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Search Results for: Missionaries

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Simple Missionary Family Home Evening Ideas

February 25, 2017

Next month the youth in our ward are participating in a missionary month. The Young Women and Young Men leaders have planned special lessons and activities to help familiarize them with missionary life. Many of these will take place on Sunday, others will replace weekly mutual activities. Some of these activities will naturally include our […]

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Repetition – I Repeat – Repetition is Critical

September 28, 2016

            Part of our missionary assignment in Brockton has us teaching English classes 2-3 times a week. We have about 10 students, some coming every time and others just coming as they are able. Some are very serious about learning and others just come for the social aspect of the gathering. We have tried a lot of different ways to teach a foreign language (English) to this wonderful immigrant population. We have used a program supported by the church called Daily Dose. We have done a lot of reading and vocabulary building. All of it works to a certain extent but we are just not seeing real, lasting progress.

            Last week we decided to do something different. We brought a box of everyday things: silverware, plates, cups, staplers, a ruler, etc. As the class began I said that we would only be speaking English tonight. I would not say anything or answer anything in Portuguese, only English. They were all puzzled by it but we began. We only worked on four sentences. I would hold up something and ask “What is this?” They would be required to answer “That is a spoon.” We were trying to teach them the difference between “this” and “that” so I had to move around the room, showing them distances and the difference between something close and something farther away, and which words to use in each case. We were also trying to teach them how to construct a sentence. When I ask “What is this” the tendency is to simply answer “Spoon”. We continually required that they respond in a full sentence and this took a lot of effort on their part.

            We did this over and over. We made them pronounce correctly, repeating constantly. We made them say “this” and “that”. We must have used the question “What is this” a hundred times that night and they consequently had to answer “That is…..” an equal number of times. We made steady corrections. By the end of the night they were asking and answering each other correctly. It felt tedious. But by the time class ended, they all had it. They all understood and could ask and answer that basic question. And they all said it was the best class ever. They loved it and want to do it again. As a follow up, last night was our class and we started with a review. I held up a knife and asked “What is this” and they all answered with a full sentence: “That is a knife.”

            Whenever I read about any kind of learning that says “…and no tedious memorization” I wonder what it is they are going to do in place of repetition and memorization. There are just certain things we have to commit to memory and the best way to do that is through constant repetition. I have been working since January trying to recapture the use and fluency of the Portuguese language since it is required for the work I do here. Obviously the best thing to do is to speak it and I do speak it a lot. But I spend a good chunk of time each day memorizing verb conjugations, vocabulary lists, reading aloud, and peppering the Brazilian missionaries with language questions. And the only way I can keep a new concept in my head is by repetition. I have to say and use it over and over again. I have to write it down, refer to it, say it, use it, and make it a part of what I do and say each day. It is the dull tedium of repetition that makes learning come alive. 

            If you’re ever tempted to say “I just don’t want to memorize this or have to repeat this again”, what you might be saying is “I just don’t want to learn this.”

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The Real, Genuine Teacher

May 17, 2016

            As a classroom teacher I always wanted to control the teaching/learning atmosphere as much as possible. I would arrange the room, use the media well, and ensure that the walls had appropriate things hung on them. I worked under the belief that if the physical atmosphere was well managed then both the teaching and the learning would be elevated.


            Teaching as a missionary brings a whole new dimension to the teaching atmosphere because a missionary can rarely control the physical aspect of it. You are invited into someone’s home and you just go with what is there. Here are 3 experiences I had last week. The first was in the evening. A mother and her teen-age son are studying with us. We went for a lesson and she was trying to get dinner ready, keep her other 3 younger daughters under control, keep the television off or at least keep the volume down, answer the phone, and be engaged in the lesson. Not an ideal situation.


            That was followed by a lesson with a single man who lives in a hotel. We taught him in the lobby of the hotel. There were 2 chairs in the whole lobby. He sat in one, I in the other, and the two young missionaries stood. People were coming in and out, the desk clerk was right by us and there was the usual commotion associated with a public place. Again, not ideal.


            Two days later we went at 10 a.m. to a home to teach a single woman. She lives in a 3-story, 6-unit building, the type that are so common in these parts. She couldn’t invite us in because one of her roommates had started drinking earlier in the morning and was well into his first six pack of the day and not in a good mood. So we stood on the porch and taught – we in our white shirts and ties, she in her bathrobe. We competed with her phone, the trash trucks, a fire engine, lots of neighbors flowing in and out of the building, and the general noise of the street. Far, far from the ideal.


            All three of these situations would never be considered excellent teaching venues, but here is what happened. The first woman and her son were on their fourth discussion and it went well. She shared with us some experiences from her life where she felt the Spirit but didn’t know what it was that kept guiding her towards better things. We helped her see what it was and she was filled with the Spirit again. The second man had already committed to baptism and this was a little tune up lesson for him. He accepted it very well. He was edified as we all were. The third woman was very agreeable to the message, accepted a Book of Mormon, committed to read it each night, and invited us back.


            What made these lessons come alive and overcome very poor ‘classroom’ set ups? Of course, it was the presence of the Holy Ghost. Nothing makes teaching too difficult for Him. When we pray and invite His presence, real teaching and learning occurs no matter what the setting and situation. Now, what will happen with these people and their relationship to the church only time and experience will tell. But I do know that on each of those particular occasions they were given the best opportunity to hear and accept the message because of the presence and active involvement of the Spirit in the teaching process 

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President Faust’s Prophetic Prediction About Personal Progress in 2016

April 16, 2016

Back as a beehive, I remember having a mutual Personal Progress night where we’d been asked to find a talk on womanhood to discuss together. We all came excited to discuss and share, and when it came time to read, it turns out we all had the same talk (thanks to the fact that it ranked #1 of LDS.org’s search). It was President Faust’s “Womanhood; The Highest Place of Honor” from the year 2000. And so we discussed it really in depth and had a great experience. The brownies didn’t hurt either.

I don’t think I’ve read the talk since I read it six years ago with my Beehive class, but I recently felt inspired to take a glimpse at it again. I was reminded of being a beehive, brand new to Personal Progress. I was strolling through memory lane, when something really cool stood out to me. President Faust totally predicted what it would be like in 2016! Specifically, how Personal Progress would’ve changed by 2016.

We wonder what the Young Women requirements for Personal Progress awards will be like in the year 2016. Hopefully the values and standards of Young Women will be increasingly focused on spirituality and service to others.

Personal Progress has changed significantly since the year 2000. Back then, young women were still using the program started in 1985. This program included the seven YW values, each with a selection of experiences. There was a set number of experiences you needed to complete each year as a Beehive and a Mia Maid, and then as a Laurel you were supposed to complete two 20-30 hours projects centered around a Young Women value.

In 2002, they changed the structure of the program around quite a bit. They kept the seven values, and the experiences and projects, but now instead of pacing out the experiences and projects based on age, you could go at your own pace. The other significant change was that you now needed to complete a project for each value, following six experiences per value.

Most recently in 2009, they changed the program again. They kept the structure the same (though changing a few experiences and minor guidelines) but added the value of Virtue. This value is unique because it has fewer experiences, and has a required project of reading the Book of Mormon.

Now that we’ve had that brief history lesson, what does it have to do with President Faust’s statement?

He mentions two specific things which he hoped Young Women would be increasingly focused on: spirituality and service to others.

SPIRITUALITY

A huge element of spirituality is self-reliance, and the way the program has changed is definitely designed for increasing self-reliance. The program restructure in 2002 enabled Young Women to work at their own pace without the pressure of deadlines every birthday. It also gave them more freedom in selecting the experiences and projects which would help them grow the most.

Another significant change which has definitely encouraged a spiritual increase is making reading The Book of Mormon mandatory. With the 2002 program, reading one of the Standard Works was a suggestion for a Faith value project. Now that it’s required, and especially under the value of Virtue, it has prompted Young Women around the world to actively increase their testimony of The Book of Mormon.
Just this past April 2016 Conference, Elder Rasband shared


What did we learn [from the Youth]? We learned that our youth love the Lord, sustain their leaders, and desire to have their questions answered! Questions are an indication of a further desire to learn, to add to those truths already in place in our testimonies, and to be better prepared to “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ.”

This newly-called Apostle has noted this spiritual growth among youth in the church, and the fact that they’re actively seeking further knowledge of this Gospel.

SERVICE TO OTHERS

Personal Progress has always heavily emphasized service. The way Personal Progress enables service hasn’t changed much–but the opportunities for youth to serve have never been so plentiful. Youth are getting involved in their communities more and more. Studies have shown that millennials are more compassionate and charitable than previous generations, and chances are good that that trend will continue to grow.

Another huge and unprecedented way young women and finding service opportunities is through the growth of missionary and family history work on the internet. Young women are blogging, Snapchatting, Tweeting, Instagramming, and everything-elsing about the way the gospel (and Personal Progress) is blessing their lives. There are Missionaries who are required to use Facebook for missionary work!

And family history and temple work are moving forward in ways nobody could imagine 16 years ago. Research has never been easier, and temples are being built at an excelerated rate. Indexing millions of records takes only 5 minutes at a time. Elder Bednar shared:

Your fingers have been trained to text and tweet to accelerate and advance the work of the Lord—not just to communicate quickly with your friends. The skills and aptitude evident among many young people today are a preparation to contribute to the work of salvation.

Personal Progress is the greatest tool available to young women in 2016 to help them increase their spirituality and service to others. Not because it’s a great to-do list, or because it keeps you perfectly on track, but because it’s designed to help you with YOUR personal progress. It helps you to stay focused on what is spiritually important, while going at your own pace and focusing on your interests.

President Faust was certainly following inspiration when he made that statement. If he were alive today, he would certainly be impressed with the virtuous young women of 2016. So let’s keep going!

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Simple and Clear

March 2, 2016

I sat in on a missionary discussion the other night. It was with a woman and her son who both had recently joined the church. They were being taught a follow up lesson on the Plan of Salvation. I was with two really good missionaries. They teach well and they teach well together, almost seamless in their transitions from one teaching to the other. After the lesson we three talked about it and they both agreed that it wasn’t their strongest teaching effort. I offered, as I always do, to give them some feedback and they readily accepted, as they always do.

The feedback was this: they taught the Plan of Salvation in an unnecessarily complicated way. They taught it in the standard way that we all seem to use, with circles and lines representing different spheres of existence and transitions to and from those spheres. But it took over 30 minutes to get all of that on paper. And the reason it took so long is that there were dozens of digressions.

The Plan is vast and it touches at the very heart of what we believe. It helps us understand where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. As we begin to talk about it and teach its truths, we are easily distracted by another example, another appendage to it, another story we’ve heard about one of the facets of the plan, by any number of things that keep us from communicating simply and clearly what that Plan of Salvation really is.  We, the teachers, are not bothered by the digressions because we understand the basics, but those trying to learn them get confused by what is really important and what is less so. And when the lesson is over they are not really sure which points are critical. If we can’t teach the Plan in a straightforward way, we lose people who can’t hack their way through the dense forest of facts we have built for them in order to see the truth at the center.

The lesson of the feedback was this: the best teaching is clear and simple. It is always clear and simple. The circle and line drawing can be put on paper in 10 minutes. It can be clearly explained in not much more time than that. If we teach it in that manner and the Spirit is present, the student/learner will have questions. She will begin to ask questions about the parts and pieces she is interested in and that she doesn’t understand. We can then address those. It will be a much more useful learning experience.

I’m not short-changing the beauty of the plan in suggesting that we can teach it very well in a much shorter time. What I am saying is that this particular subject is so filled with details that we could talk about it for hours, explaining more and filling in more with scriptural backing. That is not only unnecessary but confusing to a beginning learning of these things.

If we lay it out simply and clearly it will be easier understood and will create in the learner an increased desire to understand more.

One of the marks of an effective teacher is this: can he teach simply and clearly.

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Help Them Understand

February 10, 2016

I have mentioned before in this blog that the style and quality of teaching is not really important if no learning is taking place. The whole purpose of teaching is so that people can learn. If that is not happening then we need to readjust our teaching so that the outcome is achieved.


Yesterday I went on a teaching appointment with 2 of our elders. We went to the home of a woman who is committed to being baptized in a week and a half. She was a delight and is so full of faith and hope that I was more edified when I left her home than when I entered. During the course of the lesson, which was on commandments, she asked a question about tithing. One of the elders opened to Malachi 3 and read to her verses 8-10, which as you know is the classic biblical reference on the subject. She listened as he read and when he finished she said “I don’t understand a word of it.” It wasn’t said in a mean way, just a factual way.


He then handed her the book and invited her to read the passage, thinking that her own voice might help in understanding. She did read and when she finished one of the elders immediately said “So what do you think it means?” She hesitated, then stumbled a bit in her explanation. Eventually, with the help of these excellent missionaries she came to understand the passage.


As we drove away the Elders asked me how I thought the lesson went. I told them that I would give them a tip about scripture reading. “You could go to any strong, well-established ward and read that same passage and there would be many adults and youth who would tell you that they don’t understand it. Scripture language is in some sense a foreign language until we pay the price in time and effort to understand the language. Not everyone has yet paid the price, even people with strong testimonies. So my tip is this: don’t assume that people automatically understand the scriptures, just because they were read aloud.” I shared with them the reference in D&C 68:25, the one that says that parents in Zion need to teach their children the basics of the gospel. But the sweet spot in that verse for me is the line that says “…and teach them not to understand…” It is not just the teaching that is key – it is teaching to understand. That takes more time and more effort.


When I teach, my first question after reading a passage of scripture would not be “So what do you think that means?” because my steady assumption is that they didn’t fully understand what was read. That is not a comment on a person’s intelligence. It is rather a feeling I have about what it takes to learn to understand things of the Spirit. And if they truly didn’t understand then we put them on the spot and they mumble something and hang their head and learning stops. We don’t want to embarrass people. 

My first response after reading is to comment on it myself and pose a few simple questions to aid them in understanding. After reading “Will a man rob God…” I might say, “Did you catch how God talks about us robbing Him? Can you see in that third (or fourth) line what He says is robbery in His eyes?” I want to summarize and point them back into the passage so that they grasp the meaning of it for themselves. They will begin to understand. They want to understand, they just need help and we, as teachers of the gospel, are in a prime position to help.


It takes listening and sensitivity and a great desire to see people learn in order to help them get the most they can from a lesson. Think of every student as the Ethiopian described in Acts chapter 8. He was reading the scriptures and wanted to understand. When Phillip approached him, he asked “Understandest thou what thou readest?” The response is a classic: “How can I, except some man should guide me (verses 30-31).” Here was a student who wanted to learn and just needed a little help. We can be that help.

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