Texas Houston Mission: April 2015

Monday, April 27, 2015

District Meeting: An opportunity to instruct and edify...

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

Last week, as a mission, we found well over two hundred new investigators again. Almost every area is finding and over one hundred baptismal dates have been set for May; many will come into the safety of the covenant. Nothing could be better! The work is moving forward at a rapid pace largely because you are consecrating yourselves to do the hard things. We love you for it! We hope every companionship will baptize in May and work diligently in May to find those who can be baptized in June. As we become more united in faith and obedience, the miracles will continue.

This last month we have spent time in District meetings and interviews for most of you talking about goal setting and planning as well as how to begin teaching. We hope you have found these meetings edifying and valuable. The way that they will be edifying is if we will follow the promptings of the Spirit and continue to apply those things we are taught so we can become more effective in our ministry.

Everyone belongs to a district. In PMG we read that the purpose of district meetings is to "teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom" (D&C 88:77). Please do your best to come to district meeting prepared to participate. Our hope if that each District meeting will include the following:

1. Those that teach should be well prepared and strive to inspire and teach after the manner of the Master.

2. Area reports should begin by discussing goals for the month (baptisms) and week (other KIs since those should be fresh on our minds from weekly planning the day before) with an attempt to help us feel accountable to each other. District leaders should identify opportunities to help and assist where appropriate and facilitate a helpful discussion by asking inspired questions. Progressing investigators should be discussed to ensure we are doing all we can to "lead them to the water."

3. Practice: We should teach skills, model them and practice them until we feel confident we can use them effectively (Moroni 10:30).

If you don't come away edified by your district meeting, discuss as a district how you can improve them. Ask for help where necessary. We view district meetings as the single most important meeting we have in the mission. We call on every district leader to rise to a new level of leadership. Please make sure you understand the "Purpose" of the teaching plan and seek revelation to know how to teach it so that we can improve as representatives of the Lord.

We love you and are excited to be here with you during this great time of the hastening.

President and Sister Mortensen

We had the 8 week follow-up training for all the missionaries who arrived in February. It was so good to see them together again and hear them teach so well. They have such great trainers and are really being blessed!

We had another wonderful Mission President's "Why I Believe Fireside"
This time it was held in the Spring/Woodlands Stakes

Elder Stevens captures a "garden" (we hope) snake that found it's way into the Mission Office.

Yikes!

Monday, April 20, 2015

Building Faith Within our Wards and Branches

To the missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

We have been so inspired by the miracles that are occurring throughout the mission and sincere desire that is being shown by you in your fasting and prayers. Lives are being changed and Wards and Branches are growing to levels they've never experienced before. The enthusiasm for the work is spreading to the members.

Elders and Sisters, we would like each of you to use sacrament meeting attendance as the great measure of whether we are succeeding or not in this effort. Please make sure you know what the goal is for the ward/branch in which you are serving and then find out from the ward clerk each Sunday what the attendance is. I would like each of you to report this to me weekly in your weekly letter. You can add it after your PIN.

Why should we be interested in this? Is it for "numbers" alone? Obviously not. Our great desire must be on inviting others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Our tendency is to focus so much on baptism that we forget the Lord's admonition to his disciples was not only that they "should go and bring forth fruit," but that also "that your fruit should remain." (Jn 15:16) Why is this? The ONLY way for all of God's children to receive His power in their lives (which power comes by the Holy Ghost) and help them endure to the end is to have their sins remitted. The ordinance of the sacrament is the means by which this happens. Only by regular participation in this important ordinance will members be prepared to receive the blessings of the temple. It is in the ordinances of the Melchizedek priesthood that the Lord says "the power of Godliness is manifest." (D&C 84:20).

Please take an interest in ALL members. They have to believe that you care and that you can be trusted. I had a Bishop say to me this week, "Can you try to help your missionaries introduce themselves to investigators who come to church that they didn't bring." Elders and Sisters, the only way this happens is if we aren't getting to know the members are in our wards as well as we could. When this occurs, we don't recognize if those "new" faces we see are actually investigators or members. We have to immerse ourselves into the ward. Please remember the following:

1. We ought to work as quickly as possible to know the names of the members. If we don't know them, introduce ourselves and work to remember those we meet.

2. Actively text the members of the ward council about your efforts.

3. ALWAYS RESPOND TO MEMBERS TEXTS quickly. This shows trustworthiness.

4. We ought to go to ward activities long enough to determine if there are any friends there, introduce ourselves and work with the members on finding opportunities to teach them.

Lastly, we would like each of you to read the section entitled "The Importance of Members" in ch 9 in PMG and discuss as companions how you can do a better job building their faith in Jesus Christ as well as their confidence and trust in you.

We love you!

President and Sister Mortensen

We held our third Temple Grounds Tours last week. The forecast was for lots of rain but we were blessed when those dark clouds didn't leak at all. A miracle! We had about 260 people attend and many felt the spirit of the Lord.

Elder Halterman leads a tour

Hermana Saenz leads a Spanish tour

Missionaries after Stake Conference

Hermana Perry and Hermana Jensen after their baptism with a member in Katy

Elder Pace and Elder Nielsen after their ward's fireside "Come Unto Christ" in Katy

Monday, April 13, 2015

Planning Precedes the Miracle and Transfers

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

Many great things continue to happen in our mission largely through your expressions of faith through your finding and your effective teaching. Thanks for all you are doing. Many are coming into the safety of covenants as a consequence.

One area that has becoming increasingly clear that we need some work is in our planning. Much of our problems with planning begin with our weekly planning process. Many of you are doing your best in the planning process, but we need to do a better job providing training on this topic. PMG states that meaningful goals and careful planning will help you accomplish what the Lord requires of you. (p. 137)

Our first step in attempting to improve our planning took place last week as we pulled all of the Zone Leaders together for a 4 hour weekly planning session. We did some counseling and training. There were a couple of important take aways:

1. We need to start our session reviewing last weeks results and then make goals for the upcoming week before we start our planning. We can always go back and modify our goals, but we need a vision to start our planning because the point of the planning is to plan to achieve goals.

2. Our plans need to be people driven rather than event driven. When we are done with planning, we should have a really comprehensive plan around our efforts during the upcoming week by individual.

3. We need to plan events for people AND what we want their experience to be like in the event.

4. Once we have completed the weekly goals and plans, we need to push them into the next 7 days so our planners are "pre-loaded" with the things we need to do over the next week. The sum of the daily goals should equal our weekly goals.

5. These things are reviewed and revised each night.

This is the first of many attempts for us to break the cycle of less effective planning that has plagued us. We will cover this a little during our upcoming interviews. I would like you to bring your Area Book to interviews and we will have an opportunity to go through your area book, visit with you about how you could use it better and look through your planners together as well. You are entitled to greater blessings given the great work you are doing. When we combine your great efforts with revelation-filled planning, miracles will happen (Mor 7:37).

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Here are the pictures I took during transfers.