So this last week we have been really focused jump starting the ward. Since I have been here they have done almost nothing. Recently I realized that while I have been working really, really hard I haven't been working very smart. I have been trying to do everything by myself. It doesn't work. There is a reason that the new way of doing missionary work is NOT knocking doors. It doesn't work very well anymore. I feel bad that I am only really realizing this now... at 20 months. If I had one tip for any current of future missionary it would be; "WORK WITH THE MEMBERS!!!" It is the only way to work now. I am going to dedicate the rest of my mission to helping WARDS do missionary work.
That isn't to say that you CAN'T have success working by yourself. This last week we had quite a bit. We had very little time to really dedicate to proselyting but in the little bit we had (about 2 days worth in total, see the letter to President Christensen for details) we had more success than we have had the last two weeks... together. One of our investigators, S*, and her 9 year old daughter came to church. It was nice to have an investigator in church. It felt good.
President Christensen;
This was one really weird week. We had so many things to do, the majority of which had almost nothing to do with working our area. We had interviews on Tuesday and then helped the sisters move houses, which took way to long. We also had to do the monthly forms this week and that also took way to long. In the end we basically only had two normal days this week, Friday and Saturday (Sunday is hard to work because of ward counsel taking so much time). The good thing is that in those two days we had more success than the last two weeks combined.
We are really focused on helping the ward right now. We have come up with a plan including weekly ward activities and also a lot of service on our part. We really want this ward to grow. It is the smallest ward in terms of attendance I have seen and it isn't going up. We need to help the ward or the areas aren't going to have any success. I have been trying to just work hard and hope for the best and hope that the ward sees the effort and starts helping but it hasn't worked so far. We really need to change the focus. Less on working harder and more on working smarter. We need the members to get involved.
Elder Blanding.