Things are doing pretty good here and I think the one thing you need to realize about inviting people to church is you don't need a relationship or a special opportunity to invite people. That is something I've learned so clearly from my mission. So many people look for that special moment they can invite your friend to church, it won't come unless you instigate it and then honestly just do it. I have more people come to church when I say to them on the street, "Hey have you been to church before?" 'No' "Want to come with us and give it a try?" - Bam they come. That is actually the story of this week.
Last Tuesday me and Elder Liu had an extra 30 minutes before we were going to head home so we decided to go find, OF COURSE! We saw a mum and her son playing on a jungle gym and we just went up to talk to her. Her name was Mrs. Au and she had a son who was 18 months old. She was super nice, no religious background, never been to church before and has really never thought about these things. We talked to her for like 15 minutes about the gospel and said a prayer with her. She didn't seem all that interested but we told her if she would just come to church she could see and feel what were talking about for herself. She was like ehh maybe, I don't know. My son is young I don't know if its the best idea, etc. We said that's okay and encouraged her anyways to come. Then Sunday morning around 8am she gives us a call (out of no where) and said she was coming to church and bringing a friend too. She came to church late because her friend didn't wake up on time (her friend ended up not coming BUT said she would come next week). She got to meet some of the other mums during primary and then went to sacrament. It was amazing and we didn't have a special moment or a window open to us we just gave an offer. I think it is as simple as this, "Hey what are you doing on Sunday." 'Nothing probably just sleeping.' "Want to come to church with us? You can make some new friends and get to hear a little about our church and it's special message of Jesus Christ." -- I think it really is as simple as that only because that's what I do.
As far as the seven families goes we just aim for families -- Elder Liu and I decided that's all want to teach is families. It's a lot harder than it sounds, contacting a family and getting them to all meet with you is really hard. We found the easiest way to contact families (specifically parents) is through our English class. It normally starts with us saying along the lines of, "Hello we are church volunteers and just wanna let you know about our free English class" normally after that they either ask why its free (explain we are missionaries our purpose is to help others so we serve them with this free English class but our main purpose is to share a special message about Jesus Christ... switch to the gospel) or where is the English class (oh, its at our chapel, actually have you ever been to church before?... switch to the gospel). If all else fails I normally start talking about their kid like how old is he, do you have any other kids, etc THEN I whip out my family picture and that is normally what catches them. I explain that I am away from my family for two years to share a message that means the world to my family and I know that it can help your family too... switch to the gospel. I think it's easier than we make it out to be. I've had a lot of success with it lately but I think previously I just didn't think it was possible. I think I had a change of attitude or faith -- one or the other it has helped me.
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