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!

Caught a cold Friday - slowed me down a little as far as outside contacting is concerned.  Did get essential shopping in on Saturday and so gave a PAC to a sweet Asian sister at Sainsbury's.  Also decided to get a hair cut.  My Iranian barber was full of talk about movies I should see.  Hard to get a word in edgewise!  Gave a PAC at the cash end of the encounter inviting him to see a really good free movie available.  He accepted, looking quite confused at how his conversation re the latest two-a-night action movies had led to a religious topic.

However, tucked up in a blanket with laptop, I managed to interview by telephone a delightful newly baptised brother and the member sister who made the first contact with him by 'chance' in a park one Sunday afternoon and invited him to come and find out for himself.  The rest was history and he now is an assistant Ward Mission Leader!  The interview is for an article in a soon to come out member missionary newsletter for all Maidstone Stake members.  It is called 'Starfish' - at the moment.  Still deliberating on the title.  There is a non-random reason - so maybe it will stick.  When it is published I will provide a link here.  Your feedback will be really interesting to help it be fit for purpose to inspire, encourage and teach members to be comfortable with regularly and effectively inviting others to come and find out about the Lord's restored gospel.


I keep a list of all those who I hand a BoM to.  One is a sister who left my workplace but am in email contact.  Emailed her yesterday to see if she had 'turned the pages' yet - the phrase I used!  She replied to day to say she hadn't got around to it but would do soon.  I haven't decided how cheeky to be back to her yet in telling her to get on with it!

Also on Saturday I invited by email my gardener friend who I gave a BoM to a few weeks ago (who lives in Hastings) to come to Church in Hastings Ward this Sunday, as I am speaking there with Alex Smith RM.  Had a nice email reply today.  He has a commitment ironically (my hometown) in Bromley that same day.  He committed voluntarily to read the sections I had outlined for him, however, so we have a continuing dialogue going here.  I am hopeful of he being the one I might get baptised to make my goal of one baptism this year.


Have spent this evening reviewing Jean Hearne of Bracknell, Reading Stake DVD produced by President Lyle Shamo, Mission President of the England South London Mission.  Jean has what we all want  - a love of opening her mouth and inviting all she virtually contacts on a daily basis.  When we all want to be like this and get as good as her he good news will spread like wildfire in the South of England.  Can't wait!!  Come on you Englanders!!

My son-in-law James came over from Salt Lake City for a flying visit last weekend, so on Saturday we went out for a meal and then on to a classical music concert in Bromley.

We went to an Italian restaurant first and enjoyed a great pizza and salad each. We were rushing to get to the concert and asked for the bill,  paid and left.  We had spoken in a friendly manner to the waitress who had served us during the meal and it was she who had brought the bill and gave some change. As we were leaving I realised I had not offered a PAC to her.  I went back and offered her a card and told her about how special the Church was and that if she was interested she could find out about it at the www.mormon.org url.  She took the card and said thank you, and I left her studying the card with some interest.  It felt good to have gone back and given the PAC to her.

Yesterday evening was very pleasant.  With my son-in-law Dan we walked to the United Reform Church in Oxted, Surrey, and Baroness Shirley Williams gave a 45 minute talk to an audience of 200 on the history of wars since Greek times, through Medieval war methodology, to the mercenary armies of the 17th and 18th century European wars including the Napoleonic wars.  She made much of the Victorian/Edwardian obsession with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round table which was part of the embedded ideology of the middle and upper classes of that era preceding the 1st World War.  That war changed completely the public's view of war - reversing any attempts to glorify it because of the horrors on such a scale that all members of the public had experienced directly.  She went on to discuss the 2nd WW, the Falklands war, Kosova, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Zimbabwe and other situations underpinned by philosophic and pragmatic principles that may be used to help consider if a war is just or not.  Interesting questions followed which she dealt with eloquently and wisely reflecting the wisdom and knowledge of her age of 81 and a lifetime of service in local, national and international politics.

Having bought her autobiography during the interval, I had the opportunity at the book-signing session following to meet and offer to her The Book of Mormon.  I briefly introduced it in the form of the question that as a scholar she may not have had the opportunity to study the perspective of just and unjust war using this source of historical and spiritual account of a 1000 year span Jewish society set in the Americas circa 600BC-400AD. Baroness Williams accepted the book and graciously expressed interested in that it offered to her a new source for study in her field.  Her Christian faith had come out as a part of her identity in the lecture.  I am anticipative of how this special book form a loving Father to His children will impact upon this highly intelligent, compassionate, service-oriented faithful sister.  Baroness Williams said that she would not be able to get to it until Christmas due to a heavy reading load already .  Our prayers to help her prioritise this wold not go amiss.  Were she to study the contents and follow Alma's 'experiment with the words of the Lord as if they were true' method, and also apply Moroni's promise to pray that the Holy Ghost might witness the truthflness of all things comnnected with Christ and God then the Lord's Church in Britain and the world would have a significant influence and friend in the highest courts of power across the globe.

A day of internal decoration today - where will today's gospel inviting and sharing opportunities come? :-)