October 12, 2010

Dear Home,

 

I'm sorry that I wasn't able to Email ya'll yesterday. It's not that it was Canadian Thanksgiving, it was that we were having Zone Conference. Now, you may be wonderring why we would have Zone Conference on a P-Day rather than the normal time, it was probably because yesterday fit better with Elder Sybrowsky's schedule.

 

Yesterday, we had the privilige of learning from Elder Paul K. Sybrowsky, an Area Seventy, and at first, he made us (or at least me) pretty nervous. We started off the meeting by singing 'Called to Serve'. Just as we finished the first verse, Elder Sybrowsky stood up, interrupted the singing and told us that even though we were singing relatively well, we weren't singing with our hearts. So, he invited us to try again, books closed and standing, really putting our hearts into it. I felt the spirit so strongly the second time.

 

Next. he (in his own  words) "Torpedoed" the schedule by teaching out of turn and spending the first half of Zone Conference explaining what we could do to help more people get baptized. Basically, we're not really pooling our reasources. There are so many missionaries with so many missionary skills, many of which could be used to help people, but we're not taking full advantage of that. We're also not asking the members to help us enough. There are tons of Priesthood and Auxilary leaders who have a responsibility to help, and many other members who may not have callings, but are willing to help too. Then we have to consider the fact that we, as missionaries, aren't doing all we can to have the Spirit with us all the time, or to follow the Spirit as much as possible. We have SO many reasources and tools and helpers that could be involved in saving people's spiritual lives, but most of the time, we just try to do it all ourselves. Not a good plan. Especially since Preach My Gospel has a quote that says that the Spirit is the most important single element in this work, and that if we don't have the spirit, we will fail, regardless of our talents and abilities. A denifite call to repentance.

 

So, what's my point? One thing I learned from that Zone Conference is a little insight about how this church is supposed to work. Let's imagine that there's a HUGE, heavy boulder just lying around and that two people are trying to move it across a yellow line a mile away. On their own, this task is virtually impossible, but those two (or three) young men (or posibly young women) are valliant, and they do all that the two or three of them can do to move the rock. They might move it a few inches. They're not really any closer to achieving their goal, but at least thy're a little bit stronger now. They decide to ask for help. These two young men just happen to know a giant with amazing strength. They're sure that, if he wanted to, he could pick up the rock and throw it across the mile-away line. He says 'I'll help, but I'm not going to do it all myself. That would defeat the purpose.' So, they go at it again, and this time, the two or three have gotten stronger, and they have a giant pushing the boulder, too. The rock moves a few more inches, but that far-off, yellow line is still about a mile away. The would-be boulder-movers need more help. So, they go and talk to their friends. They have other boulder-movers give them new boulder-moving techniques. They have farmers and other locals help them push the rock, and, once again, they ask the giant to help them, too. Now, a small army of everyday people (with a lot of help from a certain giant) are managing to move the rock. The rock begins to roll, and as they all continue pushing and rolling their rock, it rolls right over the yellow line and keeps rolling.

 

What was gained from this? They got the rock over the line, but the Giant could've done that himself ages ago. The two origional boulder-movers learned a few things about how to move boulders, but they could've been learning and pushing for two years straight, and still not have gotten the boulder over the finish line, and those two young men would have been the only people (other than the rock) who would have learned anything, and, let's face it, we can't all be boulder-movers. Some of us are farmers or other locals. How would we benefit from the moving of a rock? The only way I can think of off the top of my head is for us to step up, get our hands dirty and help to move the rock. Everyone who pushed the rock got stronger (except the giant, but he was already as strong as he could be), so if you want a lot of people to become stronger, more helpful, happier people, you've got to get them all moving rocks. That's why Elder Kimball said "Every member a missionary." This is God's work, and it's our privilige as His full-time or part-time servants to give Him a hand. Many hands make light work.

 

And now I'm out of time, but before I go, I thought I'd let you know that I was the first of a very few missionaries that were chosen to have a special interview with Elder Sybrowsky after Zone Conference. I spent sbout 15 minutes one-on-one with a general authority, and he gave me some very good advice. =)

 

Much love, your boulder-moving missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

 

PS The stone cut without hands, to fill the earth, must grow. Who'll help to roll it on? Who's on the Lord's side, who?