My district leader did something pretty remarkable this past Tuesday at district meeting. He had picked up on the fact that our district didn't exactly feel like the most unified district in the mission. And then he did something about it. He treated us like agents, and he showed faith in the converting power of the word of God.
He did this by printing off eight copies of Elder Eyring's October 2008 General Conference talk. As we entered the chapel for district meeting, he gave each of us a copy and then gave us about ten minutes to read the talk silently as individuals. Then the meeting started as usual, with a hymn, an opening prayer, and a spiritual thought, which he gave. He shared a scripture from 4 Nephi that reminded us of the doctrine of unity. During mission vision accountability, he said that he wanted to work on being a better representative of Jesus Christ by making sure that all of his words were uplifting and that he was never saying anything bad about another missionary. He owned up to his own faults! Doing so encouraged us to be honest with ourselves as well. Finally, during the instruction time, he opened up the discussion to all of us by asking us to share what we learned, what we felt, and what we were going to do after reading the talk. He allowed us to be taught by the Spirit.
I am so grateful that my district leader knew how to incorporate the doctrine of Christ into this aspect of his ministry. He didn't guilt trip or yell at us to get us to change. Rather, he trusted that if we really understood the doctrine of unity, we would be willing to stop doing things that were fomenting disunity, and start doing things that would build unity.
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