Tuesday, March 22, 2016

"Word of Wisdom Contacting"

Ni Hao! Another week here in the concrete jungle of Kuala Lumpur! Last week for P-day we went to Sunway mall. Sunway is a ginormous mall that has so much crap! Its how I imagine the great and spacious building! There is just floor after floor of stores! They also have a movie theater, an ice-skating rink, a bowling alley, a water park, a theme park, an Egyptian pyramid and big huge lion statue thing. Its the craziest man made building I've ever been to. Of course we didn't do any of that stuff. We were about to go ice-skating but it was too expensive so we just walked around and ate food. Today for P-day we will be going to the Batu Caves!! That's the place with the giant golden statue. And it has a lot of monkeys who steal your bags so I'm excited!

This week I have felt the spirit more then most weeks. Recently, Elder Avery and I have come up with a new contacting technique. We call it "Word of Wisdom Contacting." This is where we focus on the people who are standing on the sidewalk or outside of their car or something smoking cigarettes. We have noticed that almost everyone in Malaysia smokes, and that almost all of them don't like it and want to quit. Most of them have tried to quit before but have not been successful. So we start of the contacts by introducing ourselves and telling them that we come to share about Jesus Christ and how he can help us change our lives. Then we ask them if there is anything in their life that they would like to change. Almost every time they say they want to quit smoking. So then we share with them how God has commanded us not to smoke. After which we share 1 Nephi 3:7 and tell them that they have a promise from God that they can quit smoking because he has commanded them not to. Then we bare testimony of the atonement and the enabling power of it. Of course we don't say the same things every time or share the same scriptures every time, that was just an example, but when we follow the spirit and teach to their needs of wanting to change, the contacts always are super powerful and the people are always so much more willing to accept meeting with us. We have also tied this in with the new "Follow him and find new life" initiative and it all works and flows together wonderfully. In these contacts we also invite them to be baptized. To smokers and people with bad habits, a new fresh clean slate is something that sounds great to them and exactly what they need.  This I feel has been very effective because the people we are finding have a desire to change. And when they have that desire they will be more willing to keep commitments and really be converted and baptized. My faith has grown as I've felt the spirit testify to me as I testify to these people about the atonement and the redeeming and enabling power of it. I'm grateful for the hard times that I have gone through, as I feel it has helped me to be able to relate to these people more.

This week we have had some awesome miracles where Heavenly Father has given us new investigators. This week we had a goal of 2 new investigators. How we were going to find them we did not know. But as we strived to be more exactly obedient this week and do all we could, God has provided.

We were out contacting Monday night when we get a call from an man saying: "Can I come to the church right now?!" and we were like, "Of course!" He showed up about 5 minutes later and brought his whole family! We did not have this planned so we didn't have a member to come, but we quickly called up a member who lived near by and she came as quickly as she could and we got a surprise member present! The member helped to translate some things he couldn't really understand into Malay. It was a wonderful lesson and the man got emotional during it because he is so desperate for Gods help in his life. He and his family are new investigators.

We had this happen to us twice this week. Last night we were out word of wisdom contacting when a guy we've never met before calls us and tells us he's on the way to the church and wants to meet! Haha Elder Avery and I were so excited! We didn't know how we were going to get those 2 new investigators, but Heavenly Father provided. We taught him a powerful restoration and will be meeting him on Wednesday.

Thank you all for the love and support! Love you!


 
-Elder Schwemmer






I'm getting my two lil buddies ready for missions! :)



 


 
 
 




 

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