The Great Kentucky Louisville Mission - 2: Leadership Training

This information will be repeated seven times, since we did the process seven times in all seven Zones. But here goes:

In the past, Leadership Training has involved the Zone and District Leaders, the new missionaries and their Trainers. This time, however, President Woodbury wanted everyone to be the beneficiaries of the instruction and practice, so we had everyone participate, one Zone at a time.

After the usual Opening, President Woodbury turned the time over to Sister Woodbury for the first training segment. She talked to the missionaries about relationships with members and investigators, particularly the former, and then taught how to write and prepare a written lesson plan. President Woodbury then began the first of his three sessions, focusing on principles from the Eight Fundamental Lesson for Preach My Gospel. The first principle was "talk to everyone." He had the missionaries listen to a talk given by Elder Russell Ballard in the 2005 Mission Presidents Seminar where he challenged every Elder or Sister to talk to ten people every day, independent of tracting, teaching, or working with members, and promised that if done, baptisms would dramatically increase. President Woodbury went over why this would work, then had everyone break into four groups, led by himself, Sister Woodbury, and the two Assistants to the President, Elder Fegan and Elder Morriss, where everyone had the opportunity to practice their approaches to someone waiting at a bus stop, sitting at a park bench, working outside in their yard, and waiting in line at a store (or other place). The President emphasized that this was not a goal, but rather an expectation for our mission.

After a break, the next session began where President Woodbury talked about the importance of investigators gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Again, everyone had the chance to do role-plays and practice what to say and do in various situations.

By this time, Sister Woodbury had returned with hot Little Caesars pizza for lunch, to give us all energy for the afternoon.

The last section was about getting investigators to come to church with more role-plays and practicing.

At the conclusion, President Woodbury summarized the points Sister Woodbury had presented along with his three focus topics regarding the Book of Mormon, attendance at Sacrament Meeting, and talking to everyone, re-emphasizing his conviction that these are the things on which we must center our efforts.

(It may be noted that the results so far have been remarkable, particularly regarding the ten people a day expectation. It appears as if the entire mission has taken it to heart and is on fire!)

Here are the pictures Sister Woodbury took of the Louisville West Zone March 23rd: