Dear Family,
Thank you for your letters. This past week was a good learning experience. The devil will always be on us hard enough before we are about to do something extraordinary. I think that's the case with my time in Cole Harbour. This place is nicknamed by other missionaries as "Cold Hearted Harbour." Even when I was getting transferred from St. Stephen to Cole Harbour I experienced great physical danger (Which granted could have been prevented had I been more cautious), and even now I have experienced intense mental and spiritual exhaustion. I will be the first to tell you that being the lowest in the mission for key indicators does not give me warm fuzzies. We have a lot of problems yet to be solved. This past week I was just so frustrated with the people, myself, my companion, the ward council, and the ward members. I was frustrated with the Lord. I had lost sight or maybe I didn't even know what is the purpose of missionary work. The purpose of missionary work is stated very simply on the first page of Preach My Gospel: "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End.
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| The weather is just dandy! |
Fundamental to the missionary purpose is the word 'invite.' Invitation is a request to exercise agency. My success as a missionary will never be measured by the amount of baptisms I get, the number of investigators taught with a member present, or how well I talk to people on the street. My success as a missionary will be measured by my commitment to invite others to come unto Christ. I am a success when I invite. I am a failure when I don't invite. Invitation doesn't need to be scary. It's just a request. It's not manipulation, it's just a request. When we invite others to come unto Christ we invite them to get better, to change, to improve, to repent. A lot of people in the world don't want to do that. A lot of missionaries, a lot of members, non-members, and children. But we are never failures when these people fail to act on invitation. We are a success because we invited them to come unto Christ. They are a failure if they refuse to come unto Christ.
Quote of the week ( I got out of this habit and I invited myself to be more humorous in my letters home)
*Elder McGuire to a less-active member
Elder McGuire: Can't you just record the hockey games and then watch them later? We want you to come to church
LA: Hockey season is only on one time a year. Church is always going on throughout the year.
Elder Henderson: Would Jesus want you to be watching hockey instead of going to church?
LA: No Jesus would have church at the rink if He wanted more people in Canada to go to church
See what we have to deal with? Haha, It reminded me of Dad's story about knocking on people's doors in Portugal during the world cup. Canadians are a riot when it comes to hockey.
I realized that I don't really tell you about what happens from week to week. I just write what looks like a talk about a gospel subject rather than share with you my experiences.
So this previous week we got a call from the assistants to go to the airport to pick up Elder Allard-the area seventy-because he had a regional meeting with stake presidents, temple president, and mission president. Elder Allard is a convert from Montreal and worked for FamilySearch for thirty years. He wanted to ask us questions for the afternoon on Thursday. Maybe not the best idea if you are an area authority to review the least productive area in the mission to get a feel for the missionaries working with the ward council. He grilled our area book for two hours and then talked to us about the ward council and the members: how often they give us referrals, if they've given us any less-actives to go see, etc. Elder Allard was not impressed with Cole Harbour, but he told us that we were very helpful. Not every day you get to spend the afternoon with a general authority.
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| Summer goals at their finest |
We are working hard and with the members. Tracting in Cole Harbour is like trying pull water with a rope up a hill. Every single door this past week was "No we are catholic, have a nice night, boys SLAM." But I am a success because I invited people to come unto Christ. We taught 8 members about the atonement and missionary work this past week. It is stated in chapter one of Preach My Gospel that as our understanding of the atonement increases so too will our desire to share the gospel. Another thing that we are committing the members to do is study from Preach My Gospel. I invite you all to study from Preach My Gospel. It is an excellent manual to study from. It is a great source for spiritual strength and is filled with study activities that will increase your faith. Its principles only work if applied. Another thing that we have committed the members to do is to bear their testimonies in this upcoming fast and testimony meeting about a missionary experience they had. I think this will make the members feel a missionary spirit in the ward. And we'll get more referrals.
I know that the gospel is true. I know it will bless everyone's life and solve any problem. I know that Jesus Christ is our Saviour and that He died so that we may live. The purpose of the gospel is to make bad men good and good men better. Don't even think for one second that you can't change, that others can't change or that the atonement only covers so much. The atonement is an infinite atonement. It is the only thing in this world that brings forth progress. Don't ever think that change is not possible. The atonement is real. I bear testimony of this.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
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