Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement
Dear Elders and Sisters:
What a pleasure and a blessing to be with you in
Specialized Training this week and we thank you for coming so prepared to
receive and trust you left changed, rather than just entertained. There was much preparation put into the
Training and we hope you were blessed by being there. As you know by now you
tend to get out of these trainings what you put into them in the way of
preparation and humility to receive. We
truly hope you were prepared and will now go forth with a greater understanding
and resolve to get more by doing more, in particular, exercising greater faith!
President Nelson has taught: "Faith is not by chance
but by choice." And as we heard
Elder Anderson teach in our Training: "Where faith is present things that
need to happen will happen." I
firmly believe one of the things we need to exercise more faith in are the unit
goals of each of our areas and the Zone goals of each of our Zones. We need to have a faith based confidence
that, since they were developed under inspiration, we will be able to achieve
them since they are the mind and will of the Lord.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught the following on Faith: "Working
by faith is not the mere speaking of a few well-chosen words. Anyone with the power of speech could have
commanded the rotting corpse of Lazarus to come forth but only one whose power
was greater than death could bring life again to the brother of Mary and
Martha. Nor is working by faith merely a
mental desire, however strong, that some eventuality shall occur. There may be those whose mental powers and
thought processes are greater than any of the saints, but only persons who are
in tune with the infinite can exercise the spiritual force and powers that come
from Him."
"Those who work by faith must first have faith; no
one can use a power that he does not possess, and the faith or power must be
gained by obedience to those laws upon which its receipt is predicated...And
then--when the day is at hand and the hour has arrived for the miracle to be
wrought--then they must be in tune with the Holy Spirit of God. Men work by faith when they are in tune with
the Spirit and when what they seek to do by mental exertion and by the spoken
word is the mind and will of the Lord." (New Witness, pp 191-92)
We say it every time we repeat our Missionary Purpose –
“receive the Restored Gospel through ‘Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement’”
but do we really believe it and help investigators understand it? While there is a checklist of things we need
to do, things we ought to say, and how we should approach the work, please
remember it is a spiritual work that requires we exercise great faith. And the faith required is not for just a
season or up to the point we accomplish the last task or items on the
missionary checklist, it is a faith that must be exercised all the way across
the finish line, no matter how difficult that may appear.
One of the great blessings of serving a mission is that
you develop great faith that will lead you to repentance/change which will lead
you to be more worshipful and reverent, especially as you renew sacred
covenants at the Sacrament table each week.
This will lead you to a great endowment of the spirit which in turn will
assist you in great measure as you endure to the end - which is really all
about repeating this process under the temple covenants. So what we are teaching, what our purpose is,
is exactly what the Lord would have you develop personally. There are NOT two doctrines - one that we
teach and a different one that we live.
We live the Doctrine of Christ and we teach the Doctrine of Christ!
I am hopeful and prayerful that it was impressed upon you
how important it is to help investigators develop faith in Jesus Christ and His
Atonement, teach them how to repent, and prepare them for baptism. Yes, we want
you to challenge them to baptism in the first lesson! Yes, we want baptisms, many, many more
baptisms! And I believe the Lord would
have us better help them understand the need to increase their faith in Him, the
Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement and as we do baptism will be a natural
desire of our investigators. I also
believe as you develop greater faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, your desires to
renew sacred baptismal covenants each week will increase and your desire and
willingness to repent will increase.
Again, we need to live what we are teaching and we need to teach all
aspects of our Missionary Purpose!
Please plant seeds of faith! Please allow the Spirit to provide the
initial endowment of faith and then nurture it and allow it to grow through
your good works. It will take work but
it is work that is worth it!
With much love and appreciation for all you do, President
Clark
