First Experiences

In the past when I’ve been traveling for my work I’ve always tried to take a BM with me in the hope that I might place one. I had no real plan in mind just try to get it placed. I had some success but nothing magnificent and I’ve never heard from anyone that I’ve ever given BM too. Your Uncle Mark loves to do missionary work and he has also been trying to place BMs the same way but has developed a great approach to doing it. I didn’t travel at all last year and only twice this year but using his approach I’ve had three great conversations about the church and placed two BMs. On the fourth leg of the trips I was ready but no one sat by me. Mark’s approach is very simple but effective. He starts with getting acquainted – introduces himself, where are you from any why are you going and generalities. He then asks a simple question like what does your church teach about your purpose for being here on earth is? Or what do you think your purpose for being here on earth is? That gets the conversation going and then he can says this is what our church teaches. He has a BM and pasted on one of the first blank pages he has prepared a plan of salvation. He used to draw it on a piece of paper but having a good one that he made is much better. See attachments. Then he can talk about the Bible and the BM. On another blank page he has a map of the world and shows the journey of Lehi coming to the Americas and the BM from there. That leads into where the BM came from. That can be a detailed as the spirit directs including what the pictures in the front show. The next step I think is one of the best. He has underlined specific items on the beginning pages prior to Nephi. Then on the first page of Nephi he underlines items in the chapter heading and writes America out on the border for the Promised Land. On the bottom of the page it says go to page 6 with an arrow pointing to go forward. Then he has marked specific verses and chapters all the way through the BM. The important thing is the reader can follow the arrows and gets a great doctrinal understanding of Christ and the gospel and never reads one word about wars or contentions. Where appropriate he has written on the pages what the specific message is like faith or resurrection. The reader can read more if they want but having a direct path to follow is the important thing. Of course the visit of Christ is there and the BM promise. He asks them to read the promise and possible some of the other scriptures if they have some specific questions. Then he offers to give the BM to them and has had great success.

On the first leg of my trip to California I sat next to Erin. She was probably in her thirties and Catholic I’m sure. She knew quite a bit about the church and I just filled in the missing information. She didn’t want a BM but I did learn some interesting things. She was brought up in Vermont and wanted to know if I had seen the JS monument in Sharon. I hadn’t. She was very impressed with it. She said that Vermont is small and doesn’t have many attractions. They have a list of the the most interesting things to see and the JS monument is on the top of the list. Pretty neat!

On my way home I sat next to Chris Lee. He is in his 40’s and a consultant for IBM. He had been in Santa Barbara for a week fixing some security problems for a bank. I had s BM on my lap and he initiated the conversation. I used the lead in question and he got it right. Living correctly and sharing his knowledge with others. We had a great gospel conversation and when I asked him to read the promise, he read it out loud. This was very unusual. He didn’t want to accept the BM since I had it all marked up, but I told him I marked it up for him and he accepted. I gave him my business card since I didn’t have my name in it any place and he gave me his business card. Now that is unusual. Chris has never been married and I thought what a great person for our over 30 singles group. I didn’t have the plan of salvation or world map and so I was handy capped in that respect. They both are important along with the BM mark ups.

On my next trip I sat next to Dustin. He is in his 30’s and comes from Brooklyn NY. He and his live in girl friend are house sitting for a friend in a town some 70 miles from Santa Barbara. Dustin is a self proclaimed short (15-20 minutes) movie maker and presently working on his next script. Conversation went well; I had the plan of salvation and map with me which really helped. He wasn’t sure he wanted the BM but said he was sure he could find a good home for it and maybe read it himself so he took it. His girl friend was picking him up and I said I would like to meet her. I was standing on the curb with my bags waiting to be picked up and the drove by so I got to meet his girl friend, who was very attractive, and tell her that Dustin was OK and that we had had a great time visiting together.