Monday, June 30, 2014

6-30-14 President's Weekly Letter

Dear Elders and Sisters,

In Mission Leadership Council this past Thursday, I presented a mission vision that included goals and specific plans. It is a product of our discussion last month at MLC with mission leaders, our cumulative experience over the past year, and our Asia Area vision. It is simple and yet complete, brief and comprehensive. I am excited to be able to articulate a clear vision for the mission. I hope that every missionary will personally embrace it and help us establish a mission culture that revolves around it. It will be presented to you during ZTM this Tuesday.

Last week we completed another round of zone conferences as we met with the Jiayi, Tainan and Zhongxing zones. We enjoyed every conference. Each was a little different because of the various contributions of individual missionaries. We thank you for your preparation and participation. Sister Blickenstaff and I have purposely changed zone conferences to involve smaller groups of missionaries so that we could have more opportunities to interact with you. Although this means holding 6 conferences instead of 2 or 3, we love the opportunity to work more closely with each missionary and afford you more opportunities to participate.  Bottom line: We love our missionaries and think you are awesome!

We will greet 9 new missionaries this week and say goodbye to 17 of our outstanding friends. We are always excited to have fresh new missionaries and to be inspired by their faith and commitment. We are also excited for our returning missionaries and their faithful completion of a great work. Of course, our excitement for the returning missionaries is tempered by a sense of loss: we will miss their contributions to the work and our close association. Bottom line: we love and will miss those who are returning home and wish them the very best in all their future endeavors.

Next week, after our new missionaries are squared away and the dust settles from the July move call, we will begin interviews. This time I will conduct 10-minute interviews with each missionary. I will use a timer in order to stay on schedule and not keep people waiting. I ask each of you to prayerfully prepare for your interview. If there is any topic that you would like to discuss, ask, or seek counsel on, please be prepared to bring it up at the beginning of the interview. If you do not have any such desires or needs, I will be prepared with some questions/topics in order to know you better and seek ways to uplift and inspire. Please plan ahead for these interviews and make the best of them. Bottom line: if you are prepared, you need not fear (jk)!

I love you. Yes you.

President Blickenstaff

Mentor of Champions who Understand the Bottom Line

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