into finding solutions to a problem on their own
-Still pay attention to what they are saying and try to understand their needs
Sources: http://www.inc.com/quora/3-
Roleplays:
Divide the missionaries into pairs. Each missionary will take turns
telling his/ her partner about the given topic. The roleplay will
repeat three times with these different scenarios:
No Response- missionaries will discuss their favorite sport. the
missionary listening will not respond in any way- no head nods, no
facial expression, no talking.
Passive listening. Missionaries will discuss a made up problem that
they will pretend to need to talk about. The missionary listening will
nod and use facial expression, but will not ask any questions.
Active listening. Missionaries will tell each other about their
families. The missionary listening will ask questions to clarify what
the other missionary is saying and may nod and use facial expressions
where appropriate.
Ask the missionaries how they felt about their conversations. Ask them
to analyze what is wrong with the first communication process. How did
it change with the passive listening? What about Active listening?
Point out that it is difficult to communicate with someone who does
not respond to what we are saying. Sometimes passive listening is
necessary or is appreciated. We may not have this problem with the
missionaries we are over, but we can always improve our relationships
with them by improving our communication.
Imparting vision to Motivate:
As leaders we must call people to action that is the purpose of
motivating others
Candle Experiment: The objective of the experiment is to stick the
candle to the wall and light it without the wax dripping onto the
table. You will split them into four groups two of the groups will
have set up one, the other set up two. You will tell two groups that
you are timing them just to see how fast they can do. The other two
you will offer a prize for who can do it fastest. if everything goes
right the group with set up two offered the incentive should do it the
fastest.
Set Up One
Set up two
The Solution
There's a difference between Motivating and Cheerleading
Motivation: is when we are helping people become agents to solve their
own problems to become instruments in the hands of the lord.
When we are motivating others we are
1. Not bribing them
rewards just motivate people to get rewards.
When rewards stop people stop
2. Emphasize progress
-Encourage them to recognize how far they have come.
-Identify their accomplishments
3. Use a story
-Tell a story about someone solving a similar problem
-
When we are Cheerleading we are
Trying to solve their problems
When we do this we do them no good we allow them to be objects not agents
2. Know their is a difference between emphasize progress and
fishing for compliments
example ( when a leader has to have multiple phone calls that are
majority made up of telling the missionary how great they are you are
not motivating you are being a personal cheerleader.)
That was basically the whole week. People really liked our training
and President Pratt said it was exceptional. It was a good way to go
out as a zone leader. I'm glad I've been able to be in this position
for the amount of time I have. It hasn't been easy, but I've loved
every second of it.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
 |
| Gunther and Clarence |
 |
| These cats knocked the whole street with us. |
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Monday, February 29, 2016
We All Need Saving
Dear Family,
Thank you for the birthday wishes! I really appreciate that you
remembered! I can't believe that tomorrow I'll be 20 years old. Last
year for my birthday I was in Halifax and it was a fast sunday. I got
up to bear my testimony about missionary work and a less-active who
had previously denied us coming over then came up to me after the
meeting and said that we could stop by around 3. We didn't have much
going on in Cole Harbour. Just lots of knocking and lots of phone
calls. Not too many people to teach. I was feeling pretty down about
the work there. Then we got a phone call from President Leavitt and he
invited us over for dinner and to make a training video for the whole
mission to watch about our purpose as missionaries. It was nice
because he didn't even know it was my birthday and I got steak and
cake. Tender mercies.
This past week we focused a lot on the Book of Mormon with the
families we visited. We committed three families to read it in 100
days and then write their testimony in the copy we gave them so that
we can then hand it out to a friend of theirs (or they can personally
hand it out.) I'm not much for reading the Book of Mormon in X amount
of days but if anything it keeps people in the scriptures. I think
it's interesting how we need somewhat of the Law of Moses to get us
into the scriptures. We have prizes in primary for memorizing the
articles of faith like candy or icecream, we have missionaries that
are getting cars for serving a mission, there are dinners held for
young women because they beat the young men in who could do the most
member-missionary work. Here's the thing about prizes. Prizes motivate
people to get prizes. Fame among church members gets a lot of people
to serve missions, do their home teaching, or get their kids to church
on time. We like to look good to others and we like to accumulate
things. When the prizes stop people stop. To be honest, I memorized
the 13 articles of faith when I was in primary so that I could get
candy. Now guess what, I don't have the articles of faith memorized.
People need something more than prizes. Fame motivates people, money
motivates people, prizes motivate people. However, none of these
things motivate people like love motivates people. Passion is the best
motivator. We need examples of great theologians if we're going to
properly motivate people to read the scriptures. People need an idea.
A story. As Babe Ruth once said "Heroes get remembered, but legends
never die." Prizes don't belong in the Lord's church.
This past week we were blessed to find two new investigators to teach.
The first one is David from West Virginia. West Virginia sounds like a
beautiful place I'm telling you what. David is very gung-ho about the
bible and the Saviour and he asks a ton of questions. I think that if
I wasn't called to serve in the Maritimes I would have been called to
serve in the south. David just moved up here and we had a great lesson
about the Restoration and focused primarily on the apostasy. He
doesn't think he's worthy to be baptized yet so we'll be working on
that with him. He wants to take us moose hunting. If only we were
allowed to handle guns as missionaries. Anyway, it was a great lesson.
The next investigator we found was Dan. He's an older man that is
involved with the NRA up here in Aroostook County. He taught us the
'Let My Aim Be True" prayer: "Lord, make me fast and accurate let my
aim be true and my hand faster than those who would seek to destroy
me. Grant me victory over my foes, and those that wish to do harm to
me and mine. Let NOT my last thought be, if I only had a gun, and lord
if today is truly the day that you call me home, let me die in a pile
of empty brass…" Amen. Dan had a concern about modern day prophets but
once we showed him in the scriptures how it was all put together he
understood it. He has a very strong testimony of repentance. He has
really worked through a lot of his problems which is really good
because the heavy lifting is already done for getting ready for
baptism.
Carla is now on date for April 9th so we now have three people getting
ready for baptism! The lesson with Carla was powerful. We read through
the testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and she was just amazed that
not everyone knew about the Restoration. We had invited her to be
baptized a week earlier and she accepted. I made a really dumb folly
and forgot to select a date. In this lesson she was like "So when
would I be getting baptized?" Obviously she needs a date! She's
excited to be baptized by immersion. We're cooking with peanut oil
now!
Jason needs a lot of prayers right now. He is still meeting with us
but the word of wisdom is a giant roadblock for him. We've been
calling him every day and doing push-ups with him when he gets an urge
to smoke, but I think he needs some more help. He loves the church
videos like Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration and The
Testaments:of one fold and one shepherd. He reminds me a lot of Darren
in Newfoundland. Good heart, but just having a hard time living the
commandments. Also if you could pray for Tia because she dislocated
her shoulder and is now in the ER.
Things are coming along in Caribou lou. We get to go all the way to
Halifax this weekend for the French temple trip (Elder Von Trapp is a
French missionary). Thank you for writing me every week everybody!
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Thank you for the birthday wishes! I really appreciate that you
remembered! I can't believe that tomorrow I'll be 20 years old. Last
year for my birthday I was in Halifax and it was a fast sunday. I got
up to bear my testimony about missionary work and a less-active who
had previously denied us coming over then came up to me after the
meeting and said that we could stop by around 3. We didn't have much
going on in Cole Harbour. Just lots of knocking and lots of phone
calls. Not too many people to teach. I was feeling pretty down about
the work there. Then we got a phone call from President Leavitt and he
invited us over for dinner and to make a training video for the whole
mission to watch about our purpose as missionaries. It was nice
because he didn't even know it was my birthday and I got steak and
cake. Tender mercies.
This past week we focused a lot on the Book of Mormon with the
families we visited. We committed three families to read it in 100
days and then write their testimony in the copy we gave them so that
we can then hand it out to a friend of theirs (or they can personally
hand it out.) I'm not much for reading the Book of Mormon in X amount
of days but if anything it keeps people in the scriptures. I think
it's interesting how we need somewhat of the Law of Moses to get us
into the scriptures. We have prizes in primary for memorizing the
articles of faith like candy or icecream, we have missionaries that
are getting cars for serving a mission, there are dinners held for
young women because they beat the young men in who could do the most
member-missionary work. Here's the thing about prizes. Prizes motivate
people to get prizes. Fame among church members gets a lot of people
to serve missions, do their home teaching, or get their kids to church
on time. We like to look good to others and we like to accumulate
things. When the prizes stop people stop. To be honest, I memorized
the 13 articles of faith when I was in primary so that I could get
candy. Now guess what, I don't have the articles of faith memorized.
People need something more than prizes. Fame motivates people, money
motivates people, prizes motivate people. However, none of these
things motivate people like love motivates people. Passion is the best
motivator. We need examples of great theologians if we're going to
properly motivate people to read the scriptures. People need an idea.
A story. As Babe Ruth once said "Heroes get remembered, but legends
never die." Prizes don't belong in the Lord's church.
This past week we were blessed to find two new investigators to teach.
The first one is David from West Virginia. West Virginia sounds like a
beautiful place I'm telling you what. David is very gung-ho about the
bible and the Saviour and he asks a ton of questions. I think that if
I wasn't called to serve in the Maritimes I would have been called to
serve in the south. David just moved up here and we had a great lesson
about the Restoration and focused primarily on the apostasy. He
doesn't think he's worthy to be baptized yet so we'll be working on
that with him. He wants to take us moose hunting. If only we were
allowed to handle guns as missionaries. Anyway, it was a great lesson.
The next investigator we found was Dan. He's an older man that is
involved with the NRA up here in Aroostook County. He taught us the
'Let My Aim Be True" prayer: "Lord, make me fast and accurate let my
aim be true and my hand faster than those who would seek to destroy
me. Grant me victory over my foes, and those that wish to do harm to
me and mine. Let NOT my last thought be, if I only had a gun, and lord
if today is truly the day that you call me home, let me die in a pile
of empty brass…" Amen. Dan had a concern about modern day prophets but
once we showed him in the scriptures how it was all put together he
understood it. He has a very strong testimony of repentance. He has
really worked through a lot of his problems which is really good
because the heavy lifting is already done for getting ready for
baptism.
Carla is now on date for April 9th so we now have three people getting
ready for baptism! The lesson with Carla was powerful. We read through
the testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and she was just amazed that
not everyone knew about the Restoration. We had invited her to be
baptized a week earlier and she accepted. I made a really dumb folly
and forgot to select a date. In this lesson she was like "So when
would I be getting baptized?" Obviously she needs a date! She's
excited to be baptized by immersion. We're cooking with peanut oil
now!
Jason needs a lot of prayers right now. He is still meeting with us
but the word of wisdom is a giant roadblock for him. We've been
calling him every day and doing push-ups with him when he gets an urge
to smoke, but I think he needs some more help. He loves the church
videos like Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration and The
Testaments:of one fold and one shepherd. He reminds me a lot of Darren
in Newfoundland. Good heart, but just having a hard time living the
commandments. Also if you could pray for Tia because she dislocated
her shoulder and is now in the ER.
Things are coming along in Caribou lou. We get to go all the way to
Halifax this weekend for the French temple trip (Elder Von Trapp is a
French missionary). Thank you for writing me every week everybody!
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Monday, February 22, 2016
Cheer and Bless and Brighten
Dear Family,What an amazing week! I'm starting to love Maine more and more. When I
first showed up I was really missing Canada and all of its little
perks. I miss Newfoundland the most but Maine is growing on me. I
really love how no one here knows much about Canada, even New
Brunswick. It's really bizarre because New Brunswick is literally 20
minutes north. That's just how Americans are though.
I read a great talk this week by President Uchtdorf. In "It works
Wonderfully!" In there he makes the point that many questions people
ask often lead them to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. I studied one of his questions this morning during personal
study. Do I really believe in God? Obviously I believe in God
otherwise I wouldn't be on a mission but I looked at it more as "Why
do I believe in God?" I want you to think why you believe in God. For
me it comes down to this. God is the most supreme and intelligent
being in the universe. He teaches us by calling prophets. By obeying
the words of prophets we can grow in knowledge and eventually become
Godlike. I know for sure that I believe in improvement and growth.
Becoming better to the point of being God (that's the goal), is the
reason why I believe in God (Mosiah 4:9)
This past week we were blessed to hit the mission standard. I haven't
hit the mission standard since the week before Christmas. Before that
I had hit it every week for 6 months. It was nice to get back on
track.
We found three new investigators this week. The first was a lady named
Carla. She's about Mum and Dad's age. She just went through a divorce
and moved out to Northern Maine and she was looking for a church to go
to. It was kind of cool how we found her. She's actually a former from
3 years ago and when we went by to her old address her ex-husband told
us to beat the feat and that he wasn't interested. Not really a
problem because that literally happens every day. We were then
contacting some other people up the road and while we were walking
back to the car her ex-husband yells out for us to help him push his
truck off the icy driveway. We went over and pushed him out and then
he said that we could have Carla's phone number. We then called it a
couple of hours later and Carla picked up. She gave us her address
which was a little outside of Caribou and then we drove up to teach
her last Friday. She accepted to be baptized and she came to church!
|
| Cats are everywhere in Maine. it's great |
We get a text from Church Headquarters about a lady that wanted a Book
of Mormon. She lived out in Presque Isle which is 10 minutes from
Caribou. We don't have a gps but we have a map from the gas station so
we just headed out to Presque Isle on a prayer that we'd find the
house. After getting lost for half an hour we finally found the
address...to a trailer park which had dozens of trailers (I can see
your frustration with trailer parks Dad!) we didn't know which trailer
to knock on so we just tried a random one and BOOM. We found Tia and
Riley. Tia is originally from Cedar City, Utah. She was meeting with
the missionaries out there, but crap hit the fan with her family so
she ended up moving out to Presque Isle with her boyfriend. We taught
both of them and they are like a young power couple that want to serve
missions and get married in the temple. They are on date for the
weekend after general conference. skadoosh!
So yes it was a great week!
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
|
| Zone Training in Fredericton! I didn't have to prepare it for once :D |
Elder McGuire
Rapstoration
Yes you could say missionaries are cool
https://www.facebook.com/
https://www.facebook.com/
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Forward Pressing Forward
Myldsmail was down the other day but we got permission to resend things today
Dear Family,
Greetings from Caribou, Maine! I'm back in America. It's weird to be
back in the States. When I was in Canada I didn't really feel that
much different than when I was back home in Arizona but in comparing
the two there are a lot of differences. I would say in general
Americans are a lot more honest about rejecting us than their Canadian
counterparts. There's about 6,000 people that live in Caribou and we
also work in Presque Isle which is about 10 miles (weird to say miles)
south. Why anyone would live this far north in the states beats me.
Maine is for sure the coldest area I have been in. It's like a dry
cold too because we are inland away from the sea. I don't really
understand Fahrenheit anymore but it got as cold as -30F the other
night. Don't worry we weren't out in the thick of it til later in the
day. So yes, Maine is cold.
I have been studying a lot about faith lately. Faith has sort of been
the theme for the past 6 months for me. In the scriptures, miracles
occur in response to faith. When we lack faith we lack intelligence.
This is because faith is what leads to knowledge. Faith is not merely
believing in a principle of the gospel, it is the application of that
principle. Faith and works are as inseparable as fire and light are
inseparable. The Brother of Jared's faith was dormant when he saw the
finger of the Lord. This is because he exercised faith to the point of
obtaining knowledge. This is why the Nephites were not as intelligent
or wise as the Ammonites (Alma 30:20). When faith stops the miracles
stop. Think of Martin Harris in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 5:28).
I know that it is by faith that miracles are wrought.
This past week was bittersweet leaving Moncton. We said good bye to
our investigators and a few of the members. I'm going to miss teaching
Judith. She was progressing well and she was almost certain that she
needed to be baptized under the proper authority. I was learning all
sorts of Kirwandan as well. I now know how to say: hello, thank you,
good bye, I want a banana, come to church, and elephant. Shock
enzohfoe means I want an elephant. So it's going to be a bummer not
seeing one of my favourite families every week.
We also said good bye to Brother Williams. He is seriously the rock
for that ward. He's the only one that really cares about the work of
salvation there. He would literally go to every appointment with us
because other members were unwilling. As a momento he gave me his
Phantom of the Opera leathermans jacket that he's had for 20 years
going out with the missionaries. I was feeling honoured. I thought I
had two more transfers in Moncton and then somewhere else but I guess
the Lord had other things in mind.
Now here in Caribou I'm serving with Elder Von Trapp from Dohah,
Qatar. He's been on his mission about a year and has been in Caribou
about three months. He's a hard worker and very bold. We are going to
get a lot done this transfer.
My first day that I got here we found a YSA to teach, Jacob. He was
very gung-ho about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We put him on
date in the first lesson and committed him to come to church. The very
next day we got a text from him saying that he doesn't want to be
baptized because he's not ready to give up his lifestyle. SO CLOSE.
Not to worry though we found two other investigators to teach. Jason
is originally from Van Buren which is down state a bit. He has been
taught before but it didn't really go anywhere a few years back. We
put him on date for March 19, taught him the Plan of Salvation and
committed him to live the Word of Wisdom. #can'tholdus. The other
investigator we found through trying to find an old potential
investigator from a few months ago. Devin has a young family and let
us right in when we explained who we were. The church has a really
strong presence here. The ward has about 200 active members. There's
also a different dynamic here. It's more American. People wearing guns
to church. Young families. It's weird too because mostly everyone has
a solid understanding of the basic fundamentals of the gospel. I'm
loving it here. Even though New England is the least religious part of
the country we're seeing some success. It's a lot smaller than
Moncton, but the people give us more time to preach to them.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Dear Family,
Greetings from Caribou, Maine! I'm back in America. It's weird to be
back in the States. When I was in Canada I didn't really feel that
much different than when I was back home in Arizona but in comparing
the two there are a lot of differences. I would say in general
Americans are a lot more honest about rejecting us than their Canadian
counterparts. There's about 6,000 people that live in Caribou and we
also work in Presque Isle which is about 10 miles (weird to say miles)
south. Why anyone would live this far north in the states beats me.
Maine is for sure the coldest area I have been in. It's like a dry
cold too because we are inland away from the sea. I don't really
understand Fahrenheit anymore but it got as cold as -30F the other
night. Don't worry we weren't out in the thick of it til later in the
day. So yes, Maine is cold.
I have been studying a lot about faith lately. Faith has sort of been
the theme for the past 6 months for me. In the scriptures, miracles
occur in response to faith. When we lack faith we lack intelligence.
This is because faith is what leads to knowledge. Faith is not merely
believing in a principle of the gospel, it is the application of that
principle. Faith and works are as inseparable as fire and light are
inseparable. The Brother of Jared's faith was dormant when he saw the
finger of the Lord. This is because he exercised faith to the point of
obtaining knowledge. This is why the Nephites were not as intelligent
or wise as the Ammonites (Alma 30:20). When faith stops the miracles
stop. Think of Martin Harris in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 5:28).
I know that it is by faith that miracles are wrought.
This past week was bittersweet leaving Moncton. We said good bye to
our investigators and a few of the members. I'm going to miss teaching
Judith. She was progressing well and she was almost certain that she
needed to be baptized under the proper authority. I was learning all
sorts of Kirwandan as well. I now know how to say: hello, thank you,
good bye, I want a banana, come to church, and elephant. Shock
enzohfoe means I want an elephant. So it's going to be a bummer not
seeing one of my favourite families every week.
We also said good bye to Brother Williams. He is seriously the rock
for that ward. He's the only one that really cares about the work of
salvation there. He would literally go to every appointment with us
because other members were unwilling. As a momento he gave me his
Phantom of the Opera leathermans jacket that he's had for 20 years
going out with the missionaries. I was feeling honoured. I thought I
had two more transfers in Moncton and then somewhere else but I guess
the Lord had other things in mind.
Now here in Caribou I'm serving with Elder Von Trapp from Dohah,
Qatar. He's been on his mission about a year and has been in Caribou
about three months. He's a hard worker and very bold. We are going to
get a lot done this transfer.
My first day that I got here we found a YSA to teach, Jacob. He was
very gung-ho about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We put him on
date in the first lesson and committed him to come to church. The very
next day we got a text from him saying that he doesn't want to be
baptized because he's not ready to give up his lifestyle. SO CLOSE.
Not to worry though we found two other investigators to teach. Jason
is originally from Van Buren which is down state a bit. He has been
taught before but it didn't really go anywhere a few years back. We
put him on date for March 19, taught him the Plan of Salvation and
committed him to live the Word of Wisdom. #can'tholdus. The other
investigator we found through trying to find an old potential
investigator from a few months ago. Devin has a young family and let
us right in when we explained who we were. The church has a really
strong presence here. The ward has about 200 active members. There's
also a different dynamic here. It's more American. People wearing guns
to church. Young families. It's weird too because mostly everyone has
a solid understanding of the basic fundamentals of the gospel. I'm
loving it here. Even though New England is the least religious part of
the country we're seeing some success. It's a lot smaller than
Moncton, but the people give us more time to preach to them.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Forward Pressing Forward
Myldsmail was down the other day but we got permission to resend things today
Dear Family,
Greetings from Caribou, Maine! I'm back in America. It's weird to be
back in the States. When I was in Canada I didn't really feel that
much different than when I was back home in Arizona but in comparing
the two there are a lot of differences. I would say in general
Americans are a lot more honest about rejecting us than their Canadian
counterparts. There's about 6,000 people that live in Caribou and we
also work in Presque Isle which is about 10 miles (weird to say miles)
south. Why anyone would live this far north in the states beats me.
Maine is for sure the coldest area I have been in. It's like a dry
cold too because we are inland away from the sea. I don't really
understand Fahrenheit anymore but it got as cold as -30F the other
night. Don't worry we weren't out in the thick of it til later in the
day. So yes, Maine is cold.
I have been studying a lot about faith lately. Faith has sort of been
the theme for the past 6 months for me. In the scriptures, miracles
occur in response to faith. When we lack faith we lack intelligence.
This is because faith is what leads to knowledge. Faith is not merely
believing in a principle of the gospel, it is the application of that
principle. Faith and works are as inseparable as fire and light are
inseparable. The Brother of Jared's faith was dormant when he saw the
finger of the Lord. This is because he exercised faith to the point of
obtaining knowledge. This is why the Nephites were not as intelligent
or wise as the Ammonites (Alma 30:20). When faith stops the miracles
stop. Think of Martin Harris in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 5:28).
I know that it is by faith that miracles are wrought.
This past week was bittersweet leaving Moncton. We said good bye to
our investigators and a few of the members. I'm going to miss teaching
Judith. She was progressing well and she was almost certain that she
needed to be baptized under the proper authority. I was learning all
sorts of Kirwandan as well. I now know how to say: hello, thank you,
good bye, I want a banana, come to church, and elephant. Shock
enzohfoe means I want an elephant. So it's going to be a bummer not
seeing one of my favourite families every week.
We also said good bye to Brother Williams. He is seriously the rock
for that ward. He's the only one that really cares about the work of
salvation there. He would literally go to every appointment with us
because other members were unwilling. As a momento he gave me his
Phantom of the Opera leathermans jacket that he's had for 20 years
going out with the missionaries. I was feeling honoured. I thought I
had two more transfers in Moncton and then somewhere else but I guess
the Lord had other things in mind.
Now here in Caribou I'm serving with Elder Von Trapp from Dohah,
Qatar. He's been on his mission about a year and has been in Caribou
about three months. He's a hard worker and very bold. We are going to
get a lot done this transfer.
My first day that I got here we found a YSA to teach, Jacob. He was
very gung-ho about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We put him on
date in the first lesson and committed him to come to church. The very
next day we got a text from him saying that he doesn't want to be
baptized because he's not ready to give up his lifestyle. SO CLOSE.
Not to worry though we found two other investigators to teach. Jason
is originally from Van Buren which is down state a bit. He has been
taught before but it didn't really go anywhere a few years back. We
put him on date for March 19, taught him the Plan of Salvation and
committed him to live the Word of Wisdom. #can'tholdus. The other
investigator we found through trying to find an old potential
investigator from a few months ago. Devin has a young family and let
us right in when we explained who we were. The church has a really
strong presence here. The ward has about 200 active members. There's
also a different dynamic here. It's more American. People wearing guns
to church. Young families. It's weird too because mostly everyone has
a solid understanding of the basic fundamentals of the gospel. I'm
loving it here. Even though New England is the least religious part of
the country we're seeing some success. It's a lot smaller than
Moncton, but the people give us more time to preach to them.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Dear Family,Greetings from Caribou, Maine! I'm back in America. It's weird to be
back in the States. When I was in Canada I didn't really feel that
much different than when I was back home in Arizona but in comparing
the two there are a lot of differences. I would say in general
Americans are a lot more honest about rejecting us than their Canadian
counterparts. There's about 6,000 people that live in Caribou and we
also work in Presque Isle which is about 10 miles (weird to say miles)
south. Why anyone would live this far north in the states beats me.
Maine is for sure the coldest area I have been in. It's like a dry
cold too because we are inland away from the sea. I don't really
understand Fahrenheit anymore but it got as cold as -30F the other
night. Don't worry we weren't out in the thick of it til later in the
day. So yes, Maine is cold.
I have been studying a lot about faith lately. Faith has sort of been
the theme for the past 6 months for me. In the scriptures, miracles
occur in response to faith. When we lack faith we lack intelligence.
This is because faith is what leads to knowledge. Faith is not merely
believing in a principle of the gospel, it is the application of that
principle. Faith and works are as inseparable as fire and light are
inseparable. The Brother of Jared's faith was dormant when he saw the
finger of the Lord. This is because he exercised faith to the point of
obtaining knowledge. This is why the Nephites were not as intelligent
or wise as the Ammonites (Alma 30:20). When faith stops the miracles
stop. Think of Martin Harris in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 5:28).
I know that it is by faith that miracles are wrought.
This past week was bittersweet leaving Moncton. We said good bye to
our investigators and a few of the members. I'm going to miss teaching
Judith. She was progressing well and she was almost certain that she
needed to be baptized under the proper authority. I was learning all
sorts of Kirwandan as well. I now know how to say: hello, thank you,
good bye, I want a banana, come to church, and elephant. Shock
enzohfoe means I want an elephant. So it's going to be a bummer not
seeing one of my favourite families every week.
We also said good bye to Brother Williams. He is seriously the rockfor that ward. He's the only one that really cares about the work of
salvation there. He would literally go to every appointment with us
because other members were unwilling. As a momento he gave me his
Phantom of the Opera leathermans jacket that he's had for 20 years
going out with the missionaries. I was feeling honoured. I thought I
had two more transfers in Moncton and then somewhere else but I guess
the Lord had other things in mind.
Now here in Caribou I'm serving with Elder Von Trapp from Dohah,Qatar. He's been on his mission about a year and has been in Caribou
about three months. He's a hard worker and very bold. We are going to
get a lot done this transfer.
My first day that I got here we found a YSA to teach, Jacob. He was
very gung-ho about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We put him on
date in the first lesson and committed him to come to church. The very
next day we got a text from him saying that he doesn't want to be
baptized because he's not ready to give up his lifestyle. SO CLOSE.
Not to worry though we found two other investigators to teach. Jason
is originally from Van Buren which is down state a bit. He has been
taught before but it didn't really go anywhere a few years back. We
put him on date for March 19, taught him the Plan of Salvation and
committed him to live the Word of Wisdom. #can'tholdus. The other
investigator we found through trying to find an old potential
investigator from a few months ago. Devin has a young family and let
us right in when we explained who we were. The church has a really
strong presence here. The ward has about 200 active members. There's
also a different dynamic here. It's more American. People wearing guns
to church. Young families. It's weird too because mostly everyone has
a solid understanding of the basic fundamentals of the gospel. I'm
loving it here. Even though New England is the least religious part of
the country we're seeing some success. It's a lot smaller than
Moncton, but the people give us more time to preach to them.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
Monday, February 8, 2016
I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea
Well it's transfers time again! After serving as a zone leader for 10
transfers I am now released and will be serving as a normal missionary
in the land of the free and teh home of the brave. My new assignment
is Caribou, Maine. I will be serving with Elder Von Trapp from Qatar.
This should be super exciting. I really didn't expect to be leaving
Moncton this soon. I have only been here for two transfers and we've
just barely started to get things going. I had the same thoughts when
I left Bridgewater (almost a year ago!) and went to Newfoundland. It
was worth it.
|
| I'm going to miss the gang |
Lately I have been studying Heavenly Father. Many scriptures in John
teach us about the doctrine of Heavenly Father. Many protestants like
to point out John 1:18 concerning that no man has seen God at any
time. God is able to be seen (D&C 67:11). He is real. He is our Father
and He loves us. Were man not able to see God then there would be no
restoration of the church. I know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus
Christ. I know because I have read the Book of Mormon.
This past week we had our big leadership conference. Here are the
notes that we put together to give our training. Elder Tincher and I
plus the stls trained the whole mission on communication.
Communication
Brick activity- Creative writing prompt you give the missionaries 5
min. to write about the uses of a brick but you will encourage them to
get as creative as possible to think outside the normal uses of a
brick. The purpose of this activity is to get missionaries to start
thinking creatively for the rest of your training.
Transparency
It is necessary to be transparent in each component of communication,
because it builds trust. The people we talk to won't trust us when we
are being fake. If they don’t trust us, nothing else we say will
matter to them.
Bad Example: How are your lessons on repentance going?? (missionary
has no context and will be confused..they’ll probably ask you why
anyways)
-What?
Tell them what you are doing!
Example: We want to ask you how your lessons on repentance are going.
-So what?
Tell them why you are doing it!
Example: The Mission President wants us to be applying the training
from the Worldwide Missionary Conference.
-Now what?
Give them the next step- something they can/should do. What do you
want them to do?
Example: Can you think of things you want to improve on from that training?
Communicating to be understood
Be aware of your body language and tone of voice
-posture
-mimic
-no fidgeting
-sound happy
Simple and specific
-detailed not general
-specific questions like: “what can we do….”
“How can we help….”
“what is their name? how were they found?”
Sources: http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/
Roleplay ideas:
1. Body language car game (10 minutes). Requires four missionaries and
four chairs. The “driver” decides what the rest of the car will do for
ten seconds (ex. rollercoaster, at a movie, at a football game etc.)
The rest of the car mimics the driver. If the driver can’t think of
something for the rest of the car to do the car rotates and there is a
new driver.
2. Headbands game: each person will be given a card with the name of a
person, place, or thing on it. they will attach it to their forehead
without looking at it and will walk around, asking specific questions
to find out information about the thing on their card. After the
roleplay, discuss how the activity could apply to their missionary
work, specifically gathering information about investigators.
Listening
Active Listening vs Passive Listening
Active listening is the ability to ask questions to make sure the
listener correctly understands what the person speaking is saying.
-It is not helpful to sit still and just listen. Ask questions to
understand what their needs are.
There are two different kinds of questions you can ask:
Clarifying Questions: repeat what they said to make sure you understand
Example: “my biggest struggle is that I really miss my family.”
“So you are feeling pretty homesick right now?”
Follow-Up Questions: Helps you get more information to further clarify
what they are feeling
Example: “Do you feel that missing your family makes it hard to focus?”
-Active listening means to engage in a dialogue with the speaker to
clarify what the speaker is asking from the listener.
-Understanding rather than just hearing
-Let the listener know that you are listening by responding
-Remember the details
Passive listening is serving as a receiver for the speaker's emotions,
and hearing the speaker talk about needs.
-the person needs someone to vent to rather than someone to get advice
or help from
-The passive listener nods while listening (not speaking)- sometimes
all they need is someone to listen
-Let them talk themselves into finding solutions to a problem on their own
-Still pay attention to what they are saying and try to understand their needs
Sources: http://www.inc.com/quora/3-
Roleplays:
Divide the missionaries into pairs. Each missionary will take turns
telling his/ her partner about the given topic. The roleplay will
repeat three times with these different scenarios:
No Response- missionaries will discuss their favorite sport. the
missionary listening will not respond in any way- no head nods, no
facial expression, no talking.
Passive listening. Missionaries will discuss a made up problem that
they will pretend to need to talk about. The missionary listening will
nod and use facial expression, but will not ask any questions.
Active listening. Missionaries will tell each other about their
families. The missionary listening will ask questions to clarify what
the other missionary is saying and may nod and use facial expressions
where appropriate.
Ask the missionaries how they felt about their conversations. Ask them
to analyze what is wrong with the first communication process. How did
it change with the passive listening? What about Active listening?
Point out that it is difficult to communicate with someone who does
not respond to what we are saying. Sometimes passive listening is
necessary or is appreciated. We may not have this problem with the
missionaries we are over, but we can always improve our relationships
with them by improving our communication.
Imparting vision to Motivate:
As leaders we must call people to action that is the purpose of
motivating others
Candle Experiment: The objective of the experiment is to stick the
candle to the wall and light it without the wax dripping onto the
table. You will split them into four groups two of the groups will
have set up one, the other set up two. You will tell two groups that
you are timing them just to see how fast they can do. The other two
you will offer a prize for who can do it fastest. if everything goes
right the group with set up two offered the incentive should do it the
fastest.
Set Up One
Set up two
The Solution
There's a difference between Motivating and Cheerleading
Motivation: is when we are helping people become agents to solve their
own problems to become instruments in the hands of the lord.
When we are motivating others we are
1. Not bribing them
rewards just motivate people to get rewards.
When rewards stop people stop
2. Emphasize progress
-Encourage them to recognize how far they have come.
-Identify their accomplishments
3. Use a story
-Tell a story about someone solving a similar problem
-
When we are Cheerleading we are
Trying to solve their problems
When we do this we do them no good we allow them to be objects not agents
2. Know their is a difference between emphasize progress and
fishing for compliments
example ( when a leader has to have multiple phone calls that are
majority made up of telling the missionary how great they are you are
not motivating you are being a personal cheerleader.)
That was basically the whole week. People really liked our training
and President Pratt said it was exceptional. It was a good way to go
out as a zone leader. I'm glad I've been able to be in this position
for the amount of time I have. It hasn't been easy, but I've loved
every second of it.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
|
| Gunther and Clarence |
|
| These cats knocked the whole street with us. |
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