Contagious spirit of sharing the gospel, just telling others of experiences

Tonight I gave a ride home to a fellow ward member, and we were talking about the little sleep we both received the night before.  I explained that I had dropped a friend off late at South Station and then awoke to review my prepared plans for today's ward missionary correlation meeting.  We began talking about the calling of being a ward missionary.

I shared that being an example in member missionary work is my first major ward missionary responsibility, but that I've felt I had much to learn and improve on in how to be a more effective member missionary--especially in finding people for the missionaries to teach. (It's kind of a scary and daunting task).  Recently though I've learned a lot from Brother Christensen's teachings.  One that brings me a lot of relief is that we don't need to perform extensive preparation before inviting someone to the gospel.  I've commonly waited for 'just the right moment' and with the thought of gradually introducing friends to my beliefs (not wanting to impose myself).  I had managed to introduce a few of my friends to the missionaries before moving to Boston, but it was not always very easy nor natural.  I feel such a relief realizing how simple and genuine it is to simply invite someone to learn more whenever a door is opened.

I bore testimony that I've determined to seek after the Lord's trust that I'll invite people, and that since then I've been amazed at how many people I've been able to have meaningful gospel conversations.  For example, when on Monday people asked about my weekend, I told them how I spent quite some time working on a church service committee.  Many were quite interested to hear more, which was an opportunity to leave an appropriate invitation for the given conversation.  I can't say I extended an invitation at all or even half of the conversations, but I did extend one invitation appropriate for the conversation.  Throughout the week I extended another couple of invitations.  I love what Sister Beck said, "The Lord loves beginners and he helps them get better." 

After conversing a while, this friend said, "I believe you that it's possible [to do member missionary work], I just don't know how."  I asked if I could give this member a copy of Brother Christensen's article, which was a well received invitation in and of itself.  I was impressed how by sharing my experience and testimony, it helped fuel the fire of another member.

By sharing with others our experiences and lessons learned, great enthusiasm will spread throughout the ward to engage in meaningful conversations and find people for the missionaries to teach.  I've now seen this to be true.