A Mighty Change of Heart

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

At the conclusion of King Benjamin's sermon to his people, he inquires of them about their reaction to his words. We read their reaction in Mos 5:2 which reads:

"And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually."

Just as King Benjamin's people experienced a mighty change of heart borne of the Spirit of God that they felt as they listened to his words, so must those we teach feel if we expect them to make and keep commitments. Too often we are disappointed by their failure to keep commitments and we assume that "they just aren't ready", when the reality is they may very well be ready, but they didn't feel and recognize the influence of the Holy Ghost in our teaching. Therefore they fail to act. More often than not, this is a result of an absence of the spirit when we teach (D&C 50:13-22).

We would like each of you to study Ch 10 of PMG in personal and companionship study this week. We need to qualify for the Spirit in our own lives first. Having the Spirit with us is the most important thing we can do. That comes as we are prepare faithfully, are exactly obedient and we are lovingly bold. That's why we state this in our Mission Statement. Only then will we see miracles and accomplish our Missionary Purpose.

We testify to you that as you do these things, ministering angels will attend you and attend those you teach. That the Spirit will carry to their hearts the words of truth (2 Ne 33:1).

We love you and pray for your continued success!

President and Sister Mortensen

Here are the pictures taken from last weeks transfer

Sister Rowe's parents meet us at the temple

Wonderful group of departing missionaries at the temple together

Testimony Meeting with Departing Missionaries

Signing the flag

The McLeans pick up their daughter 

Rainy morning at the airport

We squeezed into the elevataor

So cozy!

We were quite the spectacle with all of our missionaries and luggage to check

Elder Pongi was the first to depart

We will sure miss these wonderful missionaries! They have been such a blessing to us and to the people in Houston.

Elder Field needs to catch his plane

Last goodbyes

An hour later we received our new missionaries straight from the MTC and CCMA. They look great and ready to serve. We are so happy to have them here in Houston!

Aren't they the beautiful? We are so excited to have these wonderful new missionaries!

Writing home and eating Texas' famous Blue Bell ice cream.

Group picture at the mission home the next morning before meeting our trainers at our transfer meeting

The next several pictures are of the new missionaries and their trainers. They are all in very good hands! We are already getting great reports from them.