Two Great Blogs about the Church

The Anthony's are a fantastic gospel-sharing couple, and were proactive when they heard at General Conference that one way to share the gospel with others is to create blogs about what you believe and about the Church and its principles. They created two great blogs with very good content. Check them out, and consider if you can do something like this as well.

The Truth of the Book of Mormon

About the Book of Mormon

An FHE Miracle

From Joshua and Paige Lyman

In our efforts to work on our date from the ward's Set-A-Date program, Paige and I have been working with a great mutual friend of ours that we have known since freshman year. We had our date picked out, but we weren't really sure how to go about talking with him about the gospel. He is a BYU student, and so he has had pretty extensive exposure to the Church, but we were at a loss. Well, after lots of praying and scheming, we were simply handed the miracle that we had been looking for.

Paige is an editor, and has often helped our friend edit his papers because English is his second language. One Monday he sent Paige an email asking if he could bring over a paper that evening to have her check it. We both felt that it was a great opportunity--he wanted to come over at the exact time we had FHE. After quickly planning it out, we decided to take the plunge and ask if he wanted to stay for our Family Home Evening, since it was something we did at that time every Monday anyway. The greatest part? He said he'd love to!

We modified our lesson plans just a bit, but still had a very good lesson about prayer and how it helps in life, aimed both at us and our friend. It was short and sweet, but it felt really good! At the end of the lesson, he opened up about his personal beliefs (or lack thereof) regarding the existence God, and we invited him to pray that week to find out if He was there. It was a fantastic experience, we felt the Spirit, and we are both so thankful to have been blessed with that miracle!


How about the rest of you? Any good stories out there so far? Do share!

Elder Ballard's Set-A-Date Talk

For those curious about reading the original "Set-A-Date" program as laid out by Elder Ballard, check out The Essential Role of Member Missionary Work, given in the April 2004 General Conference.

"As we raise the level of expectation for the performance of our missionaries, we must also raise the level of expectation for the performance of all of the members of the Church in fulfilling our missionary duties. We need your help, brothers and sisters, to support and assist our missionaries in finding and baptizing many more of our Heavenly Father’s children. We need you to watch over, protect, and inspire the missionaries, who are servants of the Lord. If the standard is to be raised, it is raised for all of us. We must be more faithful. We must be more spiritually in tune. We must prepare ourselves to assist the missionaries in finding those of our Heavenly Father’s children who will embrace the message of the Restoration."

Good luck, and may God bless you and your families as you seek to follow the counsel of the Lord's chosen servants in helping bring others to the gospel!

Don't forget the converted!

One of the greatest aspects of missionary work is that there is no point where you can say, "Okay, we've gotten to point X, now we can say we're done." This has been shown to me over the past couple of weeks as I have been led to think about people that I have seen baptized, both on my mission and afterward.
A week ago in the temple I was thinking about the many great people I have met in my life, and a family from my mission popped into my head. The Chipouka family (one of the most amazing families ever!) consists of a wonderful mother, Daniela, and her two children, Boris and Krystal. I felt strongly impressed to write them a letter and include a couple of small items for the kids. Preparing that package has been a blast!
I also have recently picked up contact again with a young Japanese college student that I had the opportunity to work with as an English tutor here at BYU. He was baptized during his stay in Utah, and has since returned to Japan. It only took a few minutes to write him a quick email, but conversing with him since has been very rewarding. I have the opportunity each time to congratulate him again for his choice, and provide him with a few reassuring words that what he is doing is a very good thing. I have felt very blessed to know him and to be able to provide a little bit of a spiritual boost each time I write to him.
The Lord is definitely aware of His converts! If you will take the time to think about them, I'm sure you too will be impressed to do a little something for somebody, and will enjoy doing so!

Joshua Lyman

The Koelling's Missionary Moment.

As Lindsay and I have set forth our goal to share the gospel, we have been especially sensitive to the whisperings of the spirit. I had one such opportunity to listen to the spirit direct my thoughts and actions earlier this month. I had gotten together with one of my good friends I had not seen in quite some time. Anyhow, during the conversation I sensed that he was not active. As the conversation continued he relayed to me that he was in the final stages of getting a divorce. This was especially devastating becasue he was worried about their child. I took the opportunity to bear my testimony of families and how they are a gift from our Heavenly Father. I told him that he needed to have the spirit with him while he was making a decision that would not only effect him but generations to come. We also talked about family scripture study and prayer becoming a priority with his family. After we had spoke a few days later he told me that he and his wife are going to start doing those things that they knew they should but somehow lost sight of them. He thanked me for my words of advice. I know that the Lord only used me to get the message to him because I was ready to help out.