Letter From The President October 6, 2013...

Dear Missionaries,

What an amazing General Conference!!! I loved everything from the beginning with President Monson sharing with us the growth of missionaries to 80,000 and the Church membership at 15 million; to the end when President Monson said a temporary farewell until the next Conference. I pray that all of you received the revelatory guidance that you worked so hard and prepared for towards this sacred event. As I have told you before, General Conference will never be the same, and you will never be the same because of General Conference. That is exactly how the Lord intended this great blessing in our lives. Much was talked about concerning our partnership with members in the “Hastening the Work of Salvation” including Elder Ballard’s challenge that everyone have someone prepared to be taught by the missionaries before Christmas. That truly can be a “White Christmas” throughout the world, especially our mission. Please remember to review and study these prophetic words and teachings that we all had the blessings to experience. They will give you additional faith, Spirit, and power in your pursuit to represent our Savior Jesus Christ.

As with the words we heard at General Conference, we will need to trust in the prophetic counsel that we were given. On occasion I will look at the back of a coin or a dollar bill and see the words “In God We Trust” on the back. It reminds me that putting our trust in God will give us protection and security of the blessings He has promised us.  When we trust in God’s counsel through his servants, we will be blessed and “preserved by his marvelous power” as were the stripling warriors:

“And it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood; nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the foes of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish. … And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God... Because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power. Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually.” (Alma 57:19, 21, 25-27)

As I have said before, when we “go and do” we show our trust in Him. President Eyring teaches us the importance of  trusting the great power of “doing” and in turn, we gain His trust:

“You show your trust in Him when you listen with the intent to learn and repent and then you go and do whatever He asks. If you trust God enough to listen for His message in every sermon, song, and prayer ... you will find it. And if you then go and do what He would have you do, your power to trust Him will grow, and in time you will be overwhelmed with gratitude to find that He has come to trust you.” (President Henry B. Eyring. General Conference, October 2010)

We put our trust in God by being obedient and having the faith He will bless us:

“So on Wednesday I entered the area and there wasn't much work that had been done so far in the week, so there was a lot to do.  We got home and knew that we had to leave eight blessings by the end of the night in order to be obedient.    While looking around the neighborhood... I truly felt that this was the place we needed to be to find people to baptize.  I talked about it with my companion and he said he felt the same, so we locked up the bikes, said a prayer, and got to working.  Well as soon as we started we saw the miracles start to come.  We met a man...  who felt like he was at the end of his rope.  We testified that Christ had sent us there to pray for him at that time and as we prayed the Spirit was so strong.  He accepted the invitation to be baptized and when we went back later in the week to follow up with him he shared with us the fruits he had seen from the blessing.  He had been out of work for almost 5 months but he told us that the day after we left the prayer with him he had gotten a call from a friend about a job offer.  He was able to get that job and he truly does know that we were sent by God.  He said that he had seen the other missionaries pass by his house all the time and that he had always wanted to talk to them ...  I know that Heavenly Father guided us to him and his family so that they could get that blessing and begin to progress towards making a covenant with Him.”

We put our trust in God that His Spirit will direct us:

“On Thursday, we felt that we should go harvest this [place] we hadn't knocked before. The third door in, we knock and the door opens immediately. The lady gives us a somewhat suspicious look and we returned it with smiles and introduced ourselves as representatives of Christ. She said that she had just been debating whether or not to go to church, and then she prayed for the energy to go. Right as she was about to walk out we knocked on the door. We began to pray with her, and as we prayed, she began to cry. After the prayer ... We testified to her that that peaceful feeling was the spirit, and when we invited her to be baptized, her jaw dropped and she said ‘Are you serious!?’ She couldn't believe it, she told us that she had been thinking and pondering a lot about if she was ready for baptism and she had prayed and said to God ‘If you think I'm ready, send me something’. ...  When we [returned] on Saturday, her friend just happened to be there. As we got the lesson going, we began to direct our teaching at both of them, and because of the inspired lesson we created, they both committed to baptism and church! He is as elect as she is and the Lord just dropped him right in our path. Miracle! They both came to church yesterday and loved it... and are getting baptized this weekend! Conference and two baptisms, how's that for a transfer week miracle!?”

We put our trust in God as we endure and keep going:

“As we stood introspecting the Spirit was able to guide us, and my companion said, ‘We need to keep going with just this next floor.’ We continued and something amazing happened. The first door we knocked a nice younger lady opened the door. Immediately and without introduction this lady cried out, ‘I need a blessing from you guys! Thank you so much for coming!’ ... we said the prayer and an amazing Spirit filled the air around us. She smiled the biggest smile. Then as soon as the prayer ended she exclaimed, ‘I feel so good right now! I'm feeling Gods spirit and you guys have no idea how much this means to me.’ A little taken back we invited her to be baptized to which she said, ‘Of course I will! I need to follow the Spirit!’ We were both amazed. Nellie came to church yesterday! She loved everything about it. When we followed up with her afterward as we taught her she would randomly exclaim things like, ‘You guys were sent from God!’ and ‘Why couldn't God have sent you a week ago? I've needed this my entire life!’ and even, ‘I prayed that God would send me something and you angels showed up.’”

Our trust in God through His servants will increase our faith, and that increase in faith will show God that we are willing to follow His Son’s example, and to represent Him. We increase our faith in Him because we are relying that He knows what is best for us.  As Elder Oaks teaches: 

“Faith must include trust... When we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must have trust in him. We must trust him enough that we are content to accept his will, knowing that he knows what is best for us... The Savior gave us the model for that kind of faith and trust. Remember how he prayed to the Father in the agony of Gethsemane? This was the culminating event of his life, the climactic fulfillment of his mission as our Savior... “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done” (JST, Luke 22:42). Here we see the Savior’s absolute faith and trust in the Father. “Nevertheless,” he said, “not my will, but thine be done.”... But though the Son’s request was denied, his prayer was answered. The scripture records: “And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him” (JST, Luke 22:43). Strengthened from heaven to do the will of the Father, the Savior fulfilled his mission. (Elder Dallin H. Oaks, General Conference,  April 1994)

God will trust us and “deliver” us as we have more faith in Him and trust His will:

"But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him and serve him with all diligence of mind if ye do this he will according to his will and pleasure deliver you." (Mosiah 7:33)

Let us get 1500+, 8 by Wednesday, 5 dates, 5 to Church,  500 N.I., 400 MPL, 250 to Church. 200 Dates & 175 Baptisms !!!

You are Amazing!!! You are Incredible!!! You are Wonderful!!! And you are in the “Exciting Mission”!!! Remember our promise and that our names will be sealed in the Temple!!!

We Love you, We Pray For You, We can do this, We have work to do!!! Let us “Prepare for the Prophets with Elder Oaks”!!! Trust in God and He will trust in us!!!

 

President Don E. Anderson