Dear Elders and Sisters,
As I read your letters last week I felt abundant gratitude
for each of you. I am grateful for your choice to leave behind family, friends,
comforts and other pursuits to serve the Living God. I am grateful for your
desire to be obedient and to repent. I am thankful to each of you who strive to
follow the Master in all that you do and say, to testify of the gifts and
blessings that come to those who adhere to His teachings and to exemplify in
your own lives the principles and doctrines that He taught. I cannot imagine
anything that would be more difficult, and yet more worthwhile, than what you
are doing right now.
When Nephi saw a grand vision of the restoration of all
things in the latter days, he exclaimed, “And blessed are they who shall seek
to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and power of
the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the
last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso
shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the
mountains shall they be” (1Ne. 13: 37). The Savior himself, speaking of you, in the latter days has
said, “He that is ordained of God and sent forth, the same is appointed to be
the greatest, notwithstanding he is the least, and the servant of all” (D&C
50:26). How great is your calling!
I am grateful to note that many of you have a renewed desire
to work diligently. You are setting goals with mission standards in mind, and
then striving hard to achieve your goals. I am grateful for your faith in our
mission vision and know that you will be eternally blessed for your diligence. The
Lord is in charge of the outcome. I hope you will always be motivated by the
missionary purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ, and not get
distracted from things that really don't matter. I know that as you work
diligently, you will be happier and experience a greater sense of fulfillment.
In my experience, missionaries who consistently achieve mission standards are
also more likely to baptize regularly.
Here are some excerpts from some of your emails that I found
especially relevant:
“As my companion and I talked about the [accountability]
card and what areas we felt like we could improve, and then went out and worked
on those areas, I feel like we really saw an improvement.”
“We have been blessed with lots of lessons these past two
weeks. These two weeks I have really learned that high numbers are completely
meaningless if you are not helping others come unto Christ in the process. It
feels like we have lots of people to teach but by the end of the week nobody is
progressing. We will be prayerfully considering which of our investigators
really do have potential to be baptized.”
“我最近讀摩爾門經在摩賽亞書「看啊，我告訴你們這些事是要你們學習到智慧，使你們知道，你們為同胞服務時，只是在為你們的神服務而已。」(摩賽亞書2：17)我也想到神讓我們來做傳道事工是要我們學習到智慧，因為我們都不夠好，祂自己來做這事工一定做到完美，然而祂願意冒著被我們搞砸的風險，把這些靈魂救恩的責任交給我們是為什麼？就像我小時候，爸媽教我做家事，事實上對他們來說我做得很糟糕，但是他們都還會不斷鼓勵我，讓我從中得到知識、經驗，也由於我的參與得到快樂。我相信天父也是如此訓練祂的小孩.”
“This was another
tough week. But fortunately I really do feel like [my companion] and I worked
hard. I am proud of the work we put in. We tried very hard this week to be loving
to everyone, and I really did notice a difference. People seemed to be nicer to
me, and more willing to talk. Though no immediate success has come from it to
my knowledge, this is a week in my mission I don’t regret because I tried my
best. I am grateful for this companionship and area and the efforts we are
putting into it…”
I love and
appreciate you for the sacred work that you are performing. I am grateful for
your desire to be pure and worthy instruments in the hands of the Lord to
accomplish His purposes. I know that “when you have done your very best, you
may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in
yourself” (PMG, pg. 11). Let’s have a great week this week!
President
Blickenstaff
P.S. Please join
with me in continuous prayer for our visa waiting missionaries. We continue to
wait upon the Lord for a miracle!
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