Letter From The President, April 15, 2014....

Dear Missionaries,

Remember I said we need to keep preparing for the Prophets! We will have the blessing of a Missionary Conference on Saturday, April 19^th at the Coral Springs Chapel at 2:30 to 4:30. We will be taught by Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. We will also have Bishop Gary E. Stevens of the Presiding Bishopric, Elder Erich W. Kopischke of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Elder Stephen E. Thompson of the Seventy attending as well. Prepare diligently for this blessing and I will give you additional details later this week.   

A new video on Mormon.org/BecauseofHim is now available for this Easter week. This will be a wonderful opportunity to share with investigators, less actives, and new converts a short Easter testimony of Jesus Christ. It is only 2 minutes, 45 seconds in length but very powerful to the purpose of our Savior. This Easter week is the last week of the Temple Open House, let’s all get someone there. Amazing miracles have occurred because of it, and what a wonderful opportunity for our non-members to feel the love of our Savior this sacred time of the year. Let us also plan to have a record number of people to Church this Easter Sunday as well as they can experience the celebration of the Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

A missionary once asked me about being diligent with something in a certain area of missionary work and said “I’m not finding much success with it”. I then asked “what is it you are doing wrong?” He was a little surprised at the question and I then asked, “Have you prayed and evaluated what you need to improve? What do you think you need to change to have success?” Many times we get caught in the “Missionary”(pride) cycle waiting for something to happen and fail to initiate, through inspiration, the “change of our circumstance”.

Elder Bednar taught us how the Atonement will give us that enabling power:

“As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed. We will become agents who act rather than objects that are acted upon.” (Elder David A. Bednar, Ensign April, 2012)

Too many of us are constantly looking for things to miraculously happen or work, instead of prayerfully and faithfully evaluating with ourselves as to what is it we could do better. We go through the mechanics of “harvesting”, inviting to be baptized, round-up, teaching, or making and keeping commitments with our nonmember friends. When it doesn’t seem to work, we then pray for something to change instead of praying to change how (application) we do it.  The Lord has promised that He will give us the answers. Lehi also taught us that this ability comes from the enabling power of the Atonement as we act:

“And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.” (2 Nephi 2:14)

“And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.” (2 Nephi 2:26)

We must be agents who “act” in what we are doing and not to wait to be “acted upon”. We must seek the Lord’s help to be a “creator of circumstance” rather than “praying for our circumstance to change”. Everything we do in this Mission and in the Gospel has been inspired of God. We must now learn to “act” on these inspired principles until we see and find the success for us. I know God has given us many tools to “change circumstances” for the benefit of us and others. The miracles we have received in “Harvesting”, “Round-up”, being more “Accountable” just to name a few, have brought amazing blessings to the baptisms of thousands since we have been here. A missionary shared this with me:

“Thank you so much for initiating harvesting in our mission! It has changed my life and taught me that I can call down the blessings of heaven on others. In my setting apart my stake president blessed me that ‘you will become a great prayer; many will [come to the Gospel] and come back to the gospel because of your prayers’. If that isn't a reference to harvesting I don't know what is!”

This is someone who, with faith, has created circumstances with the wonderful tools and resources we have been trained on, and have access to. The Temple currently has been an amazing tool to increase desires and solidify conversion, and so many of you have “created circumstances” with it to progress those you teach:

“This past week we had the opportunity to go through the temple with 2 of our progressing investigators. First, we took one last Saturday, His reaction to the temple was unforgettable he said ‘it’s like a castle’ and "I want to come back as soon as possible". After, we went to the welcome tent and invited Him to be baptized the following day. The temple completely solidified His baptism and He was baptized and confirmed the following day. His mom came to his baptism and I remember Him telling us ‘we need to get her to go see the temple’. The following Tuesday, we had the opportunity to take her through as well. When we asked her ‘what room was your favorite room?’ She said ‘the celestial one, I want to go back there someday!!’ as we all then felt the spirit of her response, we invited her to be baptized the following Sunday. SHE WAS BAPTIZED in between conference sessions! The temple has been such a blessing and the most amazing tool to have a 100% baptismal rate for all we take. Everyone we take to the temple, we will baptize!”

Help others “act upon their circumstances” and answer their own questions of truth:

“We had the opportunity to go to the temple this past week with one of our investigators. He had read a whole lot of Anti-LDS literature throughout his life and has had some serious trouble accepting truth now because of it.  We had him pray about the Book of Mormon earlier in the week and the next day he, indirectly, said it was true.  This wasn't enough, so we had him pray about a question we wrote: ‘Should I be baptized this Sunday?’ and write out his feelings on the paper when he prayed.  The next day we stopped by and we asked how his prayer went.  He said it went ‘Okay’ and we asked him to bring the paper where he wrote his feelings.  He had only written one word to answer the question; ‘Yes’.  It was a miracle.  A member drove us up to the temple shortly after that day ...  We were able to have a tour of just our group and it was amazing.  The spirit was so strong.  The spiritual impressions he received directly from God and from visiting his holy house sealed his conversion.  He was baptized yesterday President.”

Help others “act upon their circumstances” and experience the power of the Gospel:

“He came to church 3 weeks ago ...  After church we tried committing him to a baptismal date for the following Sunday but he still felt as though he wasn't ready. So that week we continued working with him... we were able to help him leave behind smoking, drinking, drugs, etc... He was amazing. He was such a repentant guy! The next Sunday ... he came to church again. He loved it. We tried committing him to another baptismal date for the following Sunday but guess what.... ‘I’m not ready!’ is what he told us. Sad but even more motivated to help him at this point we pondered and thought on what was next. What could we do as the Lord’s representatives to help him get baptized this weekend? We decided... Well he's living the commandments, he's repented, he's coming to church, what more does he need? He needs to have a spiritual experience at the Temple of God. This was on Wednesday  ... we traveled with him over to the temple open house. Oh how beautiful it was. The spirit that connected ... connected him with his Heavenly Father! ... One stop on the tour of the temple was at the recommend desk. There the tour guide explained that after the dedication each person that enters will need a recommend. Well long story short we went through the entire temple feeling of the Spirit of God. That special connection that each of us has. Afterwards we encountered something that I will NEVER EVER forget. As we were looking back at the temple, this time from the outside in, we asked him a question, ‘how did you feel inside God’s house?’ his response was simply ‘I felt good. I need to prepare to get my little paper thingy (recommend) so I can come back!’  It was at that moment we told him that the first step of preparation that he was talking about was his baptism this Sunday ... he looked at us with a smile on his face and he said ‘I know, I'm ready!’ He was baptized yesterday and what an experience it was! ... Now he is currently working on getting his family there to the temple this week.”

God will give us strength, confidence, assurance, and inspiration as we become his agents and act upon our circumstances, as Elder Bednar teaches:

“In many of the uncertainties and challenges we encounter in our lives, God requires us to do our best, to act and not be acted upon, and to trust in Him. We may not see angels, hear heavenly voices, or receive overwhelming spiritual impressions. We frequently may press forward hoping and praying—but without absolute assurance—that we are acting in accordance with God’s will. But as we honor our covenants and keep the commandments, as we strive ever more consistently to do good and to become better, we can walk with the confidence that God will guide our steps. And we can speak with the assurance that God will inspire our utterances. This is in part the meaning of the scripture that declares, ‘Then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God’ (D&C 121:45)”. (Elder David A. Bednar, General Conference April 2011)

Our resolution is to achieve 175 Baptisms !!! April is now our Vision month! Prepare for the Prophets this week! We need 200 dates and 200 I@S this Easter week. All must contribute! All need to bring someone to the Temple!!!

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, Elders and Sisters, We can do this!!! We have work to do!!! “Walk with the confidence that God will guide our steps... speak with the assurance that God will inspire our utterances!!!”

President Don E. Anderson