Listen to This!!

I am so excited to share with you something I think is VERY important! When Elder Bednar was visiting my stake conference this weekend, he told us a story from when he was the president of Ricks, turning into BYU-I. It was a Friday, and the next Tuesday Elder Maxwell was going to be the speaker at their devotional and tell them how to make BYU-I what it should be. That Friday night there was a leadership conference, and Elder (President) Bednar asked all the leaders (about 200 of them if I can remember right) to please wear their Sunday best to the devotional to show they were prepared to hear what Elder Maxwell had to say to them. He also asked them to tell four people, who should all tell three people, who should all tell two people, who should all tell one person, to do the same. Well, it worked! That Tuesday, about 80% of the devotional attendees were in their Sunday best and the meeting was really strong at the devotional. Elder Maxwell asked Elder (President) Bednar, “What is going on?” and Elder Bednar said they were prepared to hear what he was going to say to them.

Well, then he told us that just as he asked those leaders at BYU-I to do something and share the news, he was going to ask us to do something and share the news. He told us that if we did what he told us to do, we could make a big difference just as the university leaders had. And this is what he asked us to do: He asked us to please stop praying for the missionaries to find people to teach. He said that it is not the missionaries’ job to find people to teach—it is the members’ job to find people to teach! It is the missionaries’ job to teach the people the members invite into their homes. He said the members need to stop praying that the missionaries will do their job! And he said the members should instead pray for the courage and strength to open their mouths and share the gospel and invite people into their homes to be taught by the missionaries, and for the missionaries to have the Spirit as they teach.

He said that in the late 90’s, President Hinckley asked the membership to please double the number of people baptized in their stakes and wards. Well, it hasn’t even come close to happening yet, and that was nearly 10 years ago. He said in order for us to answer President Hinckley’s call, each ward needs to nearly triple the number of people who are taught in members’ homes each month.

H said that a common question he gets as he travels around the world is, “When are the missionaries going to be able to get into China [or India]?” He said we only have 53,000 missionaries, and there is no way we are ready to go into China with only that meager amount of missionaries. There are billions of people in China and India, and we are not prepared!! We do not have enough missionaries yet!

Now, I normally do not like the emphasis on numbers in missionary work, and so I hope you don’t think this blog is all about getting people baptized. But I love Indian and Chinese people so much, and the only way the Church will be able to enter their countries and teach them the marvelous gospel of Jesus Christ is if we have WAY more missionaries than we have now. And the only way that is going to happen is if the members start being missionaries!

Now, the cool part about this request is that Elder Bednar said that if we spread this message, the personal influence all of us would have in sharing it could possibly change the course of missionary work! Isn’t that exciting?! So if you could please send this simple message on to your families and wards and stakes, I would greatly appreciate it! We can change the course of missionary work!

Don’t pray for the missionaries to find people to teach who are ready to learn the gospel! Pray for the MEMBERS to find people who are ready to learn the gospel for the missionaries to teach!