Riley #40 - Lomita, CA - October 28 - Eric Hilton, The Alley, Teaching Simply

      Thanks for all the ideas and emails. I sent the letter Saturday afternoon, so it should getting there in a few days. 

     I'm glad you got the photo with Eric Hilton and me. We just happened to run into each other at a Fireside. Really surprised me.

Eric Hilton and me at a Fireside

    Today, we went to a part of downtown called the Alley. They have some street shops there kind of like the ones we saw in Mexico, with a bunch of different places selling a variety of items.

Missionaries go there fairly often on Pday, but this was the first time I got to go since downtown is so far away from where we live. It was pretty fun. I didn't buy much, but there was a lot to see. Elder Burr and I bought a hot dog wrapped in bacon which was delicious.

    Elder Burr is really outgoing and loud. He is always upbeat and energetic. He is a lot of fun.

   We had a training for new missionaries this Wednesday where President Weidman spoke to us. He has really been pushing lately for us to teach more simply in our teaching. We had a member of the Seventy talk to us some time ago and one of the thing he focused on was teaching the lessons simply. In other words, don't use a lot of analogies and examples, but just teach the doctrine and teach it simply.

    The principles we teach don't need embellishment or examples to understand if we teach it so it is clear. President Weidman emphasized the point that it is the Spirit who is supposed to teach, not us. Therefore, try to make yourself a smaller part of the teaching. People aren't going to understand it due to your analogies, but due to the things they feel. This concept has been a big focus of the mission right now. A meeting can't go by without someone mentioning it.

Elder Bowman