31 October 2018

I was thinking about how the level to which the members of the church keep the commandments has a direct influence on missionary work. For example: In my first area in the mission, there is a family, all of whom are members of the church. When I was in the area this family was keeping the commandments and they worked hard in missionary work. I loved that family and they were able to bless a lot of people: investigators, new converts, and all kinds of people. However, that has since changed. According to what a missionary who was recently in that area told me. Since I left the area several members of that family have started to break the law of chastity, and who knows what other commandments. As a direct result of their bad example, none of their neighbors want anything to do with the church. The missionary told me that one time they were out knocking on doors in that neighborhood. They found a super awesome family to teach and had an amazing lesson with them, but when they invited them to go to church, they said they didn´t want to go because it is the same church that that first family goes to who is breaking the law of chastity. That is kind of a sad example, but it is true: the actions of church members have a direct impact on how people who aren't members of the church see the church. Which means we have a great opportunity with [our neighbors]. One of satans tools is to cause contentions in the family and in the church, in order to drive people away from the church, which really is the kingdom of God. so that being said, the opportunity that we have is to basically just be good examples of latter-day saints. and if all goes well we could be instruments in the Lord's hands to help members of our families and others become firm in the church and converted to the gospel. It's just a thought that I had. (missionary work is fun) love you all, keep being awesome