Teach those who are Ready Now ![]()
"Wherefore the voice of the Lord is unto the ends of the earth, that all that will hear may hear: Prepare ye, prepare ye for that which is to come, for the Lord is nigh." Doctrine and Covenants 1:11-12
"Say nothing but repentance unto this generation; keep my commandments, and assist to bring forth my work, according to my commandments, and you shall be blessed." D&C 6:9
"For this is a day of warning, and not a day of many words. For I, the Lord, am not to be mocked in the last days." D&C 63:58
Surely Ammon and his brethren could not have experienced the success they did without good time management skills, regardless of the receptivity of the people around them.
I was always amazed to see how many missionaries would latch onto a family or individual that was not keeping commitments and visit this person or family repeatedly. Such visits are typically based on personality and non-gospel interests rather than the gospel, and are a way of avoiding real proselyting. I have often wondered if these missionaries felt any obligation to the other tens or hundreds of thousands of people in their area when they were failing to contact because of getting hung up a few stagnant investigators "on the slow plan." While some of these people are eventually baptized on occasion, they are usually poor members because they have learned that commitments aren't very important. Let the members, the people who will be in the area years from now, work with the "slow" investigators. The goal of a mission is not to make celestial people -- there is not enough time on a mission! Missionaries must find celestial people; people who are prepared to accept the gospel NOW, while leaving the door open for those who may be ready later.
Missionaries should never schedule time with individuals who do not progress. If people aren't living by the commitments they made, they should lovingly be directed back to the commitments they can make. Missionaries must use their time wisely. For example, if a young man is not attending church; then the missionaries can first teach him why church is important to his progression, make sure he understands what is being taught, help him feel the spirit, get him to commit to attend church and then wait for him to do so. If he does, the missionaries should move on with him. If he doesn't come to church, the missionaries should wait until he does so and comes to them instead of them coming to him.
Imagine briefly a mountain stream descending through a white-water canyon. Because the water is moving, it stays clear. The faster it moves, the clearer and cleaner it stays. Now imagine a large pond with little inflow or outflow. The water quickly becomes muddy. So it is in missionary work. We need the inflow from contacting to keep our pools clean and active.
I am sad to say that on several occasions, I called missionaries with referrals who told me that they "didn't have time" to teach new people. These missionaries had not had a baptism in months, yet were "too busy" to teach new investigators. They needed to broaden their finding pool. They needed to take full advantage of all opportunities to find to prevent their pools from stagnating.
Much more frequently I would follow up a week later or more on contacts I referred and find out that the missionaries in their area had never contacted them. Missionaries should always follow-up within forty-eight hours. There is little value in visiting members or investigators to solicit new referrals if we are slow to follow-up on referrals which we already have.
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