Preach My Gospel

I turned my mission papers in right as Preach My Gospel was introduced into the LDS missionary world. As I did, my brother Andrew pointed out how great it would be that I could learn how to really use and apply this amazing new resource through daily missionary work and the guidance of an inspired mission president. He mentioned that when I returned home I would have to share what I'd learned with all my return missionary siblings.

We had Stake conference a couple weeks ago. As I sat there listening to one speaker stress the importance that each of us use Preach My Gospel in our personal and family scripture study I realized that I have not done my fair share in explaining what I learned in those first few introductory months when Preach My Gospel changed the missionary world. It has been a resource that has really changed my life and that I reference almost daily. I very firmly believe that it was created as much for every day people as it was for missionaries.

I know what you're thinking. 'I don't have a copy' or 'It's 'really' just for missionaries' or whatever your excuse is. I'd like to point out that countless times General Authorities have asked the members of the LDS church to study this book. It was made for everyone, not just missionaries. Of all it's 13 chapters, only one of them includes the missionary disscussions. The rest are devoted to helping individuals grow and develop stronger testimonies and understandings of the Gospel. And most importantly, I've seen it change the lives of so many people. I know, have a testimony of the fact, that you will become a better person by studying and applying the principles in this book. If the only thing keeping you back is that you don’t own a copy, you can download it for FREE on LDS.org. You can just click here to download it.

If I wrote everything that I love about this book in one single blog entry it would be entirely too long, but I'd love to start pointing out my favorite part today and hopefully continue to point out more of the resources available in the future.

My all time favorite, and the part that has literally changed my life on several occasions, falls at the very end of Chapter 6 (p.126)

Chapter 6 is devoted to information on developing Christ like Attributes. Several attributes are listed each with an explanation and several scriptures or activities to help with the learning process. This is all good, but what makes it my favorite part comes on page 126, the last page of the chapter. Here you'll find a quiz with about 60 short questions. Each question is written specifically for a Christ like attribute (ex. 'I believe in Christ and accept Him and my Savior" falls under faith, "I am dependable, I do what I say I will do" falls under virtue etc.) You rate yourself on a scale from 1-5 on how you feel you're doing with each question.

It seems simple, but it's really amazing. Each time I take this quiz I am surprised at which category I am struggling with. Often, all I know is that there is a problem with my spiritual progression and it is not until after I take this quiz that I can clearly see what I am lacking.

After rating yourself on each question and seeing what category you're struggling with, you can then go back into the chapter and study from the appropriate section. For example, if I were to realize that faith was my current weak point, I’d turn to page 116 where I could read a few paragraphs explaining faith and then study the scriptures provided to help me understand what faith is, how I can obtain it and what I can do with it. If I needed further assistance I could turn to page 124 and do an activity under the ‘Personal Study’ list, or I could ask Doug to help me understand it better and we could reference the ‘Companion Study’ activities also featured on page 124. (on the same page there are also ‘district meeting and zone conference' activities that would make perfect FHE lessons)

I remember taking this quiz for the first time in the MTC. Before that day I had always grouped faith and hope into the same category, never realizing that I had to develop them separately. It made such a difference to how I studied and I was able to see my testimony take a huge leap in growth. It was like there had been this huge obstacle holding me back and I had never even known.

I try to take this quiz every few months. It’s amazing how the more you know about a subject the more you realize you don’t know much about it! Because of that, every time I do this to see how I’m doing, a completely different area turns up as my weak point. I feel like it is something that has really helped me to not just study the scriptures but to actually better myself in the process.

In the spirit of missionary work, I’d like to challenge each of you to set aside some of your scripture study time and try out the tools in Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel. I assure you that the tools available in this chapter were inspired to not only better our missionaries but to help each one of us reach our Christ like potential.