Peace, Love, and Member Involvement

Family, Friends, Romans, Countrymen—Lend me your ears!

How’s it goin’, y’all? Dug-gum darn tootin’ soundin’ like a good time! This good ol’ week was a tipsy turvy one! Lots o’ them crazy happenin’s and all. Ya know what I’m sayin’?
This last week was a grand doozie of a week. It was crazy! Basically, all of our investigators dropped us and Satan was working hardcore, trying to get us frustrated with everything. It also rained all day Wednesday, so that kind of hindered our plans for the day. BUT it’s okay, because we have Jesus! And He makes everything okay (or at least helps us through it all!) :)

This week’s District Meeting was GREAT! We had the Zone Leaders there and they gave us a training on member involvement. They came up with the REAP Method.

R-Real Play
E-Evaluate
A-Ask
P-Pick a Date

The first step is Real Play with the members. It’s like role playing, but they member pretends to be a friend they know. As we teach them and they act as their friend, the Spirit guides us as we teach and also reveals things to the member who is acting. Basically, everyone receives revelation and then the member knows what’s REALLY going on in the friends mind and how to best approach their friend about the gospel.

After that we Evaluate. We ask the member how they felt as their friend, what thoughts were going through their heads. We basically talk about the experience and figure out what’s going on in their friend’s spiritual life and how we can help them.

Then we Ask, which basically entails, “Will you invite (friend) to your house to hear the lessons?”
Finally, we Pick a Date. We’ll find out the member’s usual schedule and ask the member, “Will you invite them to come over two weeks from today?” Then we follow-up and see how everything’s going. Then we have a member referral being taught in a member’s home!
We just started, but so far the member’s we’ve done it with have become excited about missionary work. And we don’t even really talk about missionary work that much! They’ll say stuff like, “That’s it! THAT is what I need to talk to him about!” Member involvement and member referrals are basically the “make or break” thing for us here, so it’s going to be nice to have things get kickin’ again!

So that’s the big news for this week, I guess! I know the trials we went through have made us stronger through Christ, so it’s onward ever onward! Jesus is the Christ! The Book of Mormon is the most important book on the earth! The Atonement is the most important thing that ever happened for mankind! Study the Atonement through the Book of Mormon and just see how much better you feel! :)

I love all of you and I hope all of your lives are going well. Don’t let the media/world blind you to what life is REALLY all about! Have a great week! Love ya!

Love,
Elder Woolley

P.S. I can totally do a lay-up more than once-in-a-blue moon now. The Donakeys would be proud of me ;)

p.p.s.
Elder Jackson and I found an old Huffy in a ditch, so I brought it home to fix it up! I spent most of last P-day on it. Chaos insued :)

Me on the Huffy before I repaired it or anything. I'm putting on my best Ron Weasley face I can.

Enter the Woolley Big Wheel! I took parts off of Elder Jackson's old bike and created a monster. It's pretty fun to ride around, even if my knees are up to my chest when I pedal! Aaaaawwwww yyeeeeaaahhh!