Author Archives: JM

Preaching to the choir

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I served as a full time missionary for the LDS church in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission (there was only one mission in Nevada at the time).  Lots of fond memories there.  Blistering heat that would leave your footprints in the asphalt, desert rainstorms / flash floods, really interesting people from all over the world.  There was also the “work”.

I remember the first time I was a trainer.  We were instructed by our mission president to take our new missionary tracting as soon as we got them back to the apartment.  Didn’t even give them time to unpack.  I think I handled the first dozen or so door approaches before my “greenie” got the courage to try one.  On his very first try, a man came to the door wearing nothing but boxer shorts with a handgun tucked in the front.  The man suggested we leave.   We did.  What a great way to start a mission.

I experienced two mission presidents while there.  Both of them had different approaches to proselyting, but one thing remained the same.  We were to spend as little time as possible with existing members of the church.  We were even told that if there wasn’t an investigator at church, that we were to be sure to attend one of our wards and take the sacrament, but then we should leave and be out in the community proselyting, even attending other churches.  We did this quite a bit.  While in Nevada, I attended Catholic Mass, Jehovah’s Witness meetings, and a variety of other Christian denomination meetings.  While not  always resulting in formal teaching opportunities, attending these other churches generated a lot of gospel discussions.

When we were with members, we would tract or take them street contacting.  We never visited with the less active unless it was a part-member family situation that had a potential convert.  Our dinner appointments with members were to be wrapped up in under an hour unless a non-member was present.  The total focus was on bringing souls to Christ through the ordinances of baptism and confirmation.  And you can’t do that when you spend all your time with the “already baptized”.

Fast forward to today.

The mission in the area where I live has been given a mandate that every companionship needs to teach 20 missionary discussions a week.  I guess that’s a good thing.  I remember similar goals when I was a full time missionary.  However, here, where I live, the focus seems to be on teaching these discussions to member families, not non-members.  The missionaries in our ward pass around two calendars.  One is the dinner calendar, and the other is a calendar for you to have them over to teach you a discussion.

To me, that’s just bizarre.  I just don’t understand the logic in “Preaching to the choir”.  I mean, pretty much all active, attending LDS families are probably already converted.  There is almost zero chance that anyone they are teaching is a candidate for baptism and confirmation.

I’ve heard the argument that this will help inspire members to invite non-members over to take part in these discussions.  Frankly, I don’t buy it.  In the last couple years that they’ve been trying this, we have had ZERO convert baptisms in our ward as a result.

Is this the future of missionary work in the church?  To spend all that money, time, effort, and resources to become an over-glorified home teaching program?

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Sacrament Meeting iPod/iPhone apps

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When my kids use to get bored in sacrament meeting, they would play tic-tac-toe, hangman, doodle, or that game where you need to connect the dots and make little squares, even resort to reading scriptures!

Now all these things are available as apps on iPods / iPhones.  So they have a little “Sunday” page on their device that has all of the things we will let them do during sacrament metting if they are bored.  Our rule is, if you use to do it on paper, you can do it on your iPod.

I’m sure we’re not the only ones who do this.  Any suggestions for good sacrament meeting apps?

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Sports on Sunday

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In my experience, there are different levels of acceptance regarding sports on Sunday in the LDS church. 

Growing up in my family, we weren’t allowed in the back yard to play on the swings or jump on the trampoline if it was Sunday.  No play dates with friends either.  BYU teams do not play or practice on Sunday.  Using examples like those, it would seem to be pretty clear that honoring the sabbath day means no sports or anything like unto it.

That is, unless you get paid millions of dollars for playing a sport, or coaching a professional sport, or perhaps you are competing at the olympic level.  In that case, you may get talked about in General Conference.  The Ensign and New Era will do articles on you.  You will be asked by Stake Presidents and bishops around the world to give firesides on your experiences. 

Thing is, you don’t get to compete at that level unless you spend some serious time practicing and playing your sport.  And most of the time that means practicing or playing on Sunday.  On the official church web site, the newsroom routinely showcases LDS olympians and other professional athletes who have spent much of their life tuning their craft at many a Sunday tournament or practice. 

Sure, playing sports is one thing, but how about watching?  My experience teaches me that it’s frowned upon to actually attend a sporting event on Sunday, but watching on T.V. seems to be acceptable.  That is, unless the olympics are being held in Salt Lake City.  Then you need to go volunteer and help run the event so things go smoothly.  Regardless, would sporting events even be held on Sunday if there was no audience to watch?  I’m sure some would, but I also bet that many wouldn’t.  Even still, our sacrament meeting attendance seems to be a little thinner on Superbowl Sunday.

So, dear readers, what is it we should tell our young members of the church when they ask if it’s OK to play sports on Sunday?  Does the answer change if they have potential as a future olympian or NFL quarterback?

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Medical Emergency During Sacrament Meeting

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Sacrament meeting was very eventful yesterday.

With about 25 minutes left to go and half way through the third speakers talk, we had a medical emergency in the congregation.?Ǭ This particular emergency happened smack dab in the middle of the chapel.?Ǭ Very quickly, members close to the situation tried to assist and get control.?Ǭ One quickly left and called 9-1-1 to summon the paramedics.

Now, if that wasn’t interesting enough, the response of the rest of the congregation was.

We had a member of the stake presidency sitting on the stand for our meeting (you know, the guy who is suppose to be presiding at the meeting).?Ǭ He did absolutely nothing and sat there as if it was any other Sunday meeting.

Our bishop sent one of his counselors down to investigate.?Ǭ The counselor, after assessing the situation, went out into the hallway and waited for the paramedics to arrive instead of reporting back to the bishop.

The speaker received no direction from the leadership on the stand.?Ǭ He just stayed at the pulpit and continued to give his talk until he was done.?Ǭ No effort was made to shorten it or look to the leadership for guidance.?Ǭ He clearly didn’t have anybodies attention.?Ǭ Everyone in the congregation was watching the unfolding drama happening in the pews.

After his talk, the other counselor instructed organ player to play interlude music while we all sat there.

When the paramedics arrived, the entire congregation sat and watched them work on this individual to a nice rendition of “I know that my redeemer lives”.

Nobody at any time attempted to give a blessing to the person in distress.

The themes of all the talks were… wait for it… ?Ǭ”How to be better disciples of Christ”.

I cannot recall a time where I felt more akward in sacrament meeting.

Have you ever been in a sacrament meeting where a medical emergency has occured??Ǭ How was the situation handled?

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A Successful Missionary

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Page 10 of the new Preach My Gospel:

Your success as a missionary is measured primarily by your commitment to find, teach, baptize, and confirm people and to help them become faithful members of the Church who enjoy the presence of the Holy Ghost.

Avoid comparing yourself to other missionaries and measuring the outward results of your efforts against theirs. Remember that people have agency to choose whether to accept your message.

There it is in black and white.

I am still surprised at how many missionaries, ward mission leaders, bishops, stake presidents, and mission presidents measure their success by baptisms alone.

But how else would you go about measuring commitment??Ǭ Why the need to measure in the first place?

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Why I Hate Homeschooling

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Sure, it’s got its positives and negatives. But, this just about wraps it up for me:

http://www.ericdsnider.com/blog/2008/03/26/childrens-letters-to-raven-symone-xv/

Check out the Jan 27, 2008 response to see what I’m talkin about. No kidding, when I read that, I stopped laughing and got a little choked up. I wish I could invite Jessica over to our house so she could play guitar hero with my daughters.

Suffer the little children…

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Unexpected

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When we first moved to Calgary, it was a little overwhelming.?Ǭ At first, as a family, we didn’t know how we were going to adapt to living in a bigger city.?Ǭ Everything was so fast paced.?Ǭ My wife and kids didn’t know anybody in our neighborhood.?Ǭ It felt like quite the adventure.

?ǬThe Semi-trailer backed up to the front of our house and the moving company employees deployed the ramp.?Ǭ Boxes started to move into the house.?Ǭ My wife and I started directing the movers where to put what.?Ǭ The kids were excited, running around in the back yard.?Ǭ?Ǭ

?ǬThat’s when we first met Kim, our next door neighbor.?Ǭ She, and her two small girls came out the front door and cheerfully introduced themselves.?Ǭ They were the only people in our cul-de-sac who did so.?Ǭ What a wonderful family Kim has.?Ǭ We met her husband Steve when he got home from work that evening.?Ǭ They are two of the most friendly people we had ever met.?Ǭ Always helpful.?Ǭ Always a hello or goodbye.?Ǭ You couldn’t ask for better neighbors.?Ǭ They helped make our transition to Calgary a smoother one.

?ǬOver the last few years, we have grown our frienship with Kim and Steve and their girls.?Ǭ My daughter would often babysit for them if they needed a night together at the movies or dinner.?Ǭ Our children would play together.?Ǭ It was nice to have good friends nearby.

This evening, Steve knocked on our door and brought us some bad news.?Ǭ He and Kim?Ǭwere in a car accident this morning.?Ǭ Kim passed away.?Ǭ?Ǭ?ǬIts difficult to think that she is gone.?Ǭ It’s one of those things that just hits you out of nowhere, unexpected.?Ǭ My heart breaks when I think of those wonderful girls of hers who will have to grow up without their mother.?Ǭ I can’t imagine what Steve must be going through.?Ǭ I wish there was something I could do to make it better, but it’s just one of those hard lessons life teaches us.?Ǭ She leaves behind two wonderful children, a good husband, a loving extended family and friends, and some very sad neighbors.?Ǭ Thanks for making Calgary so friendly Kim.?Ǭ We love you and will never forget you.

I know the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches about the afterlife, the resurrection, and that family ties extend beyond this earth life.?Ǭ Somehow, that doesn’t offer me any comfort or relief from the cold hard reality Steve brought to our family tonight.

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My faith crisis story (JM)

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This is the second post in a series how several of us have dealt with a crisis in faith.

I have had a few experiences in my life that have shaped my understanding of the gospel and the church. These key experiences have shaped the small testimony that I have and I feel like there isn’t anything that could ever change my understanding of those experiences, or what they taught me afterwards.

Continue reading →

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