New Missionary Follow Up

At the mid-point of their first transfer, we bring new missionaries and their trainers back to Knoxville for a day of training called “New Missionary Follow Up”. With 23 new missionaries and 23 trainers this last transfer, this meeting was the size of one of our zone conferences.

.

In the past, the main focus of this training was “Adjusting to Missionary Life”. But since starting our Missionary Resilience Class (which is based on the Self Reliance: Emotional Resilience class), we’ve been able to change of the focus of this training.

Of all the topics we could choose, we’ve felt that one of the most important skills these new missionaries can have is finding new people to teach. This is because Preach My Gospel teaches us that “Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach.”

But this is a challenging skill to learn. It requires overcoming fear and replacing it with the faith to find. It’s not natural for these missionaries to open their mouth and have the courage to talk with everyone. They are asked to initiate conversations with strangers, which isn’t a skill they typically start their mission with, so we focus all of New Missionary Follow Up on building the faith to find.

How do we do that? We take skills taught in Preach My Gospel and role play those skills over and over again. For example, skills like sharing our missionary purpose, asking inspired questions, using the Book of Mormon to answer questions, and inviting friends to learn more.

Role playing is another skill that usually has to be learned. In the beginning, missionaries are usually uncomfortable in role playing these skills. We remind them there is no growth in the comfort zone! We build skills through practice and repetition, and that practice for us as missionaries is role playing. This gives them the opportunity to practice themselves and hear the language others use that they can adopt.

.

All morning is spent doing these role plays. After lunch, we take a couple of hours on learning how to find people through technology. Investing a day with these new missionaries helps them to learn these important skills, which leads to them feeling more confident in doing the things they are asked to do.

This is a really great group of missionaries and we are excited to spend the next 18 and 24 months with them.