Dear
Missionaries
We
will have the blessing of Elder and Sister Kopischke coming to our Mission Tour
next week. We will have Zone Conference on Wednesday and Thursday (12th
and 13th of February) from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. We will be at the
Miami Lakes Chapel for the South four Zones on Wednesday and at the Boynton
Beach Chapel for the North four Zones on Thursday. Come early and prepare
yourselves to be taught by an amazing teacher.
The
more I read the Book of Mormon, the more I see how much it centers on Jesus
Christ and the Atonement. As you all know, The Atonement is one of the greatest
doctrines we teach; it is part of our “Purpose”; it is part of our own
conversion. I see how when prophets become converted with Jesus Christ
and the Atonement, they are not concerned about themselves so much anymore, but
they are concerned for others. Great examples in the Book of Mormon are:
Lehi
(2 Nephi 2:6-8)
Jacob
(Jacob 4:12)
Enos
(Enos 5-9)
Abinadi
(Mosiah 11:20-21)
Alma
(Mosiah 18:1-2)
Alma
the Younger & the four sons of Mosiah (Mosiah 27:28, 29, 32-33)
King
Lamoni and his Father (Alma 19:31, 33, Alma 22:23)
And
there are many others. I hope you read and ponder these scriptures and apply
them to you and your desire to share the Gospel because of your increasing
testimony of Jesus Christ and his Atonement.
Another
example is when Nephi (young and desirous like you) became converted with the
words of his Father:
“And
it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being
large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of
God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit
me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been
spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my
brothers.”(1 Nephi 2:16)
As
the truths are made known to him by the power of the “Holy Spirit”, his desire
increases to be obedient and to share with his brothers these joyous truths of
God:
“And
I spake unto Sam, making known unto him the things which the Lord had
manifested unto me by his Holy Spirit. And it came to pass that he believed
in my words.
But,
behold, Laman and Lemuel would not hearken unto my words; and being grieved
because of the hardness of their hearts I cried unto the Lord for them.”(1
Nephi 2:17-18)
Nephi’s
desires to share the truths of Jesus Christ and the Atonement increased from
sharing it with others, to praying (crying) “unto the Lord for them”. The Lord
now blesses Nephi with additional blessings:
“And
it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Blessed art thou,
Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with
lowliness of heart.
And
inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall
be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you;
yea, a land which is choice above all other lands.”(1 Nephi 2: 19-20)
The
Lord now doesn’t just give Nephi the manifestation of The Spirit of these
truths, the Lord “spake unto” Nephi. He received a greater level
of communication with God because of his great faith and belief. He is not only
sharing his testimony, he is praying (crying) “unto the Lord for them”. He then
is blessed that he “shall prosper”.
Missionaries,
this increase level of communication can be yours. The Lord will not just give
you the good and peaceful feelings of the Holy Ghost, but he will “speak” to
you. This will come as promptings, inspiration, light and understanding, and
revelation. Joseph Smith said “Salvation cannot come without revelation; it
is vain for anyone to minister without it”.(PMG p.89)
Again
I say, hearken ye elders of my church, whom I have appointed: Ye are not sent
forth to be taught, but to teach the children of men the things which I have
put into your hands by the power of mySpirit;
And
ye are to be taught from on high. Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed
with power, that ye may give even as I have spoken. (D&C 43:15-16)
People
feel the Atonement through you as you teach and serve them:
“This
week I saw a huge miracle! We were harvesting down a road and saw a woman
working pretty hard outside her home...we decided to go up and talk to her
anyways! She immediately stopped the work she was doing on her house and she
had us say a prayer. She felt the spirit so strong and she said that
she'd be baptized. We found out she was moving in tomorrow and offered to help
out! She gladly accepted! We told her we would love to help and share a message
with all who are coming! She was happy to hear that too!! When we came,
there was a HUGE moving truck and only her and her husband showed up, they
had no one else. We helped, and then when we sat down to share the
Restoration with them her husband just prefaced it by saying ‘my wife told me
God sent two angels to help us today and I doubted but then, you showed up and
I feel clarity right now; there's no confusion, so I just wanted to say, I know
God sent you."
They
are feeling the influence of the Atonement as you boldly bare testimony and
bless their lives:
“...
Right as we got ready to say the prayer with this [irreverent] family, a man
walked over to the edge of the grass up along the fence. He just stood there
waiting and waiting. After the prayer we looked up and he was still over there.
He was a man with a Big, Big, Beard and kind of looked scary. WELL after we
finished everything with this family my companion and I begin to walk off
towards this guy with the beard that had been waiting. As we approached his
direction, he walked over to us and said. ‘Hey guys I don't want you coming
over here to this house or neighborhood anymore. The people around here are
crazy and the cops are always here’. We thanked him for warning us and looking
out for us and then we had the prompting to share a prayer with him as well. So
I looked over at my companion and then this man and said ‘Hey can we say a
prayer with you that comes from God? You helped us now the least we can do for
you is offer a prayer for you!’ He said sure!... We said the prayer and
afterwards we asked “how do you feel?’ He said amazing, and we testified and
told him that was the Spirit of God and we invited him to follow those
promptings by being baptized just like Jesus Christ was. He looked at us
straight in the eyes and said, ‘I want to, but I can't. I'm a SINNER!’ We told
him that Jesus Christ died for him and will give him the strength to become sin
free. He smiled and with joy and hope in his eyes he said... ‘ yes elders I’ll
try and do my best to prepare to be baptized on Jan 21st!!’ WELL, I was a
witness of this man, literally changing his entire life for the better in 3
weeks. Changing it to become more like Christ. He went from smoking 3 packs of
cigarettes a day, to as of Friday last week smoking ZERO!!! He did it! He
stopped! God gave him the power and the strength. The scripture that kept him
going the entire way was Alma 7:15 which talks about literally allowing Jesus
Christ to remove the bands of sin from us. It was a blessing and a miracle to
see him baptized and confirmed into the Church of Jesus Christ...!!!”
They
feel the influence of the Atonement as you teach and bare testimony of
Doctrine:
“We
had gotten an investigator to church two Sundays ago. What is
interesting is that when we were trying to get her to come to church that week
we had just come back from [a training] and she was the first Doctrine,
Principle, Application lesson that we used. We felt a little awkward in
the format but we were amazed by the results. She was clearly able to
link coming to church with feeling the Spirit and receiving the forgiveness
that she was looking for! When she came to church she loved it and the baptism
that followed. Early in that week we tried to stop by her again when
suddenly, out of nowhere, she dropped off the face of the earth. Her
parents didn't know where she was, she wasn't responding to our phone calls, we
had no idea what to do. That whole week we tried calling and calling
again and again with no success and when we stopped by at her parent's place
she was never home. We didn't know what to do or what had happened ...
On Thursday of this past week we finally decided we needed to drop her.
That morning we knelt for ‘mighty prayer’ and without mentioning her or
the fact that we had dropped her we told the Elder praying, the people we
needed prayers for. As he knelt to pray he began the prayer and I was
surprised when her name was mentioned. ‘Please bless that she will call
and that she will be baptized this Sunday.’ As he prayed I thought that
it could happen. A little later another MIA investigator called us and
told us she had prayed about Joseph Smith and that she was ready to be
baptized. She's amazing and is getting baptized this Sunday. We
thought that that was God's way of answering his prayer but later on that
morning as we went out harvesting our phone rang and my companion looked up
surprised. ‘It's her!’ She was calling to say she had just gotten
in from out of town and wanted to meet back up with us. We visited her in
the park and she told us that she had been visiting with her grandparents in
the hospital. They were suffering from smoke related diseases and as she
watched them go through that she had pondered on what we had said about the
Word of Wisdom and baptism as well. ‘I haven't touched a cigarette since
we last talked and I am thinking of being baptized this Sunday.’ She was
and is amazing! God is a God of tender mercies!”
I
know that praying for those you find and sharing the great message of Jesus
Christ and the Atonement will give you additional “Power and Authority”, and
you will have a greater level of communication with God to invite. Some time
ago a District Leader shared with me the following:
“This week has been a great one as I was able to teach my district the importance of accessing the Atonement. We were all edified in the training and we were taught by the Spirit knowing the things that we need to do differently in our lives. After the Training on Tuesday, my companion and I were so excited to go out. We went out with the attitude that we would teach this to our investigators that we would be teaching that day and invite them all to be baptized. We went out that day with so much excitement and with the Spirit and we were able to set 8 baptismal dates that day. It was absolutely incredible what can happen when we really internalize our purpose because when we do that, we rely on the Spirit and when we follow the promptings immediately we are led to those that are prepared.”
Missionaries,
keep inviting to access the Atonement through baptism as you help them feel the
influence of the Atonement. Keep inviting to the special ordinances of Church,
baptism and confirmation. I promise you the same blessings of Nephi, God
will speak to you.
Our resolution is to achieve 175 Baptisms !!! February can be our miracle month!!!
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!!! God will speak to
and through you!!!
President Don E. Anderson
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