Thursday, August 26, 2010

Special Leadership Training in Kobe and Okayama

This month we held two three day long training sessions for zone leaders, district leaders and trainers in the mission. One was held in Kobe and the other in Okayama. The training focused on eight key principles from Preach My Gospel to help the missionaries become better teachers of the gospel.Do you see some missionaries you know in all these pictures? These were all taken during teaching practice time.
The missionaries seemed to really enjoy the training and left with a renewed fire to share the gospel and be better teachers. The first principle we focused on is the Doctrine of Christ, which is aligned with the missionary purpose to invite others to come unto Christ. The doctrine of Christ is centered on the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. The missionaries practiced inviting people to come unto Christ through faith, repentance and baptism. They learned how to be bold, but not overbearing, in inviting people in the first lesson with the missionaries to set a goal to find out if the church is true and be baptized.
The second principle is the Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion. The missionaries learned the importance of having the Spirit when they teach and how to help others know when the Spirit is testifying of truth to them.
The third, forth and fifth principles focus on how people can know for themselves if the church is true. This is done by helping investigators receive personal revelation through prayer, reading (and praying about) the Book of Mormon and through attending church where they can feel the Spirit and be strengthened by the members. The missionaries learned how to invite people to read, pray and come to church.The sixth principle focuses on Teaching People and Not Lessons. The missionaries learned to listen better to investigators by seeking first to understand their needs through asking inspired questions when teaching lessons.
The seventh principle, We Invite, They Commit, We Follow Up, helps the missionaries understand that our purpose is to invite. Others need to choose to follow Christ for themselves. We teach them how to do it and how to know if what we are teaching is true. Our success is not measured by others keeping their commitments, but rather our commitment to continually invite others unto Christ by helping them repent and work towards baptism. When people make commitments, we do all within our power to help them keep those commitments. We focused on teaching and committing people to obey the commandments as they work towards the goal of baptism.
And finally the eighth principle is How to Begin Teaching. We actually taught this first as it helps the missionaries understand how to begin a lesson. It helps them understand how you can explain your purpose and role as a missionary up front so those being taught will not misunderstand the purpose of the lessons. It also helps the missionaries know how to set the tone and spirit for a lesson. I am confident with continued focus on these principles, the missionaries will become better teachers and better missionaries! Focusing on these principles will continue indefinitely.

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