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.
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| 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
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| Gunther and Clarence |
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| These cats knocked the whole street with us. |
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