In Sync with The Lord II and Thank You Sister Morphy
Dear Elders and Sisters:
First of all, I am accounting to you that I read your letters to me but please pardon me for not being able to respond to them this past week. Transfer week, coupled with Stake Conference and a few extra meetings and projects precluded me from doing so. I hope such weeks will be few and far between as I so enjoy my exchange of thoughts, feelings, ideas and testimony in our weekly letters.
Sister Clark and I were in Stake Conference in the Turlock Stake on Saturday and Sunday which was a great blessing. Good President Wilden gave us the opportunity to talk about the Hastening of The Work on Sunday. Sister Clark's talk was incredible and so preparatory for what I had felt impressed to share. I wanted to demonstrate just how much the Lord is doing as He hastens His work. I wanted to follow the model Elder Johnson had demonstrated two weeks before in Modesto's Stake Conference where he had the Zone Leaders teach a Member during which she received a name of one of her acquaintances whom the Lord had prepared to hear the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (see "In Sync with the Lord"). I had been praying to know which Member the Lord had prepared to participate in this spiritual teaching. I asked President Wilden Saturday evening to seek a name also and to counsel me the next morning before Conference began. I prayed diligently during the night to know who the Lord had prepared. When we arrived at Stake Conference we didn't have much time to talk with many of the Members. Bishop and Sister Morphy were sitting near the front and stood up to shake our hands. I chatted with them briefly and the Lord told me she was the one. When I got to the rostrum and asked President Wilden if he had received any impressions, he said: "Well, you've got Sister Morphy here in the front and she would be very good." I was overwhelmed! How good is the Lord! He too had received the same name I had. When the Zone Leaders taught her the first few principles of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Spirit told me: "She had received a name" so I stopped then and asked her. She was somewhat overcome. She said she had been thinking of a person all morning and knew now why his name had been on her mind. She knew he would be blessed to hear the message the Missionaries had been teaching and agreed to invite him into their home with the Missionaries to receive the message. Whether or not he accepts and moves forward will be his decision. The Lord is completely committed to each and every person's free will. But Sister Morphy has done her part as a Member Missionary and the Lord knows He can trust her. Thank you, Sister Morphy!
In the CFM boundaries are 1.85 million people and 55,500 of them are waiting to receive the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and be baptized into His church. 260 Missionaries is interesting but 40,000 Member Missionaries is powerful. These 40,000 Members know most of the 55,500 who are prepared. As you as set apart Missionaries enter each home with the objective to increase faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by teaching principles from Preach My Gospel, the Members will have revealed to them names of people they know who the Lord has been preparing to receive His gospel. The Spirit will prompt you to then ask this question: "Who has the Lord revealed to you who would be blessed by this message?"
Quoting from Elder Johnson's counsel in a letter he sent to me after the Modesto Stake Conference: "Missionaries should teach active as well as less active Members principles of the missionary lessons. Missionaries are first and foremost teachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what they teach are the forty two principles contained in the five missionary lessons. They should never enter a home without:
1. Praying
2. Teaching a principle
3. Testifying
4. Asking what names came to the minds of those they taught during the lesson"
You have to believe that the Holy Ghost will put those names in their minds. You must also remember that you have two purposes of entering a home. The first purpose is to increase faith in Jesus Christ in the hearts of those you teach. The second purpose is to discover the names of people that you should teach, and those will be given to the minds of those you teach as you teach by the power of the Holy Ghost. Every lesson should increase faith and provide new people to teach. If by the spirit you know you didn't accomplish objective #1 - Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, please do not move to #2. Please don't teach a lesson just to get names of new people to teach. Both purposes are equally important.
As we begin this transfer I know we are prepared to advance to the next level. The "New New" is upon us as we serve as consecrated missionaries - worthy, obedient, committed, and focused serving with No Regrets!
With all my love, hope, and prayers!
President Clark
First of all, I am accounting to you that I read your letters to me but please pardon me for not being able to respond to them this past week. Transfer week, coupled with Stake Conference and a few extra meetings and projects precluded me from doing so. I hope such weeks will be few and far between as I so enjoy my exchange of thoughts, feelings, ideas and testimony in our weekly letters.
Sister Clark and I were in Stake Conference in the Turlock Stake on Saturday and Sunday which was a great blessing. Good President Wilden gave us the opportunity to talk about the Hastening of The Work on Sunday. Sister Clark's talk was incredible and so preparatory for what I had felt impressed to share. I wanted to demonstrate just how much the Lord is doing as He hastens His work. I wanted to follow the model Elder Johnson had demonstrated two weeks before in Modesto's Stake Conference where he had the Zone Leaders teach a Member during which she received a name of one of her acquaintances whom the Lord had prepared to hear the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (see "In Sync with the Lord"). I had been praying to know which Member the Lord had prepared to participate in this spiritual teaching. I asked President Wilden Saturday evening to seek a name also and to counsel me the next morning before Conference began. I prayed diligently during the night to know who the Lord had prepared. When we arrived at Stake Conference we didn't have much time to talk with many of the Members. Bishop and Sister Morphy were sitting near the front and stood up to shake our hands. I chatted with them briefly and the Lord told me she was the one. When I got to the rostrum and asked President Wilden if he had received any impressions, he said: "Well, you've got Sister Morphy here in the front and she would be very good." I was overwhelmed! How good is the Lord! He too had received the same name I had. When the Zone Leaders taught her the first few principles of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Spirit told me: "She had received a name" so I stopped then and asked her. She was somewhat overcome. She said she had been thinking of a person all morning and knew now why his name had been on her mind. She knew he would be blessed to hear the message the Missionaries had been teaching and agreed to invite him into their home with the Missionaries to receive the message. Whether or not he accepts and moves forward will be his decision. The Lord is completely committed to each and every person's free will. But Sister Morphy has done her part as a Member Missionary and the Lord knows He can trust her. Thank you, Sister Morphy!
In the CFM boundaries are 1.85 million people and 55,500 of them are waiting to receive the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and be baptized into His church. 260 Missionaries is interesting but 40,000 Member Missionaries is powerful. These 40,000 Members know most of the 55,500 who are prepared. As you as set apart Missionaries enter each home with the objective to increase faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by teaching principles from Preach My Gospel, the Members will have revealed to them names of people they know who the Lord has been preparing to receive His gospel. The Spirit will prompt you to then ask this question: "Who has the Lord revealed to you who would be blessed by this message?"
Quoting from Elder Johnson's counsel in a letter he sent to me after the Modesto Stake Conference: "Missionaries should teach active as well as less active Members principles of the missionary lessons. Missionaries are first and foremost teachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what they teach are the forty two principles contained in the five missionary lessons. They should never enter a home without:
1. Praying
2. Teaching a principle
3. Testifying
4. Asking what names came to the minds of those they taught during the lesson"
You have to believe that the Holy Ghost will put those names in their minds. You must also remember that you have two purposes of entering a home. The first purpose is to increase faith in Jesus Christ in the hearts of those you teach. The second purpose is to discover the names of people that you should teach, and those will be given to the minds of those you teach as you teach by the power of the Holy Ghost. Every lesson should increase faith and provide new people to teach. If by the spirit you know you didn't accomplish objective #1 - Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, please do not move to #2. Please don't teach a lesson just to get names of new people to teach. Both purposes are equally important.
As we begin this transfer I know we are prepared to advance to the next level. The "New New" is upon us as we serve as consecrated missionaries - worthy, obedient, committed, and focused serving with No Regrets!
With all my love, hope, and prayers!
President Clark
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