Walk to Church - Receive the Joy
Sisters Lee and MacKay ready to welcome people to church
Every day at 5:00pm in Naperville, Illinois I could hear from my home the Saint Peter and Paul church bells ringing, playing a few stanzas of familiar hymns. The Cathedral is just down the street from where we lived. I love church bells! My mom once joked that she wished church bells had made the restoration. After living by the cathedral, I would agree! It was wonderful living so close to this beautiful building. I loved walking by at night and seeing the light coming through the engaging stain glass windows. Some of our neighbors told Mark and me that they bought homes in this neighborhood because they wanted to be able to walk to church. This brought back fond memories of my childhood where I lived just blocks from the church building I attended and could walk to church. A luxury that I took for granted then.
Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral - Naperville, Illinois. The stain glass windows there.
A few months ago, here in California on my mission, I was reading in the Preach My Gospel Manual for Missionaries. It suggests that the missionaries become acquainted with the people that live around the church buildings. I thought what a great idea. I visited with a few dog walkers around the church building on Badger Road and realized that many of the people who live close to our church buildings do not know anything about our religion. These people were interested to learn more about the church in their neighborhood. And if they converted, they would be the lucky ones that could walk to church each Sunday!
President Quinn and I decided to have a “Walk to Church” initiative, where we would invite those who lived around our buildings to come to church. We asked the eight stake presidents in our mission if they supported the plan, and they thought it was a great idea. Our technology missionaries made up a beautiful invitation. The bishops of the many congregations in our mission dedicated Sunday November 10th to inviting people in the area to walk to church, saying: come as you are, meet your neighbors and worship with us.
“Walk to Church” invitation.
Our missionaries gathered together the beginning of November and passed out hundreds of these invitations. I learned that the woman who cuts my hair was the recipient of one of the invitations. She told me how impressed she was with our missionaries and how kind and respectful they were. She said they offered service and her husband is planning on calling them for some service in the next little while.
Last Sunday, November 10th, we saw an increase of people at church. There was also an increase in attendance of members who had not been to church in a while. President Quinn and I had some friends of ours come. While at church our friends said to us, “We feel the joy flowing in this place and we want to be a recipient of it.”
We may not have bells ringing to bring people in, yet we do have thousands of missionaries out all over the world letting God’s children know they are welcome at church. The restored church of Jesus Christ is on the earth today. All are invited to be recipients of the joy the Gospel brings.
Elders Dougal and Witt . Our missionaries welcome people as they come to church.
Thanks for reading! More photos of missionaries below.
PS Speaking of the stake presidents. We invited the stake presidents in our mission area and their wives to the mission home for dinner Saturday night. It was wonderful to visit with them, getting to know them better and talking about how best to support each other in doing missionary work in our area.
stake presidents: President & Sister LeCheminant, President & Sister Burton, President & Sister Tibbetts, President & Sister Barlow, President & Sister Kitchen, and President & Sister Quinn.
Here below are some more photos of missionaries. We have the best missionaries here in CASRM (California Santa Rosa Mission) !! We love each of you!
Elders Lunt and Willhite
Elders Grover and Swenson
Sisters Kai and Musashino
Elders Hart, Fuchs, Joaquin, and Hayes and Sisters Gabrielson and Bailey
