Specialized Training 1-2015

We had three days of amazing instruction in our "Specialized Training" last week.  The picture is too small to really get a good look at all these fantastic missionaries, but know that each one of them is special!  They are good, obedient, happy, spiritual missionaries whom we just love to pieces!  (A little to sappy, I know - but true).

Four Fresno Zones

Four North Zones

Three South Zones

A few more pictures from Leadership training with our Salt Lake Guests

A few more pictures from our training with President Donaldson and Brother Tanner.  A mighty fine looking group of missionaries!   We sure love them!!!

Sister Clark, President Clark, President Donaldson, Brother Tanner

PRESIDENT'S WEEKLY - WHERE MUCH IS GIVEN, MUCH IS REQUIRED

Where Much is Given, Much is Required

Dear Elders and Sisters:

"For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required." (Luke 12:48)  This counsel was given to the Apostles after the Parable of the Foolish Rich Man which teaches us unto whom (the Lord) and where (Heaven) we should lay up treasure.  The teaching is so poignant and pertinent for us, here, now as we seek to lay up treasure in Heaven with and for those whom we seek to bring into the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Legacy builders point to and focus on the future. They employ cultural principles to focus on the greater good rather than on themselves. They know that more important than what they accomplish individually is what they do to bless the team, the organization, or the Mission.  We are at such a pivotal point in the history of the great California Fresno Mission as we move forward building a great legacy for the future missionaries who will serve here and the people they will convert to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We know that it not about us, but rather about them.

It has been an incredible couple of weeks here in the great CFM as the Lord has blessed us with such wonderful instruction that will help "fine tune" what we do to be able to do things differently, better, or more of in order to better participate and keep pace with Him in the hastening of His work.  For some, this may also mean what weapons of rebellion will we lay down in order to participate and keep pace.  This is when we give everything we have in order to receive the maximum blessing - for the wonderful people in these great Stakes, Wards, and Branches we've been blessed to be called to serve with.  750 horsepower was interesting but now that we know we have 1,000 available, nothing else will do!

Will you from this day forward be changed? 

Will you be better planners? 

Will you be more Complete Missionaries? 

Will you become better teachers in all things - especially the Pamphlets? 

Will you use the District DVDs as game film and learn all that is to learn from them and then "go and do"? 

Will you be fully accountable to the Lord "in all things" and wise stewards of your time - the time He has given you to serve Him? 

Will you better teach Sabbath Day observance so that people can repent and receive a "fullness of joy" and a "fullness of the earth"?

Will you cease to use the Book of Mormon as a quote book and challenge your investigators to begin their lifelong journey to read and study it so that they may "avoid temptation, resist evil, and avoid deception"? 

Will you engage in JustServe in a way that will bless lives and open doors?

Will you work to achieve Preach My Gospel Baptisms so that 80% of those in attendance can go on to be baptized?

Will you covenant with the Lord as you do these things to bless you and your area with souls to Find, Teach, Baptize, and Rescue? 

I promise that as you do these things a legacy will be built.  You will be able to point to this mission for years to come, long after we've been here and be pleased to say: "We made decisions to do things differently, more of, become better at, and even layed down weapons of rebellion in order to better participate and keep pace with the Lord in the hastening of His work that established a legacy called the California Fresno Mission.

I send my love and appreciation for all you do, all you are, and all you can be in this great work!

President Clark

Senior Couple Dinner 1-2015

Senior Couples bring so much to the any mission and we are blessed with the best of them all.  It is such a blessing each month when we gather for food, great conversation and a mission update from the President that reminds all of us the importance of the work each couple is participating in.  We love our Senior Couples and will miss the Cooks, Mahlums, and Barretts.  We welcome the Redds with open arms and look forward to their service.

Elder Jackson and Elder Shepherd helped with transportation and picked "a few"
oranges and grapefruits
 from the backyard. 

President Donaldson and Brother Tanner

We were blessed to have President Donaldson (former MP of the California San Diego Mission) and Brother Tanner with us from the Missionary Department to teach a leadership conference on how to become better Preach My Gospel Planning and Teaching Missionaries.  They blessed our mission!!!!  Thanks President Donaldson and Brother Tanner!!!! 

PRESIDENT'S WEEKLY - Ask Not Amiss

Ask Not Amiss

Dear Elders and Sisters:

Asking amiss is to ask things we ought not to ask for.  I know you don't do this as missionaries.  If you will follow the spirit in your prayers and pray for those things the "spirit teacheth" you to pray for, you will not be "asking amiss".  I know, in accordance with the spirit, that praying to find families to teach is a good thing and is in alignment with the Lord's will.  What I promise you is that if you will pray for families to teach the quality of your teaching pools will go up and you will find families to teach as well as people who are family oriented.  This will bless the work at a time that He is hastening His work. 

"Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God." (2 Nephi 4:35

Two of our Elders in the Hanford Zone were praying for a family to teach.  They are a testimony of following the Spirit in their prayers.  Last week the family Baeza was baptized - a family of 7.  What a wonderful blessing for that family and what a great work to be involved in for these missionaries.  "How great shall be [their] joy!"

My prompting today is to encourage you to pray diligently for families to teach and I promise you as you do, the Lord will place the opportunity to do so in your life.  I know that asking for this blessing is in accordance with His will and Hastening. 

We love and pray for you and look forward to learning with you in Specialized Training this week.  It will be inspirational, instructional, and life changing.  I promise you this will be the case as you come prepared to receive.

With much love and appreciation for all you do to participate with Him in the Hasting of His work,

President Clark

PRESIDENT'S WEEKLY - The Greatest Single Tool

                                                       The Greatest Single Tool

Dear Elders and Sisters:

I want to start out by thanking you for your goodness.  You are such great missionaries!  You do "works of goodness"!  Your hearts are aligned with God's will and "you have desires to serve him" and "serve Him with all your hearts, might, mind, and strength that you may stand blameless before God at the last day."  As we say in our Culture, "You are worthy, obedient, committed, and focused and are serving with No Regrets!"  Thank you!

I have been so impressed by the manner in which you have accepted and carried out (or are carrying out) my Book of Mormon Challenge.  It has been a blessing in your lives and a blessing to this mission.  You have also blessed my life as you have shared your spiritual experiences with me in your weekly letters.  I believe your investment in reading the Book of Mormon with such intensity has added to the rising tide that is lifting all boats in this mission.  Thank you for your commitment to excellence!

President Ezra Taft Benson, the great Book of Mormon prophet and featured this month in our Ensign, said: "The Book of Mormon is the greatest single tool the Lord has given us for the conversion of the world."  That is absolutely powerful!  The Book of Mormon brings men to Christ through two basic means;

1. It teaches in plain manner of Christ and His doctrines, and

2. It confounds false doctrines and lays down contention.

In D&C 42:12 we are instructed to teach from it.  In Section 20:17-31 it makes clear what we are to teach and all of these doctrines are abundant in the Book of Mormon.  We should liken it unto ourselves (see 1 Nephi 19:23) and very importantly "every man must judge for himself" if the Book of Mormon is not "his (the Savior's) words" (see 2 Nephi 33:11).  This has been pressing upon me to a great degree lately. 

What is your love for this book?  How much do you use it to assist in the conversion of souls?  Do they have firm testimonies of its truthfulness as revealed by the Holy Ghost?  Do they "hunger and thirst" to read it or are they simply complying with your challenges?  I submit that the level of their interest in the Book of Mormon, the degree to which they desire to read it, and the value they place upon it in their conversion and walk as Saints and Disciples will be directly correlated to how you feel about the Book of Mormon.

So, do you view the Book of Mormon as a Prophet of God views it - as the "greatest single tool the Lord has given us for the conversion" of the people we seek to convert here in the great CFM?  As you have just finished or are about to finish an intense study of it, what will you do next?  Will you chalk that up as having complied with your priesthood leader's challenge and move on, reading it again next year or in the future?  Or will you continue to search it for doctrine, read and study it with intensity, and use it in a powerful way as you Find, Teach, Baptize, and Rescue?  My promise to you is President Benson's promise: It is "the greatest single tool" we have to assist us in the conversion of these great people so I encourage you to take it to them.  Give them the opportunity, challenge, and motivation to discover what you know to be true.  Help them judge "if they are not the words of Christ....for Christ will show unto [them], with power and glory that they are His words."

To this I add my sincere testimony that this Book is a treasure, a blessing, and the "greatest single tool the Lord has given us for the conversion of the" people in this mission.  I love it and cannot let a day go by that I don't read from it, sup from it, and relish in its teachings and doctrines.  I believe firmly in President Benson's great promise and testimony that... "It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called ‘the words of life’ (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance.”

Please know how much I love and appreciate you and all you do that blesses the Work of Salvation in the CFM,

President Clark

The President and I attended two baptisms tonight, we wish we could attend all of the baptisms throughout the valley, but - - - it's just not possible.  These two baptisms were wonderful.  

Baptism of Maryann, Derek and Danity by their dad and husband Brother Bechtel with Elder Jalla and Elder Mo'o

Elder Fraser with Shayna Vu, Rosemary Vu and Elder Knapton - who, by the way, has been out in the field for 11 days!