It has been inspiring to meet each of you during interviews over the past several weeks. Each of you are uniquely gifted and, despite your individual challenges, your faith and determination to follow the Lord has been incredibly edifying for me. As you have committed to do so, one by one, by being as obedient as you can and extending at least 25 invitations to learn each day, we have seen remarkable things happen in our mission. As I shared with you in our initial zone conferences, our collective worthiness matters. Because it matters, our individual commitments to be obedient matter. I hope you will strive to always channel your inner Captain Moroni and care more what the Lord thinks than what men do. If we are found to seek the Lord's will daily by prayerfully planning each night and faithfully following the morning routine, we will invite the Holy Ghost to be with us and He, "will tell us all things that we should do." (2 Ne 32:3).
As I have visited with some of you about the 25 invitations to learn each day, I have felt the need to extend a small caution. In the Old Testament, we see the children of Israel forget that the purpose of "the Law" was to lead them to Christ. Instead, they became so consumed with the law itself that when Christ came to the earth during His mortal ministry and stood before them, they didn't recognize Him. I think sometimes we become a little Children of Israel-like in our obedience when we get more consumed with the "means" or the how of what we're doing and less focused on the "end" or purpose of why we are doing it. This can happen to us with anything routine that we do from saying our prayers, to taking the sacrament. In this same way, I can see that if we're not careful, we can forget that our objective in extending invitations to learn is not the "end", but the means. One of the great indications that we're remembering the "end" is that as we extend many more invitations to learn sincerely, the number of lessons we teach should dramatically increase. When this happens, miracles are sure to follow!
We love you all and look forward to seeing you again!
President and Sister Mortensen
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| Elder and Sister Cummings faithfully completed their service. They will be missed! |
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| Farewell to Sister Parry. We will miss her! |
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| Charming Texas |
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| That Texas heat really wears you out! |