Teaching by the Spirit

Recently we were blessed to be taught in a mission training session lead by a general authority of the church. I will not say who it was so that I can avoid the possibility of misquoting him or giving any mis-information that could be attributed to him, but needless to say, it was a very instructive and delightful experience. He taught using this method and so afterwards, I summarized my impressions of the process and outline it here, including my own comments and added scriptures.

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Teaching by the Spirit
Purpose: Every encounter in our walk in life should be left in an improved condition.

There are times for preaching and times for teaching. the formality of the situation determines which. Most of our encounters with individuals or groups are teaching situations, however, both are potentially positive.

The Savior shows us the way to be instruments of bringing about improved conditions in any encounter, whether it be preaching or teaching.

The first important requirement is preparation. We need to be always studying, praying and preparing spiritually for this. As the occasion arises (encounters with people), these are the steps:

1. Invite the other (or others) to make an observation based either on what you have just said or what has been observed.

2. Based on that observation, present related idea, scripture, etc. (as directed by the spirit)and then ask an inspired question, leading the person to make another observation.

3. Continue the process (step 2) following the direction of the spirit, based on your previously prepared lesson plan (if there was an opportunity for that), or simply as inspiration comes.

As you are prepared, the Spirit of the Lord with direct you to ask these inspired questions. They should never lead to parroting back something just said, or requiring them to read your mind to come up with some answer you already have in mind. It should lead them to think and ponder and bring back an answer that comes from their heart.
An important component of this process is the need for "stillness." It often feels like, if there is silence, that someone needs to say something. Often, silence can be filled with the spirit, allowing for true teaching. The spoken word can often interrupt that process. Allow stillness to happen. It has a powerful effect.

Other considerations and thoughts:

When you have an anticipated encounter (or teaching situation), prepare some points to be presented and some possible questions that lead the discussion, but also know that the Spirit may lead you in unanticipated directions, based on the answers you receive.

Realize that in every situation, we all learn, whether we are in the "leading" position or not. The person, or persons, you interact with are not "objects" to be controlled, but rather "agents" who act for themselves. Lead them to act.

D&C 88:122 Appoint among yourselves a teacher, and let not all be spokesmen at once; but let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be edified of all, and that every man may have an equal privilege.

All (including ourselves) need to be kept on equal grounds. Anything else is of the adversary.

Alma 30:7 Now there was no law against a man's belief; for it was strictly contrary to the commands of God that there should be a law which should bring men on to unequal grounds.

Respect anything that the other person says, but be ready to lead them to higher thinking as guided by the spirit.

In preparation, be ready to present scripture passages and inspired stories (e.g. parables) to inspire thought conducive to spiritual progress.

Hope and the Truth

We (both Sister Buchanan and I) have the experience in helping some of our people attend the LDS Addiction Recovery Program meetings. I attend most every Tuesday night with one person and Sister B with one or more people sometimes twice a week.

These meetings are some the most spiritual meetings I have ever attended in my church experience. There is so much there in testimony of the Atonement.

I keep a few notes on my thoughts as I attend these meetings. I decided I would post some of them here. These are thoughts from two of the last meetings I have attended.

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ARP meeting, step 2 - Hope

This is not a program of self-control - it is a process of accepting the Savior as our control - turning to Him what we cannot do for ourselves.

Thought: It is not enough to be at a status quo - "maintaining."
We can, for a time, maintain a steadiness on our own - but we are  then deceived - not accepting our true and real potential. We need to rely on the spirit to know what we need to do next. The talk by Elder Larry Lawrence shows us how we need to ask what we yet lack - what we should be doing. The Holy Ghost knows us individually and what we need. President Eyring said in his talk, that once we receive that direction, it is important that we DO it.

Through it all, it takes the power of God for us to do it.

We are in a fallen world. It was necessary for us to come into a fallen world, but still, I imagine that it broke our Heavenly Father's heart, knowing what it would really mean to go thorugha fallen world - he forbade them from doing it, but knew that it had to be done. Heavenly Father and Jesus saw the fall - they knew what it really meant, more than any body else. They also knew what it would take to bring us out of it and back to them. They did not turn their backs on us - just because we brought it upon our selves. They are pulling for us, reaching for us, yearning for us to to take full advantage of what they have given us to conquer our fallen state. Christ has the power to bring us up to a better world (Ether 12:4 and Hebrews 6:19).


Another thought on complacency (status quo) - We can find it easier to be complacent when we choose to ignore the truth of our situation - usually through rationalization. Step 4 of the ARP process - Truth and making a fearless personal moral inventory. It is also important to write and record our inventory, also keep a journal. That way it will not be as easy to rationalize and forget the truth about our weaknesses. Moroni also helps us understand the need to understand our weaknesses, not as permanent character flaws, but as means to an end - discovering through humility to trust in the Lord and be improved by Him in ways that are impossible for us alone. (Ether 12:27)

a simple summary of our mission experience

I have not written very much concerning this mission. We are quite busy most of the time visiting people and helping many people get through difficulties in their lives, mostly helping them turn more to their Savior for help and finding the support and strength that comes through church activity. We had some people who are getting closer to being in full activity, especially in getting ready to go to the temple for the first time, or to return after a long time away. It is very gratifying to see some progress made and heartbreaking when troubles overwhelm some of our people we have some to love so much.

One aspect that helps us in this work in Family History. We have quite a few people, both new members and returning members, who have gotten very interested in progressing towards the temple because we have been able to find their ancestors and see what work needs to be done for them. I particularly love doing the research and know the the Lord is helping me find success in the work.

We love the work!

Apostles

As many of you know, I have been keeping up a chart showing the Apostles of the LDS church. I just updated that chart and it is on our website.

Here is the web address:

http://www.buchananspot.com/LDS/Apostles.pdf

It is also in individual pages in .gif form:

http://www.buchananspot.com/LDS/Apostles1.gif
http://www.buchananspot.com/LDS/Apostles2.gif

I hope this is useful to you all!

Mercy and Grace

We believe in and rely upon the Mercy of God, available to us through the Grace of our Savior Jesus Christ by his suffering in the garden of Gethsemane and his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. Without this, nothing else makes any difference - nothing we can do, think or believe will be of any benefit to us.

As I was sitting in the temple last week, those thoughts worked through my mind. I thought that, though this is really at the core of our gospel belief as member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is too often taken for granted as we are so involved in other areas of the Gospel. It is important that we always remember the real reason we have faith and hope - Jesus Christ and his wonderful and incomprehensible atonement.

What I find also interesting is an experience I had last night, while attending an Addiction Recovery Program meeting. These are truly some of the most spiritual meetings I ever attend. In particular, as we were discussing the twelfth step, this statement was mentioned and discussed:

"Sharing your testimony of His mercy and His grace is one of the most important services you can offer."

It recalled to my mind the thoughts I had while in the temple last week. Wow.

With this I am sharing my testimony of the Mercy of God which is given to us through the Grace of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Is anybody out there?

Hi. I am not sure anyone is reading these blog posts much. I am sure our life here in Utah is not as interesting as it was in Germany.

I started writing some about the Danish research I do and occasionally I write something about our work here or something with the family.

I would like to hear from anyone who might be reading this to let me know if these posts are useful or what might be better to include in them.

Thanks!

Mission work

As you can see, I am not as diligent in posting about this mission as I was with the mission in Germany. The primary reason is that the work here is more intense, but also more personal. It is true that we had a number of people with whom we worked in Germany and the branch there, but we also had a lot of experiences beyond that that were more of interest to the people back home. The personal struggles people had in our Ravensburg Branch were private and not suitable for a blog. I sometimes mentioned a few people and posted their pictures. Here, we almost always are working with individuals and families with serious difficulties and our work primarily is encouragement and support in bringing them to full activity in the church.

In our small area - our stake - we are now working with about 50-60 families or individuals. Since all are quite close together, we often visit upwards of 4 or 5 per day (sometimes more) - even on our preparation day. The issues range from basic health struggles and weakness in faith to serious addictions and serious family problems, unemployment and life-threatening health issues. In the past four months, we have helped people get to Addition Recovery meetings, visited (or taken) people to the Emergency room, visited people in Intensive Care units and psychiatric lock-down units, faced domestic violence face-to-face, helped people receive Bishop's Storehouse orders, donated some of our own food, labor, baby-sitting, dog-sitting, even used a breath-a-lizer to move someone's car when they were unable to do so. The work is more intense here than it was in Germany because everyone is so much closer and there are so many more people and many in desperate need.

We have also had great success in finding family names in the genealogy of a number of people, had a number of people start to come to church who had not been for a while. We had a baptism a week or so ago, a beautiful experience where a man was able to baptize his 9-year-old daughter.

We love the work here and are very blessed my the Lord in the work. I am always learning more and more about the love Our Heavenly Father has for everyone. I am just starting to get a little understanding of how many suffering people there are in the world, knowing that the Lord has such compassion for them and relies on us to help make their lives even just a little bit better.

We love working with our sister missionaries. Right now we have a three-some, with Sister Malufau and Sister Ricks (who have been here a while) and Sister Ballif who is awaiting a visa to serve in Sidney, Australia. We don't have a picture of Sister Ricks (yet).