Master Teaching

Hey Y'all!

So this week was Zone Conference which means we get to come together with a bunch of other missionaries and learn from our Mission President. It's pretty sweet. We learned a lot about the Restoration and biblical history, but it was so cool to understand so much more about it so we can help others! I just kept thinking, "Do we know what we have?!" We have the Truth. We have the Priesthood. We have living Prophets. I am a representative of Jesus Christ as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As we bear testimony of that those we teach will feel the Spirit testify to them because His role is to testify of Truth.

We also focused a lot in teaching in the Savior's way--Master Teaching is what we call it. It involves asking really good questions that help lead the investigator to their own answer, kind of like the Socratic method if you're familiar with that. So at Zone Conference we practiced this for longer than I've ever practice-taught anything at a missionary meeting and it was so great!! It's a really hard adjustment to how I have been teaching, but learning to help others come to their own answer is a skill I am excited to develop. You learn and retain so much more when you are really taught by the Spirit and find answers that way rather than just having information pounded into your head. So I'm learning to talk a lot less in lessons and ask a lot more questions and it's been really good, although I'm still learning how to do it well. Have y'all had experiences where you've gotten answers to a question in a different way than you expected but that stuck with you longer? Pondering precedes revelation. So I've been trying to take more time in my studies to ponder, or start with a question in mind, something I'm seeking answers to. It brings a lot of enlightenment. You should try it! :)

We had some kinda crazy experiences this week. We taught FHE on Monday at a family's house to a group of 20 people or so with like 5 non-members. The family also decided to invite 3 sets of missionaries over... singles ward missionaries and their home missionaries for it. It was really confusing at the beginning trying to figure out who was teaching and how we were working things, and what was happening with FHE because we didn't really know what the family was planning, but it turned out really well! We had a good lesson and are hopefully meeting with a couple of the YSAs that were there.

We also got invited to do service at a nursing home! We've been looking for more service opportunities so this was great! The lady who asked us just wanted us to go talk with some of the people for a little while and share scriptures with them if they wanted it. We were excited to do it and got to hear some great stories from some of the people there and read some verses with them. Old people are great. A little different than YSAs, but at the same time we're all more similar than we realize.

A couple updates: We got a new ward mission leader because our previous one just moved to school up at college station, we'll miss him, but our new wml is great too. Frank is preparing for his mission and we're still meeting with him. We're studying PMG and helping him practice teaching. I love it. It's so fun to seem him growing and learning and to see his excitement for missionary work building! :) We also saw Charlie, finally!!! We brought him cookies and got to talk to him briefly. He'll come when he's ready. I'm pretty sure there's some opposition in his life, and the adversary knows how great he can become and is working hard against us. We did hear that he attended his grandparent's ward yesterday--maybe that'll be better for him. I just wish he just knew how much joy the Gospel can bring to his life and how much we want him to have that joy. Agency is great and all, but sometimes it's really frustrating to see someone struggling and not be able to do anything to significantly help them.

We've got several other amazing people we're working with. Christina is getting baptized this Saturday and she's already been talking to us about how she wants to serve a mission. She broke up with her boyfriend who introduced her to the church so that he could focus on his mission. She's incredible.

We said goodbye to Taylor as she headed off to school. We'll miss her, but we'll keep in touch. We also found out that she read the entire Book of Mormon before her baptism.... just a tiny detail we failed to realize. How incredible! She is going to do amazing things.

Me and Taylor

Anyways, I'm super blessed to be here. Next week is labor day, so idk if I'll be emailing that day because nothing will be open. Also, transfers are next week and I've got a feeling I'm leaving. We'll see where I go. Who knows? 

Love you all!

jen tovar, she was a teacher at the MTC, super awesome missionary. she just got married 2 days ago, 

good friend

Me and Tara at the temple.

She's getting baptized in a couple weeks and just went to school at college station

Love,