Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission!
With the Thanksgiving Week upon us, we are thankful to be here with you! What a wonderful thing it is to have an opportunity to be with you at zone conference. We come away from the experience each time counting ourselves so lucky to be here with all of you!
On the last morning of the last day of zone conference I had an impression come into my mind of Oliver Cowdrey's experience in attempting to translate for the first time. Do you remember the experience? He failed miserably after having asked several times for an opportunity to do it. When he inquired as to the reason, the Lord responds to him in D&C 9 when He says:
7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.
8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind;
When this came to my mind, I couldn't help but think that the Lord is saying this to us too! Sometimes we just show up to lessons thinking we can teach just fine without really having prepared; prepared spiritually or mentally to merit the powers of heaven to accompany us as we teach. We don't usually equate our lack of success to our lack of preparation, but it is a big factor.
Elders and Sisters, we must work at being prepared. In PMG we read, "The purpose of personal study is to strengthen your knowledge and testimony of the restored gospel and help you prepare to meet the needs of those you teach." We also read, "The purpose of companion study is to build unity in your companionship in order to teach by the Spirit and focus on the progress of those you teach." The only way we build unity in our teaching is by putting together our lesson plans/outlines and practicing them over and over and over again with the people we are going to teach in mind.
Lastly, to truly obtain His word, we must do His will (Jn 7:17). Obedience is the great key to gospel knowledge. When we are as obedient as we can be, His grace will be sufficient for us and for those we teach.
May we do all we can to merit the companionship of the very powers of heaven as we teach and then, "stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." (D&C 123:17)
We love you all and wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
President and Sister Mortensen
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| We adore the Linseys |
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| We love to see companions serving one another |
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| The Stevens introduce themselves |
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| Role Plays |
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| Happy Sisters with a member after a baptism |
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| More sisters at a baptism |