GUIDElines
2000
Let’s all work to grow the Church!
Vol I, Issue No 1 - September 1, 2000
Welcome! You have found the great gathering place for a new kind of Member Missionary we are nicknaming "ParTimers." A ParTimer is someone who has decided to try a new approach to member missionary work. Statistics quoted by Elder Ballard in the September issue of the Ensign say that we members are only finding ONE out of TEN investigators in the U.S. and Canada! The full time missionaries are finding all the rest. However, 50% of those we as members DO find go on to be baptized! It stands to reason that if we can become better finders, we'll be amply rewarded for our efforts and we can grow the Church more quickly. ZionsArmy.com is convinced we can do better if we are given a plan! We're a motley group, made up of every kind of member of the Church. Those of us already calling ourselves ParTimers include members not yet of full time missionary age, OR we've already served our mission and we're getting on with the next great adventure in our life, OR we're part of that vast army who must do missionary work as older members, part time. Looking around the Internet we found out that what ZionsArmy.com has developed is so different from other Internet sites we had to coin a new word to set it apart from the rest. So we came up with ParTimers. The nickname really does describe who we are--hard working, part time, member missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Don't be confused and think that this is a calling in the Church. It is not. However, since every member IS a missionary, we have decided to step it up a notch and are going to work at it very hard. We hope you will be excited enough about our concepts that you will join us.
If you have the desire to be a better member missionary, we'll help you nurture that desire until you have success. Only a few of us think missionary work is so easy that anyone can do it. The rest of us know it takes lots of hard work and faith. We're here to help every step of the way. ZionsArmy.com is unique. Let us tell you why.
ZionsArmy.com is the only site specifically dedicated to the development of member missionary skills that has been set up and is being run by Alumni of the Arizona Temple Youth Guides. Why is that a big deal? As the only program of its kind in the Church, until it was discontinued with all other Youth Missions in the Church in 1998, the Youth Guides developed methods of training young member missionaries that were so successful the results became legendary. See a New Era article entitled, "Faith to Move Monsoons," http://library.lds.org/library/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm
Everything we learned as Youth Guides is now going to be available to every member of the Church online at ZionsArmy.com. As ParTimers, we are just like the Youth Guides were. We are busy at work, in our Church jobs, in our community, with our families, and doing a million other things. We are rearing our families and building the Kingdom, but we still want to be better member missionaries. We can! There are over 1,000 Alumni of the Youth Guides, and we have sent out the call and are inviting them to come and share with us how it was done. Our hope and prayer is that you will join us in the work, and that you will spread ZionsArmy.com by "word of mouse" (sending it by e-mail) to all of your friends. Finally! a non-commercial site that has been specifically established to share principles of effective Part Time Missionary work ... ZionsArmy.com!
That's not all! It gets better! We announce in this first issue of GUIDElines 2000 that we have set an HEROIC GOAL, and invite you to join with us in accomplishing it. That goal is to have 15,000 people join us in answering our prophet's call to refer enough of our friends and acquaintances to the missionaries to double the number of baptisms in the Church! If we have 15,000 members of ZionsArmy.com, who will each follow a Standard of Performance modeled after one we used in the Youth Guides, we believe the prophet's HEROIC goal of doubling the number of baptisms can be met. We are confident in our plan and hope you are one of those 15,000.
About our newsletter, GUIDElines 2000. It is named for an earlier newsletter called The GUIDElines, published from 1989 to 1998 and sent around the world to Alumni of the Arizona Temple Youth Guides. At one time 135 missionaries were receiving it each month! It was as eagerly anticipated as a letter from Mom and Dad or that special "someone.". Its monthly issues amassed over 2,000,000 words written from the mission field. These letters will be used to share insights on missionary work from those who trained before they left in the Arizona Temple Youth Guides. The number 2000 not only represents the year, but reminds us of Helaman's Stripling Sons. Together, GUIDElines + 2000 represent the best ideas of both Modern and Ancient Warriors, combined to fight the battle of the latter days.
We are happy that you have dropped by. We urge you to join us and adopt and use our ZionsArmy.com Standard of Performance for the next year. As this site grew from an idea to reality, we decided there was one concept that if everyone followed it we could reach our HEROIC goal. It is called the ZionsArmy.com Standard of Performance, and is the basis for all we will do on the site. There are five standards we have decided to work on every day to help us be successful. (Scroll down to see what the standards are.) If you will join with us and thousands of other PTMs looking for a HEROIC challenge, we know we can help double the number of convert baptisms in the part of the vineyard where each of us lives.
There has never been a better time to expand the Church than now. In the U.S. we are currently in the middle of an economic boom that is unparalleled in our country's history. The Church is moving forward in a major way, we are well thought of, and there is much happening that Not Yet Members can see and learn about that will please them. Temple building is at an intensified pace. With all this growth and goodwill, it is a perfect time for us to reach out to our friends and acquaintances and those we meet and invite them to come to with us to a Church function. "Church function" is such a drab sounding phrase, but we use it to mean bringing someone with us to one of the marvelous meetings or activities we have in the Church. Someone who has never been in the congregation when powerful testimonies were born on Fast Sunday, or sat with the Priesthood as we discussed how we go about using the Lord's way of raising children, or attended a Relief Society meeting on compassionate service...that person is in for a real life-changing experience when brought to a "Church function". We must take advantage of the convergence of all these things and share what we have with the world. “The field is white….”
ZionsArmy.com is different from any other website we know of, because it is based on the things we learned in the Arizona Temple Youth Guides, which was the only program of its kind in the Church. (The Youth Guide program was discontinued in 1998.) Unlike full time missionaries who can devote their every waking hour to the work of the Lord, we part timers are pulled in a million directions each day. We need a way to do missionary work that fits into our busy schedule and allows for how our life really is. That's where ZionsArmy.com comes in.
For example, our Youth Guides used to go to school, work, have a Church calling, go to seminary/institute, date, play, but when given the opportunity, they still found time to work at least one night a week in the Gardens at the Arizona Temple. They learned how to incorporate Youth Guide ideas into their regular lives and became adept at using tools to help them fulfill their member missionary obligation. Part time missionary work, done the right way, can be the most exhilarating activity on the face of the earth! So, what we have done is devise ways to get the work done anyway, even though we are the busiest people on the planet!
We have set a HEROIC goal, because HEROIC goals are ones that capture the imagination. We are backing that up with everything we think you will need to be successful. We were fortunate to have been leaders in the Youth Guides, and although the program has been discontinued, what we learned there has been invaluable. The important elements of our overall plan are the following:
First, the Tool Chest contains five really simple procedures that will give you all the success you desire, if you use them faithfully and work at it a little bit every day. A Standard of Performance (just five things) with which to measure your growth, a SETADATE to teach you how faith and works operate within the quest for a HEROIC goal, F.O.R.M., which is a simple way to initiate conversations and deliver a message, the Star Test that teaches straightforward answers to a few common questions NYMs tend to ask (based on A Marvelous Work and a Wonder), and the Presentation which gives you a simple, five-minute description of some of our beliefs to be used when the Spirit tells you it is needed. We are hoping that your invitations to Church functions will naturally lead to asking those you meet to hear what the missionaries have to say. That is the ultimate goal.
Second, we will be doing our best to find all the Youth Guide Alumni we can and ask them to join us in our quest. By working with the Alumni of the Youth Guides and others online at the Message Board, you will be able to get answers for your questions from those who have been there before. In addition, you can post the successes you have as they occur. We are hoping to develop an online community of friends working towards a common goal of helping to double the number of baptisms in the Church.
In order to be as cautious as we could in designing the site, we have decided at this time not to have a typical Message Board. We'll try out something new and see how it works. The ZionsArmy.com Message Board will be run like we did the GUIDElines of old. As you send us your messages, we will organize them logically and include them in our daily GUIDElines 2000 issues. They will appear in the context of what is happening at ZionsArmy.com. If you have a question or a comment go to the Message Board and send it in. As we receive them we will edit them and put them back out around the world in GUIDElines 2000 as soon as there is room.
The way it worked before was that our Alumni around the world wrote letters that were printed in the next month's issue of the GUIDElines with comments about what was happening in the Youth Guide program at the time. The new element in an Internet environment is that time will be speeded up and the excitement of watching and making things happen will catch us all up in striving for the HEROIC goal. Instead of waiting for a month to see your letter in print, it may happen as soon as the next day!
Third, there is nothing like a HEROIC goal to get things moving. Finding a minimum of 15,000 members who will join us and adopt the Standard of Performance will not be easy. However, we believe that it is very doable in a fairly short span of time, if everyone will just share by "word of mouse" and by telling their friends of ZionsArmy.com. Some will want to join and some won’t, but everyone you know should be given a chance to learn what we are doing. Each new member of ZionsArmy.com will be urged to keep the Standard of Performance and use the Tool Chest to help them succeed. If those things come together, we are assured of reaching our goal.
The best way to accomplish a HEROIC and miraculous goal is to understand how it happens. Therefore, we are going to tell you about the Youth Guides' “Miracle of the 20 Referrals.” I am indebted to David Porter for his words about the event that are reprinted from the old Jershon Journal newsletter.
The Miracle of the 20 Referrals
At 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, July 30 (1989) we met in an early morning Presidency meeting at the Visitors’ Center. After discussing various topics, we began talking about our goal that month of 40 referrals. Because we only had 20 referrals at the time, our first inclination was to abandon the goal. Then we began to talk about faith, and some of the things Elder Gene R. Cook had said in his fireside.
At that point something incredible happened. We had an amazing outpouring of the Spirit. I have never felt the Spirit to that degree in a Presidency meeting. The Spirit testified to each of us that the 40 referrals was still within our reach, if we exercised our faith. We each shared our testimonies and our feeling that with the Lord’s help we could do anything. At that point we knelt in prayer and pled with the Lord for this blessing. Again He confirmed to us that if we would sacrifice, it was possible. When the prayer was over, many of us were weeping. We shared our love for one another, and then went out to spread the vision! At the Sacrament meeting that day (a Visitors’ Center Sunday), the Spirit was also strong. Each speaker presented his message with the Spirit. As each Youth Guide and Ammonite learned of the goal, we could see the light of faith burn in his or her eyes. I think most of us spent that day doing about the same things; we invited not yet member friends for a tour, invited members to bring down their friends, and prayed to the Lord that He would give us this blessing. Not one doubt was expressed the whole day!
That night we had
almost 30 youth at the Visitors’ Center.
We worked!! Groups of Guides
and Ammonites went over to Pioneer Park to invite people over for tours.
No Guide was sitting down! I
think everyone had a prayer in his heart that we would be able to reach the goal
before Monday night. At the end of
the night, the referral count was 20!! The
Lord had helped us obtain all the referrals we needed in one night!
We rarely had 20 referrals in a whole month.
Yet the Lord was mindful of our faith and hard work, and He blessed us
more than we had ever imagined. The
excitement in Room 3 at the end of the night was only surpassed by the gratitude
that each one of us felt toward the Lord. He
had helped us bring to pass a spiritual miracle!
Many testimonies were strengthened that day.
I think that all of us gained a better understanding of what the Savior
meant when he said,
If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Mark 9:23
David
How did all of this occur? First, valiant leaders talked of faith and ideas about faith. As they did, something amazing began to happen:
1. There was an OUTPOURING of the Spirit that was amazing.
2. The Spirit testified the goal was within reach, if we EXERCISED our faith.
3. We SHARED testimonies and feelings that with Lord’s help we could do anything.
4. We knelt in prayer and PLED with Lord for THIS blessing.
5. The Spirit confirmed if we would SACRIFICE, it was possible.
6. We shared LOVE for one another.
7. Went out to SPREAD the VISION!
8. As each learned of goal, light of faith BURNED IN THEIR EYES.
9. Worked, worked and PRAYED.
10. NOT ONE DOUBT WAS EXPRESSED THE WHOLE TIME
11. Many came and WORKED, no one was sitting down.
12. Prayer in each heart for GOAL by Monday.
13. The Lord was MINDFUL of our FAITH and HARD WORK and He BLESSED US more than we had ever imagined, by giving us all 20 referrals in one night.
14. There was a SPIRITUAL MIRACLE which caused HAPPINESS and GRATITUDE
15. TESTIMONIES were strengthened. SCRIPTURES came ALIVE.
I was there that morning for the Presidency meeting. I am continually amazed at how sincere the young Youth Guide leaders were. Under No. 3 above I remember what happened to Ben. David started out by bearing his testimony, followed by Doug and Shad. They each professed faith in the Lord and that the goal could be reached. Then it was Ben’s turn. Ben said, “When David was bearing his testimony something happened to me which was strengthened by each succeeding testimony. When we started I didn’t believe I had the faith, but by the time it was my turn to bear testimony I had changed…and I BELIEVED!” I personally think that this was the day Ben received his testimony that the Gospel is true.
It says we knelt in prayer and pled with the Lord. There is a difference between asking and pleading and I learned more about it that morning. It was very quiet in the room, and in the prayer David was voice. As he prayed and pled with the Lord for THIS particular blessing of receiving our referral goal, I heard tears dropping to the carpet! I began to understand how important this goal was to these young leaders. It was not the referrals alone they were praying for, although having the Gospel touch any life is wonderful and a great blessing. He was praying for the youth in the Program to have something spiritual happen in their lives that would make them different than they had been. He was praying for a mighty change to take place in their lives…and it DID!
After this marvelous spiritual experience in that Presidency meeting, each one of the leaders then was able to look the Youth Guides in the eyes and share his total belief that the goal would be reached. There was not one doubt and because the leaders believed the rest believed, too.
However, faith without works is dead, so they made a plan and worked the plan with all their might. Everyone who could came and worked. They thought of new ways to do things, new places to find nonmembers, and as they worked they continued to have a prayer drawn out in their hearts that the goal would be reached.
Since the spiritual and temporal work had been done, the Lord provided what was up to then a HUGE amount of referrals in one day. It was so large that it can be classified as a miracle to have received that many. On the 30th of July in Mesa, Arizona, just to be able to find anybody outside who was willing to take time in the stifling heat to go on a tour is miraculous in itself!
What was the end result? Not only was the whole Program energized and excited, in addition each felt an immense debt of gratitude for the blessing of receiving the goal. Testimonies were strengthened and for perhaps the first time in many young lives the scriptures really did come alive… If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Mark 9:23
We at ZionsArmy.com have created a plan that will end in the referral of thousands of people to the missionaries. We have the faith, and as we meet each of you on our website, we will do all we can to help you see the “light of faith burn in our eyes.” As we work together and share our experiences at the Message Board, we pray for an outpouring of the Spirit on our efforts. We know that we can reach the goal if each of us individually exercises our faith. At the Message Board we can share our testimonies and feelings that with the Lord’s help we can do anything. Each morning and evening all of us who are trying to keep the Standard of Performance will kneel and plead with the Lord for the blessing of having a missionary experience that day. We may have to sacrifice to make the standards work in our lives. As we share our love for the Savior and his Church and for those who are helping us in striving for the goal, we will help to share the vision that it truly can happen.
As we spread the vision, our friends, family, and others will see the light of faith burning in our eyes as we work and pray. It is imperative that once we have set our course that we not express any doubt but that we work everyday towards accomplishing the goal. In each of our hearts we can have a constant prayer that this goal will be met.
If we do all we can, the Lord WILL be mindful of our faith and hard work and bless us more than we can ever imagine. He will give us the referrals we are seeking. When the year is over and we survey what we have done, we will find that a spiritual miracle will have taken place which caused happiness and gratitude in our hearts. Our testimonies will be strengthened and the truth of the scriptures will come alive… If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Bro. P.
P.S. It is extremely important that the mission leaders in your ward and stake understand what you are doing. ZionsArmy.com is not in competition with anyone, anywhere. It is just a website, not an organization. We have put together some simple tools which we are providing free of charge via the Internet to help members of the Church become better part time missionaries and excellent “Finders.” We have taken President Gordon B. Hinckley at his word when he suggested we could double the number of baptisms, and knowing that HEROIC goals work, have set one. We have bitten off a large chunk, but because of our past experience, we believe with all our hearts this goal can be accomplished. If your leaders prefer that you use their specific program and not ours, please be obedient and follow their direction. We cannot imagine that ZionsArmy.com will do anything but enhance your ability to further the work in your area, but we believe obedience will bring blessings. That said, let’s get to work!