9/1/14 Street display locale and advantages of being a district leader

Mark Standring <mark.standring@myldsmail.net>	9/1/14

​Thanks so much for the pictures! That kitchen ceiling looks great! I approve! Also, I NEVER seen Luke so big, I didn't reconize him at all! haha

we did a street display, here is where we did it

email to dad:

ya, I've really been trying to stay with that, being sincere or aufrechtig, expecially with the way I interact with others in a finding situation. I've thought about that a lot in the last month, especially two weeks ago during my split with that zone leader. He is always having a conversation with somebody, and so I probed his mind a little bit to see what puts him in that attitude to want to talk to people so much. I can tell you, my attitude and his are a lot different, but it helped me to understand why declaring repentance is so important. In his mind, he needs to prove to people that they're wrong, because they think they can find happiness in sinning, and in many cases he can, he wants to be a lawyer and is very good at creating a sensible arguement. At the zone conference I also heard of  a couple missionaries who go out on the streets because they want to feel the spirit guide them, or they want to learn. Those are both interesting, and I think maybe I could benefit from those mindsets. However, something that really helps me be motivated to "find" is talking to people about family. I know that the gospel strengthens families, and I know that strong, stable families produce strong, stable human beings, and "happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ."

There was another street display here on Saturday, just a small one, but the whole district was there, and that's what I practiced doing the whole time, because I know contacting people on the street is something I won't get right the first time, but I'm willing to put in the work so that eventually I can, and it will be worth it. Something I learned from that is people, although initially guarded when asked about their family, really really care about their families, and will even talk about their family most of the time, but if I only talk to them about their family and how families can be together forever, the message doesn't have as much power behind it as I want. Some people of other faiths even believe already that they can see their family in "the next life"... So, I've decided I need to be more thoughtful about bringing the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in connection with families and how that blesses our families. There's a section I've studied about that in Preach My Gospel... but I think I'll understand better how to have power behind the message as I do it more. Talking about families and then figuring out how to naturally introduce the Book of Mormon, perhaps as a way to strengthen families. I didn't do that as much at the street display, because I thought that would alienate them too fast, by talking to them about "another Bible", as they sometimes perceive it, which they know nothing about. Whereas people typically know loads and loads about the topic of family. But, as said earlier, that's what I've decided to work on.

Speaking of experience for being a future father, husband, and leader, I don't think I told you about this before, but I kind of set up a deal with Heavenly Father, or rather more of a thought, that I've prayed about several times. I think it originally developed when I first became a distrct leader in the field (after being district leader in the MTC) and saw a little bit of what it is the zone leaders do. I observed that zone leaders do a lot of large-scale-ish planning and administrating, and don't always know the missionaries in the districts very well (and of course there are exceptions), and because of that I kind of decided that I didn't want to be a zone leader so much as being a district leader, that I wouldn't enjoy it so much because as a district leader, you do know the missionaries, because you personally run splits with all of them and see them at district meetings (and of course a bad missionary can hide stuff from his district leader too), but I decided also that it would prepare me a lot better to be a father being a district leader, so I told Him that if He ever wants me to be a zone leader, I'll gladly do it, but I'd prefer to be a district leader, because a district is more like a family, in my eyes. It talks about being a father, husband, and leader in my patriarchal blessing too.

~Elder Standring