It’s “Go and Do Time” for “The Power of One for Many”
Dear Elders and Sisters:
It’s been a wonderful week and month and great credit to
all of you for being such powerful missionaries. I am truly appreciative that Zone Conference
was such a blessing for so many of you and thank you for having come prepared
to receive. I am hearing so many
wonderful accounts where you have simply gone forward and implemented what was
taught with great and immediate success.
This is gratifying to be sure but more importantly it is blessing your
areas, your companionships, and your abilities as Complete Missionaries. Thank you!
Being such great followers makes you great leaders.
August turned out to be just an ok month with just shy of
50 baptisms putting us just north of 500 for the year. It feels like we arrived at the "Red Sea
of 1,000 Baptisms" but were hesitant to go forward. I don't believe we have "Cast Away Our
Confidence" but we haven't really committed to step forward believing the
Lord will provide if we do our part. We
arrive at this point so uniquely qualified and prepared. We have great experience as Missionaries and
as a Mission we've done this before. We
are Complete Missionaries who serve in Exact Obedience seeking to fulfill our
Missionary Purpose. We know how to work
through the Lord's Vision, Talk With Ten, Plan, Find, Teach, and Baptize. So as I said in Zone Conference I'll say it
again here: Go forward! Simply go
forward! You can do this. I know you can
and have complete faith, confidence and trust that you will. It's "Go and Do Time!"
And as you "Go and Do" be careful not to fall
into the trap of find, then teach, then baptize. This is the elevator effect that needs to be
eliminated. The vernacular is Find,
Teach, Baptize as in Always Finding, Always Teaching, and therefore Always
Baptizing. I think one Elder described
this well in his letter this week saying: "I am so excited to baptize
1,000 as a mission this year. Every time we speak of it my heart burns with
fire. I had a sort of mini type of vision and/or thought last night that might
not be completely realistic, but here is my attempt at explaining it to you.
First of all, one of our solids dropped. She had some hidden concerns which we
didn't know about and she was a little apprehensive about sharing. We still
have one solid though, but in this regard I got to thinking about how maybe I
was a little too complacent in the fact that we had 2 solids and so maybe we ‘slowed
down’ a little. Well, the thought came [to me] of completely stacking up
September. Aim high, and go even higher. We are going to make September a month
to remember."
With that I add to my battle cry of its "Go and Do
Time", "The Power of One for Many". I think we often forget that the Power of One
is about every companionship baptizing every month. We get stuck thinking of it as the power to
baptize one each month. Any
companionship in any mission can baptize one person in any given month. But what we seek is the Power that would come
as a result of all of our companionships baptizing every month and to have each
companionship baptize some, many, or several not just one - in other words
families! Don't fall into the trap of
"well, we've got our one for the month" and just focus on that
one. Don’t live beneath your privileges
and blessings! This leads to the
elevator effect and then the sadness that comes when your one falls
through. Focus on many! Always Find!
This attitude and approach will assist you in the Escalator Effect and
avoid the Elevator Effect. Just like the Red Sea of 1,000 Baptisms, you have my
permission to baptize some, many or several in each and every month. Families will be the easiest and please
continue to pray to be blessed to teach and baptize families. Remember, we are not allergic to multiple
baptisms each and every month for each and every companionship. So, it's "Go and Do Time" for
"The Power of One for Many"!
Step forward! You can do this!
Sister Clark and I love you, pray for you, cheer for you,
and are honored to be anxiously engaged with you in this great work.
Love,
President
Clark
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