Most Successful Week in the YSA

We’ve seen the most success this week in the YSA then we have in the past two transfers. So that was quite nice. I’m grateful to see the work moving forward. On Wednesday, we had two lessons with two friends who came to institute, their names are Arshdeep and Emmanuel. They both have recently moved into B.C. Emmanuel had been going to a few different churches and trying to figure out what was right for him. He shared that he absolutely loved his experience attending the YSA. He was fellowshiped, the Sister’s friend Veronica (who’s on baptismal date), was teaching him during institute as well. I hope that we see Emmanuel and Arshdeep again.

Pass-off lesson with Inder

Inder is a new convert that the Clearbrook/Sumas Mtn Elders have been teaching. I was blessed with the opportunity to interview him for baptism. It sounds like he wants to go to the YSA branch now. We’ll begin inviting him to activities, and we hope to see him at church this upcoming Sunday. The lesson went super well, we were a bit late due to traffic so we dropped in towards the end of the lesson. The Spirit was incredibly unifying, despite not hearing what has already been taught and where the lesson was going, Elder Jensen and I were able to pick up right where they left off. The Clearbrook Sister’s friend, Enosh, was there too. The member they had to join their lesson with them and Enosh was running late; so he joined the lesson with us and Inder. He is YSA aged, and it sounds like he may be interested in joining us, but we’ll see what he decides. I jumped around a bit, reading a few verses from 2 Nephi 31 and connected it with 2 Nephi 32, and we shared that we will be hearing disciples speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, and the words of Christ will be manifest at general conference. We invited them to take some time to watch and prayerfully study the messages of the conference. The Sisters proceeded to give Enosh a church tour and lesson after that. I hope that it wasn’t too much for Enosh, and that he continues to follow the Spirit.

General Conference

General Conference was not quite what I was expecting, but I enjoyed the blessing that was to watch it. I thought it was interesting that they shared the parable of the ten virgins five times throughout the whole conference. This parable has been on my mind for a while, and I’m grateful to be studying it. There is this incredible podcast about the Hebrew Wedding ceremony that a member in Nanaimo shared with us. Well I mean, he brought it up multiple times, and every time I was like, “you have got to send us a link to it.” And every time he would forget. I finally asked him again if he could send it to us right before I left Nanaimo, and I am so grateful I did because he finally sent it. I recommend giving it a listen, this lady named Andrea W, has studied this a lot and shared some of her very insightful thoughts. After listening and studying this, it has completely transformed my perspective and has been a great blessing to understand why reading the Savior’s teachings. So the huge focus on that parable during conference was quite interesting.

Some of the messages seemed as direct reflections of the Preach My Gospel lessons. Most notably Elder Bednar’s message. I believe that the Lord is training the members to teach simply. Elder Eyring’s talk from the October conference, “Simple Is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ” also emphasizes this recent focus from church leaders. Now is the time to be preparing for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Now is the time to be admonishing each other and those we love with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this must be done through simplicity. I find that it admirable that the Apostles have been teaching us this.

Working in the YSA

This is something I’ve learned a lot from serving in the YSA; instead of taking all the opportunities to fellow-ship, invite, and make our friends feel welcome, we step back and let the members do their job. I believe that we often as missionaries, take away these experiences and opportunities from the members. And instead, we should be coordinating with and constantly working to empower them. That’s pretty much what I’m trying to do with the content on the Christ’s First Light page. The easy route is always to have the missionaries do it, but there is a more excellent way. It’s been substantially more difficult, but it’s well worth it in the end. The longer I’ve been out on my mission, the more I’ve realized that serving as a missionary is ultimately about teaching and helping you become a good, faithful member, and disciple of Jesus Christ. A member who teaches, invites, testifies, and fellow-ships. We need to empower members and give them the opportunities to do that, rather than take them away.