Yesterday a pleasant trip to Bristol by train from Bromley to see two old teacher teacher training friends, Dave and Rob resulted in a PAC being given to the WH Smith shop assistant at Paddington who when I told him this was a special church of Jesus and he needs to check it out was appreciative.

My friends and I met for lunch in the Marriott Royale lounge in Bristol.  They know all about my faith and I had sent Dave a BoM three weeks ago, wfor which he thanked me.

The purpose of the trip was to get to know each other better and to catch up on our lives which for each of us had had some severe traumas which we learnt about for the first time.  After the meal we strolled around Bristol docks and continued discussion including the Word of Wisdom.  Dave is a vegetarian and has been for some decades.  I was able to explain the code of eating meeat sparingly.  Today I am emailing him an educational document and a link to D&C 89 for his interest.  http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/89?lang=eng

Today is Saturday - another week almost over and the usual weekly shop and chores to do.

First a stop off at the Bank to get a password reset.  I arrange a meeting with a young man who is an assistant manager, and we meet in his partitioned office area.  All goes well and a friendly relationship is struck up.  One of the questions in the password protocol is to put a favourite city name - 'Salt Lake City' I enter this and he sees.  Also a memorable name - 'Mormon', I decide, and enter this too.  These parts he sees, but other parts like the password are completely confidential to me. The business is soon concluded and he gives me a business card.  I get up to leave and remember myself as I store the card away in my wallet, get out a PAC and say,  'Well ,you probably guessed I am a Mormon!  let me give this card to you to help you find out more about this wonderful church that the Lord has reorganized on the Earth for a special purpose, that is not long in coming." "Thanks,"  says he, "that is interesting," and he accepts the PAC.

Later at the self-checkout of the supermarket, the young male attendant gives me my car park pass and I say to him with a PAC in my hand, " I may already have given you one of these.  Did I?"  "Yes," he says, "you did, but I really would like to follow this up further - thanks for the reminder."  I will see him next week hopefully.

It's been a while since my last post - just been really busy with a lot of things going on.  Have managed to continue sharing the gospel one way or another, however.  e.g. Saturday did some shopping and handed over  a Pass Along Card to the the Marks and Spencer's cashier, the Sainsbury's self-checkout supervisor who seemed particularly glad for being handed a card with Jesus' picture on it - and other point-of-sale people.  This is just a habit now.  I always check my wallet is stuffed with PACs.  Again I seem to be running out of PACs at home and need to order some packs at http://store.lds.org.

Last year a friend of mine from teacher training college days published a book of classic photographs documenting those years and I met up with him to celebrate his achievement.  It has been on my mind for some time now to send him a Book of Mormon.  This I did last week with a letter about it.  I hope to visit him in a couple of weeks in Somerset during a planned break - also to do some family history research at Gloucester Count Records Office.

There is no doubt that the Lord wishes the people of the Maidstone Stake to open their mouths better and more.  2012 promises to be an interesting year for transforming the members and for the outcomes of more invitations taking place in the area.  Watch this space!

Yesterday in Orpington during Priesthood General Session, I challenged myself and invited all present to invite all our next door neighbours to come to church with us on Christmas Day.  This will be interesting for me personally - I get on fine with my neighbours so a simple "Would you like to come along to my Church for an hour for a Christmas morning service' will not be a problem - as long as I go knock on their door this week to give them time to consider and plan for it. Well one of them, a sweet friend is a very active Catholic, so that one will be a bit trickier - but you never know! I know that many of my brethren at Orpington will invite their neighbours. Always, there is never any harm in asking and inviting.  Only good can be the outcome.

Today I received an email reply from the family I invited to Church this Sunday at Welling.  They are also involved as leaders in their own 'chapter', a branch of their church, and so are unavailable.  The reply gave a strong indication of wishing to come when things have quietened down after Christians.  I am confident that they will honour this interest that has been expressed by them several times to find out more.

I await a delivery from store.lds.org of another batch of hardback Book of Mormon copies.   I also ordered a variety of PACs and some DVDs to have ready to give.  store.lds.org does take a while - like 4 weeks + sometimes to get the order to your door. (I am wondering why.) So, anyway, ordering well in advance seems the prudent course.  I have one friend from Teacher training college days to whom I wish to send him a book, ideally for Christmas, but no matter if they arrive late, I'll send one anyway.  The special reason is that in 2011 he published a book of photographs of our college days in which I feature and also wrote a reminiscence.  So I figure one good book deserves an even better one!

Yesterday I gave the 10 'Joy to the World' PACs to the Elders in Orpington Ward to use.  So I have run out.  This evening I went with Church friends for a meal at a local restaurant and have just arrived home and here I am.  As I have been writing I realise that the waitress who served us did not get a PAC from me!!  I can hardly understand how this happened - particularly as I would liked to have shown how easy and fun it is to give a PAC in this situation.  The reason I now know is that my wallet was empty of PACs! - and so I did not have the usual prompt ready at the point of sale!  The wallet is now stuffed with other PACs at the ready for the rest of the week!

I feel strongly that 2012 is going to be an important year for members of the Maidstone Stake.  Many are very hearty in loving others already and becoming active in almost daily inviting and certainly praying daily for opportunities to speak with and invite others will simply enlarge their already beautiful characters in a way that will forge them to become more like our Elder brother and Redeemer and our Heavenly Father.  Surely as more invitations occur and we all become more comfortable and skillful at saying and doing the things the Holy Spirit guides us to do there can only be more coming to the waters of baptism, and the road to the Temple as a result.  It will be unstoppable - rather like a river bursting its banks, the latter-days Saints breaking forth from their old bounds to enlarge the pool of Saints in the Maidstone Stake!

Become a Follower and contributor

This is to invite you to click on the Followers 'Join this site' button (to the right).

Also to ask you to write a comment to give some feedback - even if it is very brief.  It is very helpful to hear from you.  This blog can be your place where you tell us about your experience! This will encourage and teach us! Note that, only LDS members are circulated re this blog.

The purpose of this blog is to encourage and support members of the Maidstone Stake become better at and  comfortable about inviting others to find out more about the wonderful Lord's restored gospel and priesthood.

The Lord has asked us through his steward Elder Kopischke (Area President) to invite.  This is not a goal to invite once a year - maybe!  This request to us is to invite all the time. 

I know that this takes time and persistence to achieve for each of us individually, but I can promise that as you take this invitation to invite seriously you will grow yourself beyond recognition over the coming months so that this time next year you will be comfortable in many situations simply inviting people to come and discover the Lord's true church - it will really become that easy!

We are taught to pray daily for a gospel sharing opportunity.  Doing this sets our heart and desires right.  With the pass along cards approaching people we come across daily is much easier than ever before.  But we still can give Books of Mormon and follow up. We can invite people to come to church to try it out for themselves.  We can invite people to be taught by the missionaries in their or our homes or at the chapel.  We can also set ourselves and our family a goal to bring a certain number of people into the church within a set time period.  We can do all these things and more if we choose to.

Let's be real disciples of the Lord and follow his invitation to invite others as a normal way of being a member of His church.

Please do share this blog with those you know and invite them to become followers and contributors also.

Thanks

Terry

Had a new PAC experience yesterday.  I was in Bromley High Sttreet and a Christian was handing out leaflets by the side of a display.  I smiled and said" I'll take yours if you take mine", and handed him the 'Joy to the World' PAC.  We soon got into conversation where I was able to testify that Christ is at the heart of our faith and that all are dependent on the Atonement for salvation. 
Chris was of the belief that all are saved completely with no distinction between rebellious and grave sinners compared to those who strive to live all the commandments of God. We discussed this a little further and the inconsistency of his own position became evident as he realised there was a law of justice that God was also subject to as free agency choices brings about particular consequences beyond resurrection.. 
In the end after 25 minutes of friendly discussion which included the need for a restoration and the authenticity of the Book of Mormon as a needed set of scriptures to provide a fullness of the gospel, Chris gave me his email address and an anti LDS pamphlet!  I could see that he was also realising that the stock position of his organisation re 'Mormons' was challenged because of what I was able to tell him. It probably will not go so far - but you never know, so I will be corresponding with him.  I will invite him along to a church meeting for sure!  Again it has been a pleasure to speak to various sales people as I give them the nativity 'Joy to the World' PAC.  I hope that other members are doing this too.

I invited to church next week at Welling, by email, the family renting a flat from me.  I await their reply.

These 'Joy to the World' Pass Along Cards are a joy to give away.  After finshing business at a shop I say " And hers is something special for you this Christmas.  Send off for this free, beautidful DVD of the Christmas story of Jesus' birth.  It's a wonderful version by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Would you like one of these for your family?"  In every case they say yes.  I gave three away within 30 minutes at lunchtime today in Welling.  One to the lady I have already given a Book of Mormon to.  She had the BoM in her shop.  I was also able to to ask her to read it - especailly 3 Nephi 9+.  At the Post Office after sending off my SA Christmas parcels the young girl was clearly touched by the offer.  At the B&Q checkout the sales lady was appreciative of being able to show a DVD of Christ's birth story in her home.  These have been some of the lovliest exchanges with PACs to date - the Spirit of Christmas is around us.

Let's invite people to church this month!