Transfer 1 - 2009 - Zone Conferences

This week we had Zone Conferences and they were great! The missionaries were so ready to learn and we had a terrific time being with them. I did my laundry training and Greg trained on teaching correct doctrine. (we have heard some really crazy stuff that just gets sensationalized and perpetuated as each missionary generation hears it from their companions.)

We are now working on a project to help the missionaries study more effectively. By taking each doctrine separately (from Preach My Gospel), such as: Apostasy. Then having a simple 1 sentence statement explaining it. Next are a list of scriptures that talk about it and then a paragraph or so expounding on that. Once they have a page for each doctrine they will teach in their "study journal", they can pull from that and copy it onto a 4x6 card for each lesson. After the lesson, they toss the cards.

By doing this they have the CORRECT doctrines to teach. As they make up new cards each time it gives them an opportunity to refresh their understanding and repetition will help them remember. Writing it more than once helps the kinesthetic learners, seeing it helps the visual learners, and hearing it in their planning and while giving the lesson helps the audio learners. We have many missionaries with learning disabilities, ADD and just poor study habits. But they genuinely want to be good missionaries. We hope that this will be a tool that will help them as we teach them that having learning disabilities is not an excuse to not study, but is instead the reason we have to find additional learning tools.

Greg and Chrissy were discussing what the missionaries listen to in the car. It is usually music, their selection is meager and they complain about getting tired of it. Chrissy said that she listens to Truman G. Madsen. The doctrines on those are a little advanced for investigators and if the missionaries listened to that, they would be inclined to teach it. (can't have meat before milk)

So the idea came to us, what if they had Preach My Gospel on CD? We contacted Brother Watson in the missionary department (he came and did some training last Feb and we get to have him come again in March- just love him!!!) He said no one had ever asked for that before. So Friday he copied it from his MP3 onto a CD and mailed it to us to make however many copies we need! We figure the missionaries can make better use of their time in the car, because we know that whatever we are listening to as we drive, we have a dialog going on about it, and thus a learning experience. Keep us in your prayers as we implement this.