Doubling Convert Baptisms, Retention, and Reactivation

The Late Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Gordon B. Hinkley challenged the LDS people to double the number of convert baptisms and improve upon our retention of those who have been newly baptized into the church. This past year, our ward and mission as well as neighboring missions have worked to apply the principles President Hinkley gave several years ago and have successfully doubled our convert baptisms as well as increased retention. Here is what we are doing.

First, our bishop has doubled and tripled the number of ward missionaries. Since every member needs a calling, there should be plenty of members who could assist the missionaries. Next, our ward mission leader conducts a missionary meeting twice-a-week. The first meeting, usually held after church on Sunday, the full-time Elders together with the ward missionaries discuss splits/exchanges/teamups, and assign home teachers or ward missionaries to teach new member discussions. After an individual has been baptized into the LDS church, there is still alot to be learned. However, the responsibility of new member discussions has been given to ward missionaries and home teachers which helps the new member form permanent and lasting relationships with members in the congregation and weans them from their temporary relationship with the Elders.

The second missionary meeting is held 30 minutes before youth night activities. In this meeting, the missionaries and a representative from each axillary meet to discuss all the families and individuals that the missionaries are working with. Since, leadership are generally at the church on youth night anyways, this meeting is not difficult for them to attend. With the auxiliaries present as well as a member of the bishopric, home and visiting teaching is assigned, fellowshipping is arranged, rides to church are organized, and new member discussions are planned. This second meeting with leadership from the Relief Society, Elders Quorum, Young Men, Young Women, High Priests, and Primary is amazingly productive. These meetings really help coordinate the ward in taking care of the needs of the families and individuals that the missionaries are working with. At the same time, the leadership can request that the missionaries help them in visiting and assessing the needs of members who may not be actively attending and participating in church.

Just as Pres. Hinkley encouraged, the result of these missionary meetings together with the coordination of priesthood auxiliaries has been a doubling of convert baptisms and an increase in retention and reactivation. These result have been seen throughout our mission and also in neighboring missions in the South East Area

Missionary Letter

Dear Sis. Brosnahan,

I was out with the missionaries this morning driving them around
before work. It was tough to find people awake before noon. I know I
wouldn't be up. There is one lady we visited who was baptized baptist
last year and is interested in the missionaries message about the gift
of the Holy Ghost. She feels obligated to her church because they
helped her out financially and she really feels she has found an oasis
of solace after having gone through the dessert. Many Born-again
Christians really feel this way.

I likened her experience to Nephi in the Book of Mormon. After having
traveled through the dessert and suffered starvation and fatigue they
finally arrived at the land Bountiful. This land on the sea shore was
flowing with milk and honey. I can understand why when God commanded
Nephi to build a ship and cross the ocean, many did not want to leave
Bountiful after what they had just been through. But Bountiful was a
stepping stone on the way to the Promised Land, and after traveling
trough an arid Arabian Dessert, God was still asking them to cross the
expansive ocean before arriving at an even better place.

After talking with this sister, we spoke to a great young couple. The
brother is training in the millitary for a few months. We showed them
the Restoration DVD. The wife really asked some great insightful
questions. She asked if the Joseph in the Bible was related to Joseph
Smith. i said they are different Joseph's but they are connected in
an interesting way.

Joseph in the Bible is one of 12 brothers and sons of Jacob (Israel).
Joseph's older brothers Ruben, Simeon, and Judah lost out on the
birthright because of some mistakes they made. So, the birthright
went to Joseph a younger brother instead of some of the older
brothers. Because of jealously, the older brothers sold Joseph into
slavery into Egypt and told their father Jacob Joseph had been eaten
alive by wild animals. Later, a great drought and famine came and the
family of Jacob and the 11 sons were starving and went to Egypt to
find food. Well it turned out that Joseph recognized his family and
served to save his family from the famine.

In a way, this story in the OT is an allegory that teaches us
something that will happen in the Last Days. Just as the Joseph in
the OT saved his family from the drought and famine then. The OT
foretells in Amos about a future famine, not of bread or of water, but
a spiritual famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Today, we like
the 11 brothers can turn to a modern Joseph Smith to help us escape
this modern spiritual famine.

I hope everything is going well for you. Our ward has a missionary
meeting twice a week on youth night and after church on Sunday which
the ward missionaries attend and arrange splits and new member
discussions. Furthermore, on youth night before scouts and YM/YW,
a representative from all the auxiliaries attends. During this meeting the
missionaries review all their investigators and we plan splits, fellowshipping,
phone calls, and rides to church for each investigator. These meeting have
resulted in a doubling of our baptisms.

Sincerely,
David B.

The Spirit of Elijah

"The dead will be after you, they will seek after you as they have after us in St. George [temple]. They called upon us, knowing that we held the keys and power to redeem them. I will here say before closing, that two weeks before I left St. George, the spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 19, p. 229, Wilford Woodruff)."

Someone questioned the following quote from Wilford Woodruff who was the 4th Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This person was concerned that this quote advocated the forbidden practice of spiritism or divination. First off, this question is a reflection of an unfortunate misunderstanding of the quote. Pres. Woodruff is not speaking of the living seeking to communicate with the dead, but the dead trying to inspire the living.

Let me be clear from the start that the LDS Church strictly forbids its members from praying to anyone other than Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ or from practicing any type of spiritism or seeking communication from anyone who has died. Any practices of this sort invites evil spirits who will deceive you.

Instead, the spirit that Pres. Woodruff is speaking of is the spirit of Genealogy and Family History work that so many feel to do. This spirit is referred to as the Spirit of Elijah. After completing the temple in St. George Utah, Pres. Woodruff recounts that he was unexpectedly visited by a host of spirits including the Founding Fathers and many great men of the Protestant Reformation. They wanted to know why the LDS church had forgotten them and had not provided them a baptism by vicarious proxy in the restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They had faithfully completed the work God has given them to do which made the restoration of the church possible. In response, Pres. Woodruff immediately provided these ordinances for these great pioneers of freedom.

I and many other LDS and non-LDS have been prompted to do genealogy and family history work. Not in the same way as Pres. Woodruff. But the unseen motivation to seek out our dead ancestors is real. This desire to do Genealogy work which is the spirit of Elijah is why so many people are interested in family history research. This spirit is in fulfillment of the prophecy in Malachi which says in the Last Days Elijah will appear and hearts of the fathers will turn to the children and the hearts of the children turn to their fathers.

Mal 4:6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Luke 1:7 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Luke 1:17 is speaking of the mission of John the Baptist to baptize the living before the first coming of Christ while Mal 4:6 is speaking of Elijah himself coming before the great and dreadful day of the Lord to restore the keys of baptism for the dead before the Second Coming of Christ. Elijah appeared to Joseph Smith and restored the keys of this work in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836. So, John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah to baptize the living before the First Coming of Jesus Christ and Elijah himself came to baptize the dead before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Since names may be required to resurrect people and call them out of the Earth, it would be useful to do all the genealogy work so that the righteous can be resurrected during the Millennium. Christ could do it all himself. But that is not how he operates. He allows man to participate in this work just like He allows man to participate in the building up of His kingdom on Earth and in doing missionary work.

The 7 Seals of Revelation

Joseph Smith was told by God that the 7 seals are 7 1000-year periods of the earth history. The 7 Seals make mention of the emergence of disease and earthquakes. It is likely disease and earthquakes had always existed, but the the devastation is a result of how these natural occurrences are magnified due to man's changing living conditions.

D&C 77: 6-7, 12
6 Q. What are we to understand by the book which John saw, which was sealed on the back with seven seals?
A. We are to understand that it contains the revealed will, mysteries, and the works of God; the hidden things of his economy concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence.

7 Q. What are we to understand by the seven seals with which it was sealed?
A. We are to understand that the first seal contains the things of the first thousand years, and the csecond also of the second thousand years, and so on until the seventh.

12 Q. What are we to understand by the sounding of the trumpets, mentioned in the 8th chapter of Revelation?
A. We are to understand that as God made the world in six days, and on the seventh day he finished his work, and sanctified it, and also formed man out of the dust of the earth, even so, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years will the Lord God sanctify the earth, and complete the salvation of man, a. . . . and the sounding of the trumpets of the seven angels are the preparing and finishing of his work, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years—the preparing of the way before the time of his coming.

Seal 1 4000-3000bc: men divide up the land
Seal 2 3000-2000bc: men fight over boarders, before seal 1 you didnt have much war because if you wanted some land it was easier to just move and find some then to kill over it.
Seal 3 2000-1000bc: Phoenecians invent money
Seal 4 1000-0: money allows people to live in cities. Living in cramped cities then diseases and plagues became a big issue.
Seal 5 0-1000ad: Christ is crucified and Christians are martyred.
Seal 6 1000-2000ad: sun,moon, stars darkened describes the Apostasy. Apostasy describes the time when all spiritual light from heaven is rejected for the ideas and interpretations of man. Not one stone is left upon another of the temple (church) of Christ. This led the world in the DARK AGES.

Earthquakes terrorize the people because this is the century when the Romans invented concrete and cement. Consequently many cities were built with unreinforced concrete and the same type of thing we saw happen in Haiti happened in many other cities.

Regional Earthquakes and Tsunamis are signs of the time. They only affect small regions but give us a glimpse of what a world-wide catastrophe during the tribulation could do. If what happened to Haiti happened everywhere, Haiti would not receive any help because everyone would be needing help at the same time. That is why Rev says after the first trumpet will burn 1/3 trees (richer people) but burn all the green grass (poorer people). Dying in the tribulation doesn't mean you are righteous or wicked.

Another angel appears with the seal of God describing the restoration of the everlasting gospel and the elect receive the sealing in the forehead. This restoration describes the Restoration by Joseph Smith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Restoration of the New Testament Temple and Everlasting Temple Covenant.

Seal 7 2000-3000ad:
This seal opens with a 1/2 hour of silence. this 1/2 hour could be 21 years and is not likely going to end in 2012.
The 7 Trumpets sound signaling the Tribulation
The Beast (false gov) turns against and devours the Harlot (false religion)
The righteous come out of the tribulation sanctified and with their robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb. The wicked still do not repent.
The righteous are raptured during the 7th Trumpet at the end of the Tribulation
The 7 Cups of Wrath are then poured out and the wicked are destroyed
Christ and the righteous enjoy a period of Paradisaical Peace
The Wicked are resurrected at the end of the Millennium and Satan is again empowered and there is a final Battle of God and Magog.

We are currently in the 1/2 hour silence of the 7th Seal. Soon the 7 Trumpets will sound. Signs of the times are regional disasters like Haiti and the Indonesian Tsunami which only give us a glimpse of what world-wide catastrophe could do. It would not take very much to disrupt the food supply and transportation system. Food is not locally grown any more in amounts to support large cities. Therefore, every family needs a 1-2 year supply of food and medicines. Summer is nigh at hand

Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, Humans and Giants

I was watching PBS the other day and a NOVA-like show was visiting an institute of human evolution which had numerous remains of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon (not called that any more). It is currently believed as far as I can tell that scientists believe that Neanderthals and Early Man (Cro-Magnon), lived in Europe at the same time but didn't mix. And then by some unexplained mystery Neanderthals who are believed to have lived on the Earth as early as 600,000 bc died out after Cro-Magnon moved in about 30,000 bc.

First, I am of the opinion that all radioactive isotopic dating is wrong as the rate of cosmic rays hitting the Earth which produces isoptopes is never constant and therefore the ratio of radioactive isotopes is not constant. Therefore, these dating techniques together with DNA mutation rates in mtDNA and yDNA studies are unfortunately incorrect.

However, I think the Bible may give us some clues to who are and what happened to what scientists call Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, and Humans. John in Revelation was shown 4 beasts who stood around the throne of God. Joseph Smith asked God if these 4 beasts represented 4 individuals or classes. Joseph Smith was told that they represented both individuals and classes. The interesting thing about these 4 magnificent beasts full of eyes and wings (knowledge and power) is that one of the 4 had the face of a man. The significance of this is that this beast with the face of a man, was not a man. Could this beast have represented the Neanderthal?

Thinking along these lines, if Neanderthal and Human's lived together, did Humans and Neanderthal ever mix? The NOVA program said no but scientists are mixed on this issue because they now consider Cro-Magnon to be human and not hybrid. However, the Genesis story may suggest Humans and Neanderthal did mix. Genesis tells a bazaar tale of the sons of god intermixing with the daughters of man. The result of this forbidden mixing were offspring referred to as the Giants. Could the 6-7 ft Cro-Magnon remains represent the Giants spoken of in the Bible? If Cro-Magnon are the Giants, the Bible tells us that most if not all did not survive the global flood (see Gen 6:4, Deut 2:20-21).