What I Heard
Dear Elders and Sisters:
It has been inspiring to be with you in your Zone
Meetings this past week and I want to reiterate how appreciative I am of the
great leaders the Lord has called to serve in this mission. You are blessed with wonderful Zone Leaders
who, in an inspired way, organized trainings that will be a blessing to you as
you work diligently and in exact obedience to reach the goals of the units you
are serving in. Thank you to all who
gave trainings for you truly invited a great spirit and instilled greater
desires to better fulfill your missionary purpose.
I heard several things that I want to make sure you
hear. They were inspiring and
instructive and must be shared.
Finding: We must
be ferocious finders! We must always be
finding! It is so important to find
through Members and find on our own! And
if we will have faith and conduct ourselves in exact obedience, the Lord will
put people in our path or us in their path.
Members introduce us to their friends who are five times
more likely to be baptized and as our recent Worldwide Training taught us, we
need to treat them like gold, because they are when it comes to finding people
to teach repentance to and baptize as converts.
This is especially true in the case of finding through less active
members because 90% of their friends are non-members.
It is also extremely important to find on our own because
members don't know everyone and we can be such great finders and often find
golden investigators who become great members of the church. Please consider these two accounts as
examples of what I am sharing with you:
1. Elders Olsen and Draney (on exchange) went to visit a
former who was not home. Elder Draney
felt inspired to talk to some people across the street who were nice but not
that interested. They then saw a little
boy whom they talked to and he took them to his home. HIs Mother answered the door and they offered
to pray with her. She invited them back
for a lesson. Turns out they had just
moved in from Santa Ana and she had been praying to find a church to go
to. Mom and two children will be baptized
this upcoming Saturday and Dad is not far behind. We must always open our mouths. We must always be finding on our own. There was not a member in the valley that
knew this family but the Lord knew them and heard and answered her
prayers....through two missionaries living their purpose.
2. Elders Mo'o and
Checketts a few weeks ago condensed the Ward Mission Plan to a refrigerator
card to help remind members of their need to help find people for the
missionaries to teach. On the heels of
this, one of their great members remembered that a co-worker was looking for a
church for her and her daughter to attend, recently having gone through a
change in her life. She was invited to
church by the members and brought to Gospel Principles class, taught by Elders
Mo'o and Checketts. She will be baptized
this upcoming week. The Elders noted
that this could have only worked through the members. It's not likely they would have ever found
her on their own and even less likely she would have opened the door and
allowed them to teach her even if they had found her on their own but the Lord
knew her and got her to the Church...through members being great Member Missionaries.
Planners and Area Books:
Our planning and maintaining the Area Books are an indication of our
desire to fulfill our missionary purpose, not just administrative things we
do. It is an indication of how we feel
about our investigators (found and yet to be found) and our recent converts.
When the Savior appeared to the ancient Nephites he asked them to "bring
forth the record which ye have kept."
And after He reviewed them he said: "How be it that you have not
written [these] things?" I think the
Savior has made it very clear that records and the manner in which we keep them
are important to Him. What would it be
like to have Him inspect your planner?
Your Area Book? Would they be
complete? Would they be representative
of a Missionary who seeks to fulfill his or her purpose with everything he or
she does pointing to the font?
And as I had this prompting, I also received another
one. What if members, who do so much to
make this work effective, were to review your Area Books, specifically the
teaching records of their friends they have introduced to you to teach the
gospel? Would they be "well
pleased" with what had been recorded or would they repent of having
introduced you to their friend because it was clear you didn't really care
about them enough to record an appropriate accounting of the time and effort
that had been invested in teaching their friends? Again, your investment in planning and how
you keep the area book is about getting to the font and are clear indicators of
how you feel about God’s children and seek to fulfill your missionary purpose.
It's a wonderful time to be a missionary in the
California Fresno Mission. Go forth and
serve with all of your heart, might, mind and strength! Live your missionary purpose in exact obedience
and expect miracles. May the Lord bless
us as we seek to find truth seekers, teach repentance, and baptize
converts!
With much love and appreciation Sister Clark and I send you forth to find truth seekers, teach repentance, and baptize converts,
President Clark
PS Thank you all
for taking Sister Clark's challenge to memorize all of the scriptural references and
topics provided (114 I believe) and to memorize the entire scripture for the
first 15 of the Bible and first 15 of the Book of Mormon references. This will bless your ability to teach
repentance! Sister Clark's teaching and
challenge will bless your life as you seek to fulfill your missionary
purpose!
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