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Show Vince Marker, a priest, studies manual for program part. Elders Lance Peterson and Mike Boulter give lesson to Larry Haggart, with beard, with hosts, George Taylor family. Mission Involves Members BY DAVID BLY ySi it Church News Correspondent CALGARY, CANADA President David 0. McKays admonition that every member be a missionary and President Spencer W. Kimballs direction to "lengthen our stride have become facts of life to members in the Canada Calgary Mission. This is due to the neighborhood missionary program aimed at involving every member of each ward or branch in active missionary work. Under direction of the bishop and the ward mission leader, usually a president of the seventies quorum, couples are called and set apart as neighborhood missionaries. These couples are leaders in their respective neighborhoods. The ward mission leader is responsible for the training and motivation of neighborhood missionaries, with fulltime missionaries and seventies assisting. The result is what Pres. Raymond E. Beckham, mission president, described as an impressive missionary force wife gred potential In the Canada Calgary Mission this force numbers about 800 couples in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The backbone of the neighborhood missionary program is the family home evening. Members are encouraged to hold special family home evenings with their friends, following the advice of President Kimball, who said: non-memb-er "Fathers, you are to take the lead. With your family prayerfully select one or two fine families to friendship. Decide who of all your family and friends you will introduce to the Church. Then, as a family, contact them. Perhaps you can plan a family home or participate evening with them together in any number of ways. Then when these families show interest, arrange through your ward or branch mission leader to invite them and the missionaries into your home to share the message of the restoration. If you follow this simple procedure, you will, bring a number of fee families into the ... Church. But the neighborhood responsibility does baptism. "The neighborhood responsible for fee person fee convert ping through to the Beckham emphasized. ; 1 4 CHURCH missionarys not end with ' Wife ward and branch members actively involved in the teaching and fellowshipping of converts, the mission president said, new members are accepted by the members and the converts feel more at home in fee ward. And there is less likelihood that the new member will fall away after the missionaries who taught him are trans- ferred. Missionaries come and go, said Pres. Beckham, "but members are more permanent. Pres. Beckham noted that the initial thrust of the neighborhood program has been to educate, train and motivate the mission membership. "Attitudes are changing, he said, and enthusiasm really is growing for the program. The change in attitude can be difficult for some, agrees Clyde C. Spencer, high priest in the Magrath 1st Ward, Raymond Alberta Stake, and a former bishop. "We used to help the missionaries by pointing out a few doors they could knock on, Brother Spencer said. Occasionally wed give them a name they could contact, but wed ask our names not be mentioned. Brother Spencer and his family were instrumental in getting the children of a neighbor family into the Church through Primary and Sunday School programs. But they were reluctant to approach the parents about joining the Church. Then came the neighborhood missionary program, and after 28 years of living beside these fine people, the missionaries gave us a push and we agreed to ask our neighbors if theyd take the discussions. Brother Spencer said he was very nervous as he went to the neighbors house and knocked on the door. I stammered and fussed and finally got around to asking him if he would like the missionaries to come in and teach him and his wife the gospel, lie didnt even hesitate when 1 finished, he said immediately, Yes, I would. The neighbor and his wife were baptized March 1. "This is a long-rangprogram, said Pres. Beckham. "It may take a long time to pay off. but were building a solid missionary base in the branches, wards and stakes. "The way to convert the world is to e missionary is welfare of that from friendship- temple, Pres. 551 v- WEEK ENDING JUNE 21 , 1975 VI Elders Donn Bewley, Paul Jensen and Maurice Teigen, discuss "neighborhood" mission teams. begin with the members and their neighbors. Its the only way Im thoroughly convinced. The mission president feels there are many people who live around Church members, waiting to be invited to hear the gospel. He was such a person once. He grew up in Safford, Ariz., which, like Magrath, is a predominantly LDS town. Yet he knew little of the Church, and when he attended an LDS meeting, he felt as if the people didnt think he belonged there. in a "There I was, a Mormon community and I never learned of the Church, he said. "It took going away for me to be taught the gospel. Pres. Beckham was converted to the Church while serving in the U, S. Navy during World War II. Now, as mission president, he oversees the missionary work in tliis area, work which also involves the youth of the wards. Through the bishops youth council in each ward, groups of young people, under the advi.sership of the ward mission leader, go into the homes of members and nonmembers and demonstrate a family home evening. They show how to add dimension and spirituality to family life. non-Morm- When the youth groups have one or two family home evening programs perfected, the ward mission leader supplies member families in each ward to hear the presentation. Later, the programs are taken to families, families of inactive members and The young people are encouraged to approach their friends at high school with invitations to have the family home evening program taken into their part-memb- homes. All auxiliaries in the Church are being used fully in spreading the gospel. Its having a snowballing effect, said Dick Jensen, one of the seventies presidents and mission leader in Mag rath 2nd Ward. As we get results, the members become more enthused and we get more and better results. They can see fee program really works, and they want to be part of it, he said. e To fee missionaries it means a change in methods. If it works like it should and it will well he doing nothing but leaching, said Elder Mike Boulter of Lubbock, Tex. Its the only program, says his companion. Elder fence Peterson of Pleasant Grove, Utah. Through the neighborhood missionary program, two out of three properly and prayerfully fnendship-pefamilies join the Church, and nine out of 10 of them stay active. Elder lull-tim- d Peterson explained. |