From his book “Spiritually Anchored in Unsettled Times, Bruce C. Hafen wrote:
Missionaries need to understand what a testimony is and how it develops—first for their own spiritual security and then so they can teach their investigators how to recognize when God is manifesting truth to them (see Moroni 10:4-5). Everything else a missionary teaches is secondary to the investigator’s need for that testimony. Testimony is also at the core of what parents and leaders all over the Church are trying to teach their children and youth. If those of the rising generation don’t develop that internal assurance of truth, no amount of other information or activity we give them will matter very much.
The goal of the first lesson of Preach My Gospel is to help investigators to begin the process of discovering their own testimony. Imagine a triangle of showing “God” at the top and missionaries and investigators in the corners below.
GOD
Missionaries 
Investigator
Imagine that lines connect a triangle of three corners—establish three key relationships: one between God and the missionaries; two between the missionaries and the investigator; and three, between the investigator and God. At the base of the triangle, the horizontal relationship between the missionaries and the investigator is crucial. Hear the missionaries, listen to, and love the investigator. But the missionary-investigator relationship, as important as it is, is not the ultimate key to testimony and conversion. The real key lies in the vertical relationship between the investigator and God, and the point of every missionary lesson is to help the investigator build his or her own relationship with God. That relationship is the primary source of a compete and authentic testimony. It is also the foundation of the investigator’s longer term process of becoming Christ’s disciple.
Missionaries initiate that process at the end of the first lesson by inviting the investigator to make two commitments — first to read the Book of Mormon, and second, to pray, asking God if the book is true. If the investigator doesn’t do those two things, he or she probably won’t receive a true testimony. But if he does read and he does pray, he will receive the kind of testimony that will launch him on the life long journey of becoming a true follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ, following the Son back to the presence of the Father. Everything else the missionaries teach is intended to build that testimony, coaching the investigator along that journey toward God, one step at a time.
Meanwhile, consider the other vertical relationship—the one between the individual missionary and God. The missionary is working every day to strengthen his own testimony, his own discipleship. What Mormon said to himself is true of every missionary and every church member who accepts some other call to serve: “I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life” (3 Nephi 5:13).
So, in addition to teaching others, a missionary constantly studies, prays and nourishes own spiritual growth. That’s why chapter six of “Preach My Gospel” helps missionaries develop Christlike attributes. They are His followers. They are, like that of any disciple, is to become like Him.
Becoming truly consecrated disciple ourselves is the single most important factor in our ability to teach others about following Christ. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we inevitably teach what we are. No wonder Alma said, “Trust no one to be your teacher . . . except he be a man of God, walking in his ways and keeping his commandments” (Mosiah 23:14). This pattern—being a true disciple in order to help others become true disciples— applies not just to missionaries; it is the most basic purpose behind every calling in every Church organization, no matter where a ward or branch is located and no matter how big it is.
When any servant of the Lord does his work, in any calling, he or she will receive the Lord’s pay. What is the Lord’s pay? ~~~Bruce C. Hafen “Spiritually Anchored in Unsettled Times” p.41-43. . . . (continued
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