Dear Elders and Sisters,
During this past week I have enjoyed reading your emails and
have felt particularly inspired as you shared with me your impressions and
insights from our recent general conference. I am so grateful to live in a time
when we have prophets, apostles and other inspired leaders. I am also very
pleased to know that you, “my little sons [and daughters],” understand and know
from your own experience, the great blessings that come as you listen and
hearken to the conference messages. It is truly a source of comfort, direction,
and strength that comes to us every six months. I hope that you will make a
habit and develop your own traditions of participating in general conference
for the rest of your lives.
Since our most recent zone conferences, many of you have
expressed your feelings about working according to our missionary purpose. Our
motivation must always be love for the Savior and for our fellow man. The
reason that Alma and the sons of Mosiah were such remarkable missionaries was
their love for others, “They could not bear that any human soul should perish”
(Mosiah 28:3). They were also properly prepared. “They had searched the
scriptures diligently…they had given themselves to much prayer and fasting…
they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation…they taught with
power and authority from God” (Alma 17:2-3). We can, and should, follow their
example and strive to be motivated and prepared likewise.
Although I am grateful for the growth and progress that comes
to us, both individually and collectively, as we increase in understanding and
apply the missionary purpose, I am concerned that we have been finding and
teaching significantly less people over the past month than we were previously.
Our mission standards should not become the focus of all that we are trying to
accomplish, however as you focus on the integrity of your purpose, I hope that
you will continue to make goals and plans to achieve mission standards. If your
motivation is pure and your methods are correct, you will find great joy and
success as you strive diligently to accomplish your purpose. Our mission
standards will serve as a guide and a source of inspiration to “raise your
vision and increase your faith” (PMG, pg. 146).
This week you received a request to complete a questionnaire
from the missionary department. Elder Gerrit W. Gong, our Asia Area president,
generated this request in preparation for his upcoming mission tour at the end
of November. If you have not taken time to complete the survey, I urge you to
complete it today. Please be candid and forthright in your answers, as they
will help us to understand our strengths and weaknesses and what we can do to
improve.
I am continually amazed as I see your faith, diligence and
skills enable you to “invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive
the restored gospel….” I testify that He lives and stands at the head of this
Church and directs this work. I know that there is nothing that you could be
doing at this time that would be of greater value, either to you or to those
that you are working with, than assisting them as they come unto Christ. May
you continue to find joy and satisfaction in the Lord’s work of salvation is my
constant prayer.
President Blickenstaff
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