June 24, 2013

Hello All,
It seems like I just wrote a few days ago. I guess I sort of did though. Not too much has happened in this last half week. We have been working hard in order to find people to teach. We decided that we needed to start from scratch because none of the investigators we had were progressing towards anything. So last week we tracted and put our efforts into finding people to teach. And it worked out pretty well. We were able to find and set return appointments with a lot of people. I am really looking forward to teaching some of these new people this week! We are hoping to build up a new teaching pool and have some success! 
This week we started a new program off for the Redcliffe ward that will make the missionary work in the ward blossom. One of our members shared it with me and I decided to show it to the bishop and he loved it. As a ward we are going to set a goal for each family in the ward to find 1 person for the missionaries to teach by the end of the year. The point is to get the whole ward excited for it and then to share the process to do so with them. There are 6 steps to go through. The first step is to pray for inspiration on who you should work with, or someone who might be interested it the gospel. The second step is to build trust with that person and help them become comfortable with you. The 3rd step is to bring them to church activities and help them be acquainted with the church. The 4th step is to ask them to question Do you want to meet with the missionaries? If they say yes we meet with them. Step 5 is to fellowship them in your home as we teach and then the 6th step is to lead them to Baptism. The statistics tell us that if someone is taught by missionaries in a members home there is an 80% chance that they will join the church. It a lot better than just getting referrals and contacting them because the chance of conversion that way is less than 1%. I am going to kick the program off this week and within the next couple of months there will be some success from it. I know it will work because missionary work is more about working with members than tracting. The only reason we need to tract is because people are found that way as well which I have done on my mission. 
I am working hard to make the Redcliffe area flourish. It is known for being an unsuccessful place, but I am going to change that and help the members to love missionary work! I love missionary work, and I love being a missionary. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love
Elder Kyler Powelson