When I was on my mission I found an old copy of Alvin R. Dyer's The Challenge. I thought up until that time I knew how to testify. As I read the book I became excited by the principle of becoming dependent on the spirit. I remembered the Apostle Paul speaking about being bold and not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Alvin Dyer instructed in his book that we should go to nonmember's homes and say to them these words: "How wonderful it is to be with you this evening before we leave today we would like to set the date for your entrance into Christ's true Church?" I remember the fear I felt when I decided to put the challenge to the test because I knew if I didn't have the Spirit I would fail. In my mind if I failed I felt it would reflect badly on the Church being true. I explained what I wanted to do to my companion. He was even more frightened than I was. Being a junior companion my whole mission I discovered that I needed forgiveness since permission was seldom given to me by anyone, so I just went in to the first home and when my chance came I gave the challenge. My companion started to apologize for us but I stopped him and said to the investigator we aren't asking for your answer right this minute but before we leave. Then I prayed hard for us to have the Spirit. Miraculously before we left the person committed to baptism. My companion couldn't believe it but he decided we should go to all our active investigators and do the same thing. Before the month was over we had seven people committed to baptism and all seven joined the church. He had only baptized one other person in his mission to that point. We were successful because the Spirit touched the hearts of those we challenged.
After my mission I got a job at BYU--Hawaii. One day two missionaries came by to speak with me and I told them about my experience with Alvin R. Dyer's The Challenge. I worked in the library and went over and pulled a copy of the book and gave the Elder a Xerox copy. One of the Elder's who was very dynamic began challenging and testifying so much that hundreds of people ended up joining the Church. Elder Kikuchi, who was his mission president, assigned him to be an Assistant and he taught the principle throughout his mission.
A few years later when I moved to the San Diego State University Imperial Valley Campus. I was a ward mission leader in the El Centro Ward. The Imperial Valley was known as the rock of Gilbraltor for its lack of converts. It has a great deal under Hartman Rector but it then declined and only a handful of people joined there. I shared the experience of the Challenge with one of the Elders who became so successful that he had fifty baptisms. Unfortunately he was too enthusiastic and offended his mission president so he wasn't as effective as the missionary in Hawaii. It did revitalize the work in El Centro and Calexico for several months as his zone members caught his zeal.
Now that I have two daughters on missions, one in Daejon Korea and one in Rome Italy I have worked on them since they were babies to be bold and challenging missionaries. The Preach My Gospel manual relies more on challenging and testifying so there is more balance in the work. If there is anyone other than me that wants to share similiar experiences I would welcome their input.
3 comments:
I was a big fan of Alvin R. Dyer and this book, which I read before my mission to Quito, Ecuador in 1988. We did a lot of challenging down there, and our mission baptisms went from around 100 a month to over 500 a month in the two years I was there.
There were cultural differences which I wasn't as attuned to as I could have been--pretty much 90% of the folks we taught would "commit" to being baptized when we would challenge them in the first discussion, but only about 10% would really make it, and at least 50% were probably just telling us what they thought we wanted to hear so as not to offend us by saying no.
But we did see several missionaries baptize hundreds of converts in their two years, whereas previously "good" missionaries were baptizing between 20-30 during their whole mission.
It also helped that Hartman Rector Jr. was in our area presidency and had no problem going out to lunch with missionaries on their P-Day, during which he would tell us about the glory days of the San Diego Mission when they were baptizing 1000 people a month. Would love to see an oral history project done of the San Diego Rector Years.
I actually knew as a teacher at BYU, Hartman Rector, Jr's son, Daniel Rector right after he returned from his mission. He was like everyone else, trying this, trying that down in South America. However, near the end of his mission he through sheer desire and frustration came onto or was led to several of these principles of success, including the Challenging and Testifying Missionary principle. He got an extension into his dad's mission, by special permission and was then able to apply them, where he and a companion were baptizing somewhere in the 1000 per year range...25 and 35 per month per companionship. They worked their shoes off. It's not just challenging, but follow through. If you set people up and they desire baptism, then you need to lace with their family and friends, as Pres. Kimball said the Lord strategically places individuals into your circle of friendships that are ready to join, so you have to contact those, then challenge them, and follow through with teaching them before the set date...the end of the month, so it's work, love, of course, but labor...but Heber C. Kimball did it. Wilford Woodruff did it, and Dan Jones in Wales, and the biggest problem is often negative companions, believe it or not. If they were raised thinking they went on a mission to have a great relationship with their companion or to prepare for marriage, you have a big obstacle, but it's overcome-able. Just press forward and blow through all obstacles and baptize these golden investigators. Ammon had the same issues, so did Aaron, etc. Alma had to use a less active companion when he went and converted 1000's. The Lord prepares people for you.
I actually knew as a teacher at BYU, Hartman Rector, Jr's son, Daniel Rector right after he returned from his mission. He was like everyone else, trying this, trying that down in South America. However, near the end of his mission he through sheer desire and frustration came onto or was led to several of these principles of success, including the Challenging and Testifying Missionary principle. He got an extension into his dad's mission, by special permission and was then able to apply them, where he and a companion were baptizing somewhere in the 1000 per year range...25 and 35 per month per companionship. They worked their shoes off. It's not just challenging, but follow through. If you set people up and they desire baptism, then you need to lace with their family and friends, as Pres. Kimball said the Lord strategically places individuals into your circle of friendships that are ready to join, so you have to contact those, then challenge them, and follow through with teaching them before the set date...the end of the month, so it's work, love, of course, but labor...but Heber C. Kimball did it. Wilford Woodruff did it, and Dan Jones in Wales, and the biggest problem is often negative companions, believe it or not. If they were raised thinking they went on a mission to have a great relationship with their companion or to prepare for marriage, you have a big obstacle, but it's overcome-able. Just press forward and blow through all obstacles and baptize these golden investigators. Ammon had the same issues, so did Aaron, etc. Alma had to use a less active companion when he went and converted 1000's. The Lord prepares people for you.
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