Thinking Out of the Box - God Needs You!

*Sister Quinn, Christine Christensen, President Quinn*

This week for zone conference President Quinn invited his sister, Christine Christensen to come and teach our missionaries. Christine and her husband Clayton, who passed away 4 years ago, have been the best member missionaries of all time! Clayton Christensen wrote the book “The Power of Everyday Missionaries.” Also, as a Harvard Business School professor he wrote a case study of an exemplary missionary by the name of Susan Fulcher, who served as a missionary in the Massachusetts Boston Mission several years ago.

Sister Christensen kindly agreed to come and speak to our missionaries and to go over the case study. She flew in from Boston on Tuesday and we spent Wednesday and Thursday at combined zone conferences. All the missionaries enjoyed learning from Sister Christensen as she helped the missionaries identify many lessons from the case study. We learned a lot about how to involve members of the church in missionary work. When members are involved, missionary work is much more fruitful.

One concept that the missionaries enjoyed talking about was being a missionary who is innovative and “thinks out of the box.” One of the many examples of this concept came from a story Sister Christensen shared with the missionaries about a time when Clayton was trying to help a sister in their ward, whom he was a ministering brother to (home teacher at the time.) Trying to find the source of a foul smell in the home, Clayton discovered that a refrigerator in this sister’s basement was full of mold and had to be removed right away. Clayton needed help to move the heavy cast iron frig but was unable to find other men in the ward available to help. Desperate for help, he contacted a man by the name of Jim from the neighborhood who was not a member of the church. “Several times previous to this he had asked Jim whether he might be interested to learn a bit about our wonderful church. But Jim had always kindly deflected my invitations, but to this call for help, he readily responded.” It was a miserable job working for hours in hot and humid weather to try and move this heavy refrigerator up some stairs with two right angle turns. As they balanced the frig on the landing Clayton was worried that Jim might be frustrated. Instead Jim asked Clayton about the church. Clayton told Jim “This is the church.” Watching over each other and serving one another is what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is all about.

Our missionaries sometimes encounter people who reject their offer to introduce them to the church by saying, “I don’t need religion”, or “I don’t need God.” The truth of the matter is that God needs them! And most people respond well to a call to love and serve their fellowman, like Jim did. As members of the church, we covenant at baptism, “to be willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; yea and willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witness of God at all times and in all things.” (Mosiah 18:8-9) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gives us many opportunities in many different ways to do just this. One way to watch over people is to minister to them. Each member of the church is asked to minister to another person in the congregation. The church’s web sites explains ministering by saying this... “Ministering is learning of and attending to others’ needs. It is doing the Lord’s work. When we minister, we are representing Jesus Christ and acting as His agents to watch over, lift, and strengthen those around us.

Our missionaries also minister to the people in their community. They are encouraged to spend time each week serving. For example, they work at soup kitchens and at food banks. They help neighbors with their yard work and with moving heavy items in their homes. There are some missionaries who are called to do service full time, serving in numerous capacities throughout their communities.

During zone conference this week we enjoyed discussing ways to bring others to come unto Christ through inviting them to serve with us. This is a sweet way of teaching people about the Savior’s Church on the earth today.

We have photos of ten white boards of notes and ideas gained from the two zone conferences. We also brainstormed on many ways we can connect with members of the ward and invite them to work with us as we do missionary work. Thank you Sister Christensen.

We loved being with Sister Christensen. She is a wonderful sister to President Quinn and sister-in-law to me. We always feel God’s love coming from Christine. She is generous, kind, and loving. She was able to meet up on Friday with her son, Spencer and his wife Chaning and their 4 children. They live in Palo Alto California.

*Photo of the notes on the white board.*

This week at our MLC (Mission Leader Council) meeting we will go over once again how to incorporate the many ideas we came up with into our missionary work.

Thank you for following my updates. Below are more photos from zone conference this week: