Texas Houston Mission: Discipleship in the Digital Age

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

The long awaited moment has arrived! We are in possession of the mobile devices! It is the very fulfillment of a prophecy made by one of God's latter-day prophets, President Spencer W. Kimball, in 1974 when he said, "I believe that the Lord is anxious to put into our hands inventions of which we laymen have hardly had a glimpse." What a blessing it is to be entrusted such tools that can both assist in the hastening of His work as well as help each of us learn to use this technology in a more righteous, appropriate and measured way than we ever have before.

Sister Mortensen and I have been trained to understand how this new technology can bless us as well as those we teach. We are looking forward to meeting with you at our Mission Conference on May 26th to have Elder Brent Nielsen of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy as well as Kelend Mills, Director of all the International MTCs assist us in teaching you and presenting to you this miraculous resource. We will learn together how these devices can better help us fulfill our Missionary Purpose.

As with every great advancement the Lord makes, the Adversary would love to use it for evil purposes. The Prophets and Apostles understand this and choose to entrust us with it anyway because they know that the Lord has inspired its creation to hasten His work. To protect against the potential risks associated with it, we request that each companionship read the entire Missionary Handbook between now and our Mission Conference looking specifically for those rules/safeguards that will be beneficial to keep us safe as we begin to use technology. We will be calling on you as we discuss the things you have identified. Please be prepared. We encourage you to pay special attention to the "Never" statements and "Always" statements :).

Before you can receive a device, you will need to attend the Mission Conference, take an online special training, and diligently study the booklets that you will receive at the conference.

When you see what awaits and how this device helps "members and missionaries come together" as President Monson has asked that we do you will marvel. It's really amazing what is happening and we have the great privilege to be a part of preparing the world for the second coming of the Lord!

We are so lucky to be living in a day when the gospel is on the earth so we can be led by living prophets and apostles. It is inspiring that the Lord is enlightening minds to develop technology that enables the message of salvation to reach all of His children.

We love you and look forward to the seeing miracles and accomplishing our Missionary Purpose as we unite with the Lord in hastening His work!

Love,

President and Sisters Mortensen

We had another huge turnout at the Temple Grounds Tours this evening. More than 300 people attended and the rain stopped just in time for us to enjoy the event. Our missionaries did such a great job leading tours, directing traffic and escorting their investigators through the tours. We are so grateful for the outpouring of The Spirit we feel on the sacred temple grounds.