With the Spirit beside us we can become dramatically better teachers.
President Brubaker talked to the missionaries about the very critical importance of 9:00 planning. Each day has a certain number of appointments and a certain number of hours contacting, of meals, of lessons and well, of a lot of things.
We are about to make a cultural migration in our mission. The scriptures are replete with examples of migrations such as Abraham, Nehemiah and Moses. One great example is found in the first chapters of the Book of Mormon, which speak about the great migration of Lehi and his family to the new world. The Lord knew that to preserve Lehi’s life, his family needed to make a change. It wasn’t always smooth sailing (so to speak) for them, but they founded an important culture in the Americas. This culture yielded up a most convincing record of God’s dealings with His prophets and a powerful witness of Jesus Christ and his mission. 
Over the next few weeks, we too will be leaving a beloved place behind. We will be moving to a way to increase our finding, teaching and baptizing; we will move from ‘consecrated hours’ to ‘Consecrated Days’. To do this we will be taking better advantage of technology and careful planning to fill our days with meaningful activity.
“Organize yourselves, prepare every needful thing, and establish an area, even an area of order (DC 109:8, with some liberties).
There will be a simple, but extensive change in the way we missionaries work on a daily basis. As a mission, we will be organizing our area books and using them together with ‘LDS tools’ and electronic ward lists to create accurate maps of people’s residences in order to create benefits and increase our efficiency. This will take a few weeks to become fully operational but it is an exciting new way to organize our efforts 
Missionaries will now always have a specific place to go—a person to look for. We will focus on people not streets. It will make planning easier and enable us, as missionaries to “work smart.” A consecrated day starts with a good 9:00 planning session the night before. In our Daily Plans, the goal is to have prayerfully considered, and have a name written down to visit for every hour that we are not teaching.
Executing a Consecrated Day is a three-part process. (a) Find the address (hopefully someone is home), (b) 2-2-5. Then knock at least the two doors on each side and five across the street or across the hall (c) the third part and critical part of the plan is to be “fearless” in contacting people you meet on the street or the bus/tram as you travel to and from the address.
Missionaries will never have to open their Daily Planners and find empty pages again. It makes it much easier to implement the directives found in Preach My Gospel. It will revolutionize our approach to planning and finding.
We have confidence that you will enjoy this way of working. It will provide more structure and help us exercise faith that Heavenly Father will put the right people in our path.
As we embark on the migration to Consecrated Days, may we follow the example of Lehi’s obedience in 1Nephi chapter 2…
2 And it came to pass that the Lord acommanded my father… that he should ctake his family and depart into the wilderness.
3 And it came to pass that he was aobedient unto the word of the Lord, wherefore he did as the Lord commanded him.
As we do this with hope and excitement we will be blessed as Nephi was told later in the same chapter…
20 And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you.
After prayer and consideration of Consecrated Days, I feel to ask a blessing for you… as you contact each hour of each day, while travelling to and from the neighborhoods of people whose names were chosen though inspiration, you will prosper, and be led to promising investigators; yes, even investigators that God is preparing for you.
President Brubaker
Sister Rich is loving training and serving with Sister Schwab in Dordrecht. Sister Gardener and Sister Jones love serving together in Gouda!
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