President's Weekly - Unleashed!!!

Unleashed!!!

Dear Elders and Sisters:

That's the theme, the "Battle Cry", the Missionary Purpose "Chant" all through the Mission!  So many of your letters this week shared some amazing "Find when you Teach" Less-Actives and Part-Members accounts.  We won't be able to measure this empirically for a few weeks yet, but my sense is our finding of people to teach through Less-Actives and Part-Members has gone up.  And so, I thank you!  Well done!  

As you write me this week, please report how you are doing on your commitment to find and teach 10 to 20 more Less-Actives and Part-Members in your areas.  And please keep this effort up as well as all of the other great things you should be doing as a Missionary.  Remember, don't stop finding on your own, keep your Line in the Water, Open Your Mouth and seek to have effective MCMs and be available to teach with Home and Visiting Teachers assigned to Less-Actives and Part-Members.  Be "Unleashed" in this great effort!  All in!  Fully Invested!  And we will better participate and keep pace with the Lord as He hastens His work (D&C 88:73).

Also, Sister Clark and I want to compliment you on your teaching.  It has greatly improved and every baptism we are able to attend we hear wonderful Interlude Teachings by Missionaries who have clearly "Treasured Up the Word" and role played to invite the Holy Ghost in their teaching in wonderful ways.  You are really doing a great job of making it easy for the Holy Ghost to do His job.  Again, I say, "Well done"!

And lastly, I share with you a thought from Elder Schwitzer:  "Investigators who learn how to repent, make the best members.  Missionaries who teach investigators how to repent are the most successful Missionaries."  Again, we see the need to follow the Prophets - "Teach Repentance and [you will] Baptize Converts!"

We send our love to you!  You are wonderful and amazing and we stand in awe of your diligent, faithful, dedicated, and focused way you serve in exact obedience and a willingness to sacrifice.  You are truly learning Heaven's ways here in the Great CFM.

With great love!

President Clark

President's Weekly - Prepare! Work! Teach!

Prepare! Work! Teach!

Dear Elders and Sisters:

It was such a blessing to be with you in Zone Conference this past week, Sister Clark and I offer our sincere appreciation to you for coming prepared to receive and leaving changed, rather than simply entertained.  We are grateful you choose to be great Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel Missionaries and sincerely appreciate that you will seek to "Find when you Teach" Less-Actives and Part-Member families.  You are hereby "unleashed" to do so.  We believe as you do so, you will experience what the Assistants taught, "Baptisms in Bulk"!  

This focus to "Find when you Teach" Less-Actives and Part-Members cannot come at the expense of anything else.  You must continue to find on your own always having your Line-in-the-Water and always, always Opening Your Mouth!  Don't allow anything else to slip or slide.  Just do more!  Sacrifice more and the Lord will give you more!  

Yesterday we were blessed to visit with Elder Jackson Frame, a former CFM Missionary.  He shared that he had visited another mission recently where he went out with the Elders to work.  He noted how they didn't Open their Mouths to Everyone.  He couldn't be restrained because that was how he was trained.  After a few hours, the Elders he was working with told him how amazing the experience was and how they were going to Open their Mouths to Everyone!  I encourage you to keep the "Flame of Faith" burning brightly in regard to how you Open your Mouth to everyone and always have your Line in the Water!  This will be the foundation of your increased efforts to "Find when you Teach" Less-Actives and Part-Members!  No backwards walking here, my friends!  Only forward!  Onward and upward in this great cause!!!

We were blessed to be in Porterville's Stake Conference Saturday and Sunday with Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer of the Seventy.  Elder Schwitzer presided over one of the Siberian Missions in Russia, which geographically was larger than the continental United States.  He was later called to the Seventy and is a Member of the Missionary Committee. He said something that really impressed me about our teaching as Missionaries and the need to "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts".  He shared that Investigators who are taught how to repent by the Missionaries are more likely to get baptized and more likely to remain faithful in the church...because they know how to repent!  He further said they are seeing evidence that Missionaries who "Teach Repentance" baptize more converts!  

There is always much to do, remember, and remain focused on, isn't there!  There seems to be a sequence here that blesses.  Can you see it?  It is PREPARE by becoming great Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel Missionaries!  WORK by having your Line in the Water, Opening Your Mouth to Everyone, and Finding when you Teach, be it Investigators or Less-Actives and Part-Members!  And TEACH Repentance [to] Baptize Converts!  

Isn't it great to be a Mormon Missionary, especially in the great CFM where we work diligently every day to accomplish these things and more!  And this we do to show the Lord our love and appreciation for Him and His infinite sacrifice for us. We do it because we love Him!  It certainly is a great day to be a CFM Missionary!!!!

We love you, pray for you always, and have every confidence in you as Servants of the Lord, Jesus Christ!

With much love,

President Clark

Zone Conferences 5-2017

Zone Conference: Always the best time to be sure!  It is such a delight to gather with these wonderful missionaries and work diligently to increase as "Complete Missionaries" in order to better live our Missionary Purpose!  They come so prepared, willing, and eager to learn and leave with a renewed commitment to be the very best Missionaries in the Word!!!!  And they are!!!!

Fresno West, Merced Zones

Back Row, Left to Right: Elders Lopez, Derbidge, Woodmansee, Wright Corless, Merrill, 
Keeley, Arebalo, Herman, Strommen, Wright, Allen, Carnahan
Third Row, Left to Right: Elders Ekpo, Bingham, Jensen, Anderson, Bishop, Austin, 
Wilmoth, James, Estrada, Morrison, Gray, Atkinson, Perkins, Quinn
Standing, Left to Right: Sisters Rhodus, Peterson, Whitney, Jordan, Jeppesen, Troseth, 
Feldman, Sprouse, Anderson, Balls
 Front Row, Left to Right: Sisters Jefferies, Maxwell, Elder & Sister Marcom, President & Sister Clark, Sister & Elder Richards, Sister & Elder van Uitert, Brother Sanchez

Departing Missionaries

Elder Perkins, Sister Anderson, Elder Arebalo

The President's favorite color of shoes - BROWN!

Fresno, Fresno East, Fresno North

Back Row, Left to Right; Elders Witt, Byrd, Aguilar, Bagley, White, Lillywhite, Park, Smith, Stegelmeier, Fischer, Crosby, Tongish, Perez, Morales, Davis, Edwards, Noyes
Third Row, Left to Right; Elders LaMay, Rose, Mederos, Cummings, Ikimau, Garner, Biggs, Smith, Rushton, Rogers, Pettit, Sparks, King, Nesom
Second Row, Left to Right; Elders Lopez, Gumiran, Davis, Sisters Kelly, Rendon, Plummer, Sheffield, Elders Ellestad, Lopez, Yskes, Larson, Carnahan, Quinn
Front Row, Left to Right; Sister Neilson, Sister & Elder Gunderson, Sister & Elder Bradshaw, President and Sister Clark, Sisters Frazier, Padilla, Tompkins, Eastman, Miller, Baldwin

Departing Missionaries 

Elder Davis & Elder Cummings

    

President's favorite color of shoes - BROWN

Porterville, Visalia, Hanford Zones

Back Row, Left to Right: Elders Talbot, McGraw, Stakebake, Jones, Lilly, Stojka,
Richardson, Frei, Thornton, White, Paukovic, Vawdrey, Schaff, Rust, Ennis, Nielson,
Flores, Tapia, Halliday, Lopez
Third Row, Left to Right: Elders Nielsen, Del Carmen, Taylor, Blume, Mendez, Muir, Wilson, Sullivan, Fernandez, Watts, Matienzo, Mussin, Baconawa, Kennick, Richardson, Gollner
Standing, Left to Right: Elders Carnahan, Burke, Millburn, Gibson, Facer, Quinn, Maas,
 Kloepfer, Kauai, Mountford
Seated, Left to Right: Sisters Kokol, Gough, Malpica, Jones, Pachner, Murray, Dixon, Sister & President Clark, President Howard (Visalia Stake President),  Elder & Sister Lilya,
Sisters Vogel, Tatakamotonga, White, Jeffrey, Willmore

Departing Missionaries

Elder Mendez, Elder Talbot

President's Weekly - Close to Scripture!

Close to Scripture!

Dear Elders and Sisters,

Last week I wrote about the Book of Mormon.  This week I feel guided to write to you about Preach My Gospel.  

In 3 Nephi 26, just after the Prophet editor Mormon is lamenting his inability to write everything that was recorded but offering his reassurance he (and his son) abridged the records for the "intent" to bless the Gentiles, appears this verse: 9. "And when they shall receive this (the Book of Mormon), which is expedient they shall have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe these things then shall the 'greater things be made manifest unto them.'" I have always wondered what the "greater things" would be. Being a lover of the Book of Mormon, in my prideful moments, I often think I am ready for these "greater things". 

The more I study Preach My Gospel coupled with my understanding of how it was written and who wrote it, I believe it fits this category of "greater things [to] be made manifest." I absolutely love each and every chapter in it!  You have heard me reference "Complete Missionaries" and much of that reference is to your required knowledge of Preach My Gospel.  While I believe this to be the base case missionary - familiar with and versed in Preach My Gospel - I am pleased with how versed so many of you are with Preach My Gospel. I often hear reference to it in casual conversation, I have enjoyed teaching appointments with missionaries teaching with it and from it.  And I have been blessed to enjoy trainings where you have referenced it, trained from it, or referred to it for scriptural passages. Well done, I say, Well Done!!!  

But I do believe we can and should do better.  In each of the last Zone Conferences we've asked a question to discern your obedience and commitment in regard to Preach My Gospel.  It is: "Have you studied each of the chapters in Preach My Gospel during the last six weeks?"  It has been shared with me that to a few Missionaries "study" in this context may mean "glanced at" or "looked over for a few minutes".  I remember once in an interview with a Missionary I inquired as to how his study of Preach My Gospel was going and he looked at me curiously and then gave a response that saddened me.  His response was: "I read it in the MTC.  Should I read it again?"  No!  No!  No!  Don't you dare treat Preach My Gospel that way!  It is an inspired volume and will bless your life as a Missionary almost as much as your STUDY of the Book of Mormon. 

In 3 Nephi 27:25 it states; "Out of the books that have been written, and which shall be written, shall this people be judged..." Therefore, I believe we will be held accountable and judged for what is in Preach My Gospel as one of the "books...which shall be [has been] written". I hope and pray you continue to make Preach My Gospel part of your everyday study. 

President Cleveland, former Stake President of the Fresno Stake now serving as Mission President in Michigan Detroit, shared with me that when Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was here he stated relative to Preach My Gospel: "That's about as close to scripture as anything we've seen in a long time from the Twelve."

Thank you for continuing to be great Preach My Gospel missionaries in your effort to be Complete Missionaries. If you need to be more invested in Preach My Gospel, please become more invested.  I promise it will bless your ministry in countless ways.

Thank you for your goodness, your love and support, your faith and prayers, and the inspired way in which you move the work of salvation forward. 

Sister Clark and I look forward to being with you in Zone Conference this week.  Please come prepared to receive revelation and plan on leaving changed, not just entertained.  

With much love,

President Clark