Mission Blog: Palermo Specialized Training

September 3, 2015

Palermo Zone - September 2015

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The Zone Leaders taught that being an effective missionary is like making a bed. We have to think about what we are doing and do it in an organized manner. We can make the bed by just throwing the covers over it so it still looks messy or we can tuck in the corners and smooth out the wrinkles. It's the small and simple things that make a difference.

Why do we want to do the bad simple things when they can mess up eternal salvation?

Results are not immediate. Michelangelo's statue of David took a long time to make. Much skill was required before ever undertaking the task. In the end, the results are amazing, the statue has lasted for centuries, and people still flock to see it.

Inconvenient. Some times it just isn't convenient to do the little things that make a big difference. Some times the solution is so simple, it doesn't seem like it can have the desired results. Some times we have to repeat the process more than once.

2 Kings 5:10-14

And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times,

and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought,

He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God,

and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?

may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father,

if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?

how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean.

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan,

according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again

like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Seeking after the praises of man instead of God.

D&C 3:6-8

And behold, how oft you have transgressed the commandments and the laws

of God, and have gone on in the persuasions of men.

For, behold, you should not have feared man more than God.

Although men set at naught the counsels of God, and despise his words—

Yet you should have been faithful; and he would have extended his arm and

supported you against all the fiery darts of the adversary; and he would have been

with you in every time of trouble.

In one of his talks, President Uchtdorf told a story about an airplane that was just a few degrees off course. They never corrected the error and after a while they were so far off course that they crashed into a mountain and there were no survivors.

We need to change the small things before they become big things.

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The Sister Training Leader told how good weapons make good warriors. Good weapons are powerful, sharp, can be used without tiring, and stealthy. Good weapons can be used for both offense and defense, but are not good if you don't know how to use them.

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,

piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,

and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Helaman 3:29-30

Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God,

which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning

and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of

Christ in a strait and narrow course across that

everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—

And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the

kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob,

and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.

God has already prepared spiritual weapons to be used in missionary work. The scriptures are the silver bullets and the prophets maintain the weapons.

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President Waddoups taught about the importance of fearing not.

“Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared

and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.”

– David Ben-Gurion

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