Dear Missionaries,
I know all of you are excited
for the opportunity to go to the Temple this month.
We will have Temple clothes at the Temple. Please come
40 minutes early to get the correct size and to prepare to start on time (don’t
come earlier). Elders, please wear your long sleeve white shirt and bring your
white pants, tie and socks. We will meet after with President Boggess (Temple
President) and take a photo in front of the Temple after each session. Because
of time and efficiency, we need all missionaries to speedy depart after the
pictures.
We have enjoyed the
interviews with all of you and are excited to reunite at the Temple. Some of
you have asked me “how can I best prepare for the Temple?” There are processes
throughout our existence on earth that take time to prepare so that we can
achieve the goal and desire through progression in our lives. This can come
with years of education and preparation for a degree; years of preparation for
a career; years of preparation for an eternal family. Throughout the
scriptures, God has prepared His people through a process of refinement.
Sometimes that refinement takes years. It took Moses 40 years to prepare his
people for the promised land of Israel. It took 10 years for Lehi to prepare
his family to arrive in the promised land of the Americas. It took Joseph Smith
9 years after the First Vision to prepare to fully translate the Book of Mormon
(which took only about 2 months).
I believe we can prepare
ourselves for the Temple in a short period of time (weeks and even days), to
enjoy the rewards of miracles and revelation from God. This will allow us to
not only have a revelatory experience, but as we rededicate ourselves, it can
springboard us to greater things after the Temple. If we unite in our cause to
prepare, I know we will amplify our blessings beyond our comprehension. We must
be exact in our obedience in every moment of every day. We must be diligent in
our efforts to find, teach and invite. And we must infuse both of these with
faith that God will bring the miracle as he pierces the hearts of those we
invoke the Spirit with. These things will give us power.
I
know you understand that being obedient brings so many blessings into
the work. President Boyd K. Packard said regarding obedience and the
Priesthood (Power and Authority):
“It
is now our responsibility to activate the power of the Priesthood in the
Church. Authority comes by way of ordination; power in the priesthood comes
through faithful and obedient living in honoring covenants. It is
increased by exercising and using [it] in righteousness…Your authority comes
through ordination; your power comes through obedience and worthiness…”
(Boyd K. Packer, Ensign May 2010)
This
mirrors so well the power and authority, which requires obedience, we
have been given as missionaries. All of you have been given authority when you
were set apart:
“As you prayerfully and worthily exercise that
authority, you will receive spiritual power, which is evidence of
the reality of your call… Along with your authority comes a responsibility to
live worthy of your calling… In addition to authority, you are also to exercise
power in your work. The authority that you have received can lead to
power. Indeed, spiritual power is one evidence that your authority is real.
Spiritual power is a gift that makes it possible for you to do your work more
effectively.” (PMG P.4)
Obedience
will keep your authority active and current. Obedience will also
give you power as a missionary. The more obedient you are, the
more power you will receive to perform miracles for the Lord. We see the
great examples of obedience resulting in power and authority from the
examples of great missionaries from The Book Of Mormon:
Abinadi:
“And he spake with power and authority from God…” (Mosiah
13:6)
Sons
of Mosiah: “But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer,
and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of
revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of
God.” (Alma 17:3)
Nephi
and Lehi: “And it came to pass that Nephi and Lehi did preach unto the
Lamanites with such great power and authority, for they had power and
authority given unto them that they might speak, and they also had what
they should speak given unto them—“ (Helaman 5:18)
You
are touching the heart of everyone that you declare with power and authority that
we “represent Jesus Christ” and even when they don’t embrace it now, be
optimistic that they will reflect and embrace it later:
“I
got a call at the very end of personal study from a random number. I picked up
and a lady in Spanish told me ‘Hi, you gave me a card to come to your church,
but I don't have a ride’. I told her we'd help her get there and asked if we
could stop by to pray and share a scripture with her. She agreed and we went
over later that day. Well when we got there, she opened up her purse to show us
the card she had, and it was a chapel card, nicely folded with our number on
it, but the names [missionaries from two years ago] were written on it! My
companion and I were astounded that she'd been hanging onto the card for what
must be almost 2 years now! The spirit finally prompted her to call, what a
miracle! Turns out she used to go to church when she lived in Missouri... we
will be teaching her and her 2 kids this week.”
Your
power and authority will draw to the Church, and because of the kind of
missionaries you are, you will continue to invite even after your release:
“Our
most solid investigator came with his member friend, and then someone that we
had harvested earlier that week walked into the chapel for Sacrament Meeting!
We went up and started talking to him, and we asked him what made him come to
church, and he said ‘Well, I told you guys I would come, didn't I?’ It was
awesome! And then the Sisters came to get us during Sunday School and said
‘There is an investigator who lives in your area who showed up to church today
because a member invited her. She wants to be a member of the church.’ She
attended the Ward yesterday, and we assigned her with a member friend. (Sister
Jasmine Brown recent released FFLM). We were not able to stick with her during
the Service, so we asked Sister Brown if she would invite our investigator to
be baptized during church that day. She did, and our investigator accepted!!!
Sister Brown told us over the phone that she had invited her to be baptized,
and that she had already arranged to go and pick up our investigator for church
the following Sunday. It sure is nice to have a Returned Missionary from your
own mission to help you out. God truly blessed us yesterday.”
As
we prepare diligently for the Temple, God will bless us tremendously:
“So
after church and our miracle baptism, we went out to find our
investigators who didn’t come to church and reset them with baptismal
dates.... no one was home or picked up the phone. So it is 8:30 and
we're exhausted, but we know we have to give all of our diligence to the Lord
to qualify for miracles and our revelatory temple experience on the 20th. So we
pray and follow the feelings to an area we've never knocked. After getting
rejected at a few doors, we knock into a man. He asks us if we can just pray
outside because his little dog is inside. I'm not going to take that excuse, so
I asked if he'd put the dog away and we could step in and bless his home. I'm
so glad we were bold because it was one of the most powerful harvest blessings
I've left in a long time! The spirit was so present and when we invited him to
be baptized and he said ‘I think so. Yes, I need to make that commitment
to the Lord, because he's changed my heart’. I was so glad that we chose to be
diligent and that God answered our prayer that we said earlier that we would be
blessed and be able to bless someone else's life. I'm so excited to go teach
him!”
I
know we can prepare well for this amazing opportunity and our power and
authority that comes from our calling, obedience, diligence and faith will help
us reach our goals, as I have before quoted President Packard concerning our
urgency:
“Since
baptism is essential there must be an urgent concern to carry the message of
the gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people … We
accept the responsibility to preach the gospel to every person on earth. And if
the question is asked... You mean you are out to convert the entire world?’ the
answer is, ‘Yes. We will try to reach every living soul.’ Some who measure that
challenge quickly say, ‘Why that’s impossible! It cannot be done!’ To that we
simply say, ‘Perhaps, but we shall do it anyway.’” (Boyd K. Packer Ensign,
November 1975, p. 97)
Remember
as Elder Holland tells us, we need the unity of all of us as a mission:
“It
is when an entire mission is united by the strength of every missionary’s
integrity, every missionary’s personal covenant keeping, that we move
mountains. When there is such unity and power, an endowment from heaven, coming
to every individual in the mission, nothing can ‘stop the work from
progressing.’ It is in this way that the ‘truth of God will go forth boldly,
nobly, and independent.’ (Jeffery Holland, Jan.2012, Liahona)
Missionaries, “God will give us power and authority as
we are obedient, diligent, and faithful!”
Let
us be resolute to achieve 175 Baptisms
!!! June is now our Vision month! We need 200 dates and 200 I@S. All must
contribute! You are Amazing!!! You are Incredible!!! You are
Wonderful!!! And you are in the “Exciting Legendary Mission”!!! Remember our
promise and that our names have been
sealed in the Temple!!!
We
Love you, We Pray For You, Elders and
Sisters, We can do this!!! We have work to do!!! “They spoke and taught with power and authority!!!”
President Don E. Anderson
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