Heather's fall break is coming to an end. She spent this last week in Glendale. It is Stake Conference weekend in the Glendale Stake. Nathan and I went to the adult session last night. It was really good. That's always my favorite session.
A counselor to the Phoenix Mission President spoke. Are the counselors also called President? President Morris, Brother Morris? Anyway. He told a story about a man who joined the church in the 60's, back east somewhere. Sorry, I'm not good with details. When he joined he ended up in a branch with about 10 active members. A few years later he found himself the branch president and the branch had only grown to 20 members. So he prayed about how to grow his little branch. And this is what he did. He invited 3 families to each invite 1 family for a meeting kinda like a fireside on a Wednesday night. The missionaries were in charge of part of the meeting and taught a lesson. Then they invited the families to come again on Sunday for another lesson. Then on Sunday they invited them to come again on Wednesday night. So, the families were getting 2 lessons a week and getting to know other families in the branch. He did this for a couple of years. He said they just kept teaching them until they got baptized or they said, "no more." In the first year they baptized 450 people! in families! 190 in the second year! Isn't that amazing? I'm sure he had to really pray about which families to have invite another family, but still. Great story.
He said something else I thought was interesting. The 3 fold mission of the church is: perfect the saints, preach the gospel, redeem the dead. If we consentrate on preaching the gospel and redeeming the dead the perfecting of the saints takes care of itself. Good meeting.
Lots of love, Mom
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