Dear Sisters and Elders –
I hope you all had a positive, revelatory experience watching the worldwide broadcast yesterday, The Work of Salvation. I know I did. The messages gave me strength and renewed energy. What a blessing to be a part of this glorious work!
President Ezra Taft Benson said, "I have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy" (PMG, p. 121).
Certainly, the Lord will perform miracles to hasten His work. "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God" (Luke 18:27). He has prepared people to receive the restored gospel. However, we must do our part. He requires our obedience and virtue. He also requires us to work hard and do our very best. If we do, we have access to His promises and power. If we don't, then we are left to our own strength.
I always enjoy reading your letters. Thank you for the miracles you share. Much can happen when we are obedient, virtuous, and put forth our very best efforts. Here are two illustrations shared with me this week:
"This week was literally one massive miracle! We started doing and performing our best for the Lord. We stopped trusting in our own strength and started to rely on the Lord's. We set goals that we thought the Lord wanted us to achieve and not goals that we knew we could do on our own. The numbers we report to you this week are real and fit within PMG definitions. We didn't achieve these numbers, but the Lord did. We had nothing to do with it; we were just the instruments in His hands. The Spirit was very strong in every single lesson we taught, even in the simple street contacts that we did. We would state simply and clearly our calling as representatives of Jesus Christ and state the importance of our message. Almost every single time, they invited us to visit them…some times that very night. This is the Lord's work, not ours."
"Miracles? This week has been full of them! We have tried our hardest to be obedient and virtuous missionaries. We have been listening to the first thoughts that come in order to better follow the Spirit and we've seen the promises fulfilled. We've made our new motto, 'be a constant.' We want to do everything in our power to be a constant part of the equation of missionary work. We have been so blessed this past week. We were able to get 5 new investigators and that puts our total of investigators at 12. We've found so many people who have been prepared and we feel so blessed that the Lord has placed so many people in our path. We don't feel we deserve it, but we've been trying so hard to be obedient and virtuous so that we can accomplish the work the Lord needs us to do. It's been really humbling. We didn't find all these people on our own and we definitely aren't the ones teaching these people. The Lord led us to them, and he's allowing us to be the vessels through which His word can come."
Thank you for your faith, work ethic and devotion to the Lord.
With love,
President Pingree