Members

My mind is hitting a brick wall in terms of what even happened this
week, so I'll keep this email short.

One thing that has really hit me during my time in Tiergarten is just
how important members are in regards to missionary work. Effectively
finding and teaching investigators, helping them feel well at church,
progress toward baptism and remain active relies very heavily on us
working well together with the members. I've noticed that because the
main reason that every less active member here has given for not
coming to church is that they don't feel welcome in the ward. Sadly
that's happened with a couple investigators as well and it was kind of
sad at institute when we brought a new investigator there and the only
one that really talked to him was the other investigator that we
invited. That being said it's not like the responsibility belongs to
the members to take care of everything, it's just occurred to me that
it's essentially impossible to be an effective missionary without
involving the members, because even then if we do baptize someone the
chances are quite high of them going inactive. Also in terms of
post-mission life I really hope to remember the influence I still can
have as a missionary even if I'm not doing it full-time. Anywho, that
rant is basically all I've got for you this week 😊

Love you, have a great week!

Elder Larsen