A Sunday with Mormons

The GSB (Stanford's Graduate School of Business) holds a charity auction each year where people can donate things to be auctioned off; all proceeds go to charity. Some things people auctioned off included a trip to Las Vegas for $50,000 (it actually sold for $75,000...CRAZY!!), free babysitting, home cooked meals for a week, etc... There are 4 LDS students in Morgan's class and they decided to auction off  "A Sunday with Mormons." Pretty clever right? Well surprise to us, 8 students bought it! The GSB raised over $250,000 at the auction this year for charities!!

After a month and a half of planning yesterday was the day. Our ward, bishopric and the missionaries were all prepped to have 12 investigators at church. As soon as I got to the church, I ran to the library and took the only TV with a DVD player and guarded it with my life as I rolled it to the Sunday School classroom. The entire way I was preparing a small speech in case someone decided to tell me they needed it for their class. The speech went something like this "listen here sir, your lesson cant be anywhere close to being as important as mine...you should have prepared a better lesson than just watching a movie." haha I then laughed at myself because 1) no one was going to steal the TV from me and 2) I was the one watching a movie for the lesson :) Needless to say, I got the TV to the room safely and headed to sacrament meeting.

We had of course strategically placed one of our own (wife of one of the MBA students) to give a talk on the 1st Article of Faith and it was PERFECT. We had a phenomenal youth speaker, pretty reverent kids, and wonderful talks. Although, I was chewing my finger nails the entire time ready at a confused glance to explain what "sustaining" meant, things went great. After chatting for a little bit, we headed to Sunday School where we introduced prophets, talked about the Book of Mormon and watched the powerful movie "The Restoration." If you haven't seen this 20 min. film before, WATCH IT. It will renew your testimony of the restored gospel and fill you with gratitude for it. The Spirit was incredible in the room and whether they knew if or not, I am sure that everyone felt it testifying of the truthfulness of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

After church we all went back to Stanford and had a delicious lunch under some big, shady trees. The missionaries were able to answer some questions, and we were able to answer LOTS of questions about our church and beliefs. Whether or not anyone will have any interest in the church after this experience, we have planted a seed in the hearts of 12 people and I think that is all the Lord asks us to do; He will do the rest.

I am so grateful for this missionary experience and although it was scary and stressful, it was a simple invitation that was in itself very easy to extend. I don't really get that excited about missionary work until I start doing it myself and then I just want to keep doing it. Myself included, I challenge all of you to do some simple missionary work whether it be praying for a missionary experience, inviting someone over for dinner, explaining your beliefs, etc... The message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is something everyone deserves to hear.