Today we are going to explore the symbol of the harvest for missionary work so to begin with we are going to examine the harvest.
First determine the crop – what seeds are we going to plant
“Our opportunity is to give them hope and courage and to invite them to come with us and join those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. … The gospel is centered on the Atonement of our Lord and Savior. The atonement provides the power to wash away sins, to heal and to grant eternal life. All the improable blessings of the Atonement can be given only to those who live the principles of the gospel – faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Our great missionare message to the world is that all mankind is invited to be rescued and to enter the fold of the good Shepard, even Jesus Christ.” L Tom Perry
the next step is to plant the seed. –
“A recent survey has confined the fact, that over one half of the people in the United States and Canada have little or no awareness of our practices and beliefs. I am certain the percentage would be larger in other parts of the world. This same survey also showed that when non-members interact with faithful members of the church over an extended period of time or are exposed to clear accurate information regarding church beliefs and doctrines, their attitudes open.” L Tom Perry
Someone Read D&C 4:10
Open your mouth! It takes time for plants to grow and a conversation or example may take years before it can be harvested. But nothing can be harvested if there are no seeds planted. Besides if you plant the seed you know where the plant is going to come up you don’t have to look for it.
“There is no substitute for a member oriented proselyting program. Tracting will not substitute for it. Golden questions will not substitute for it. A member oriented program is key to success, and it works wherever we try it.” Pres Monson
“Certainly the full time missionaries will continue to do the best they can, but wouldn’t it be better if you and I stepped up to do a job that is rightfully ours and for which we are better suited since we know personally those who need to be are lost and need to be rescued.” L Tom Perry
or we should know them – that’s why visiting teaching inactive is so important . Missionary work is more than just non-members. In some ways we should be more concerned about finding the inactive then the non-member.
“Unfortunately most of our full time missionaries spend more of their time trying to find people than, teaching them. I view our full-time missionaries as an underutilized teaching resource. If you and I did more of the finding for the full-time missionaries and freed them up to spend more time teaching the people we find, great things would begin to happen. We are missing a golden opportunity to grow the church when we wait for our full time missionaries to warn our neighbors instead of doing it ourselves.” L Tom Perry
I love the reference to golden- the color of grain when it is ready for harvest!
Is there more that needs to be done before a plant can be harvested? Food and water Hence how the survey showed EXTENDED interaction with faithful members! Miss watering your plants and the crop won’t be as good just like one bad example can do a lot to prevent some one from investigating the church.
Now when it comes to harvesting there’s a few important items to understand.
there is a small window when it is ready so there is a great urgency and hurry to get it in – we are in the last days time is running out and this is a commandment that we have been given
It is HARD Labor
Today the process is very different but at the time of Joseph Smith it was very different. Today we use combines that cut and gather and tons of acres can be done pretty quickly but its still no picnic, especially with allegories. But the lord is speaking to Joseph and the early saints and therefore uses what they are familiar with. The sickle. So I did a little back ground research into harvesting, in particular the sickle. Does anyone know much about the sickle?
Show picture of early sickles
“As American farms grew larger and more productive through mechanization, the need for efficient harvesting machinery grew more intense. Harvesting took place in a short, concentrated period; older methods couldn’t harvest the new, larger grain fields quickly enough. Any implement that speeded the process and used less labor would be helpful, while a machine that automated the process even partially would be invaluable.” “The first major advance over the age-old hand sickle or sythe for reaping grain was the cradles scythe or cradle. This American invention was probably introduced sometime in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The scythe handle, or snath, was lengthered and fingers were added to catch cut grain. The reaper revolutionized the way America farmed. The vast wheat and corn fields of the Midwest and praire states were far too large to be harvested by traditional methods.” (Traditional Country Skills: A Practical Compendium of American Wisdom and Know-how)
Eventually advances lead to a machine that could cut and gather at the same time. The first advances coming around 1830. I find it interesting that these advances come at about the same time period as the budding church.
Interesting side note
Hebrew to cut: covenant – one would cut a covenant hence the circumcision
To gather – in Isaiah – to bind, to seal – think of the wheat and the tares – tons of scriptures references there – the temple – the next step and climax of conversion is sealing
Farm work is hard and missionary work is hard.
I recalled a passage from a book I read last year that had a couple chapters where the main character was harvesting or mowing with a sickle. He was the master of the property and unlike the workers this was not a usual part of his life so the account was very fascinating in what it reveal to me, and I would like to share some of it with you. I will say that I am combine and editing so that they all make a little more sense together.
Importance of sharpening you scythe
Just as it is important for us to keep our testimonies sharp for our own shelves to protect from the adversary its also for missionary opportunities.
Letting it take over
D&C 88:81 – how? we should have a conviction of the gospel which drives us to share the gospel
If the gospel is a constant part of our lives and conversation then there is no need to stop and think and sometimes panic over missionary opportunities. It’s a natural part of ourselves to acknowledge the Savior, his principles and our practices in our daily lives and conversation.
All of us need to teach this message to others with power and conviction. It is the still small voice of the Holy Ghost that testifies through us of the miracle of the Restoration, but first we must open our mouths and testify. We must warn our neighbors.
Levin took the scythe and began to get the feel of it… Levin, who had done no mowing for a long time and was embarrassed by the looks directed at him, mowed poorly for the first few minutes, though he swung strongly. The grass became softer, and Levin, try[ed] to mow the best he could, followed after Titus. They went some hundred steps. Titus kept on without stopping, without showing the slightest fatigue, but Levin was already beginning to fear that he would not hold out, he was so tired. He felt he was swinging with his last strength and decided to ask Titus to stop. But just then Titus himself stopped and, bending down, took some grass, wiped his blade and began to whet. … The second time it was all the same. Levin followed [Titus], trying not to lag behind, and finding it harder and harder: there came a moment when he felt he had no strength left, but just then Titus stopped and whetted his scythe. And this long swath seemed especially hard to Levin; but then, when the swath was finished, and Levin went back the same way over his own mowing, though sweat streamed down his face and dripped from his nose, and his back was all wet as if soaked with water, he felt very good. He rejoiced especially knowing now that he would hold out. His satisfaction was poisoned only by the fact that his swath did not look good. “I’ll swing less with my arm, more with my whole body,” he thought, comparing Titus’s swath, straight as an arrow, with his own rambling and unevenly laid swath. He though of nothing, desired nothing, except not to lag behind and to do the best job he could. They went through long swaths, short swaths, with bad grass and good grass. Levin lost all awareness of time and had no idea whether it was late or early. A change now began to take place in his work which gave him enormous pleasure. In the midst of his work moments came to him when he forgot what he was doing and began to feel light, and in those moments his swath came out as even and good as Titus’s. But as soon as he remembered what he was doing and started trying to do better, he at once felt how hard the work was and the swath came out badly…. more and more often those moments of unconsciousness came, when it was possible for him not to think of what he was doing. The scythe cut by itself. These were happy moments. The longer Levin mowed, the more often he felt those moments of oblivion during which it was no longer his arms that swung the scythe, but the scythe itself that lent motion to his whole body, full of life and conscious of itself, and, as if by magic, without a thought of it, the work got rightly and neatly done on its own. It was only hard when he had to stop this by now unconscious movement and think, when he had to mow around a tussock or an unweeded clump of sorrel. The old man did it easily. … For Levin and the young lad behind him these changes of movement were difficult. Both of them, having got into one strenuous rhythm, were caught up in the passion of work and were unable to change it and at the same time observe what was in front of them…. But no matter how they hurried, they did not ruin the grass, and the swaths were laid as clean and neatly. Easy as it was to mow the wet and tender grass, it was hard going up and down the steep slopes of the gully. But the old man was not hindered by that. Swinging his scythe in the same way, with the small, firm steps of his feet shod in big bast shoes, he slowly climbed up the steep slope, and, despite the trembling of his whole body and of his trousers hanging lower than his shirt, he did not miss a single blade of grass or a single mushroom on his way… Levin came after him and often thought that he would surely fall, going up such a steep slope with a scythe, where it was hard to climb even without a scythe; but he climbed it and did what was needed. He felt that some external force moved him. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
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