#PrinceOfPeace

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

We loved being with you this past week during zone conference! We love the culture of this mission. You all look so impressive and conduct yourselves with such dignity and purpose. We hope you came away with a greater appreciation for the blessing of the restoration of the priesthood in our day. It is the very means by which we can return to the presence of God and enjoy eternal family relationships.

We are excited for this year's Easter initiative. As the world continues to deal with terror attacks, the work we are doing stands in stark contrast to that terror because it gives the promise of peace to those who follow Him. We couldn't help but consider this as we participated in "Faith Meets Families" this last Friday night in the Houston Temple.  We commend you all for the work you are doing to not only keep your commitments as zones to baptize, but also to get them to the temple. Almost 40 recent converts who had all brought their own family names to the temple for the first time. The baptistry was packed and the Spirit was the very peace promised by the Savior. Many of the recent converts were bringing names of their own parents, grandparents or siblings and the Spirit of the event was obviously so strong as to overcome many of our recent converts.

We hope you never forget that you are not only changing lives, but you are changing eternities for generations. Often, the reason behind these new converts being lead to the waters of baptism is because you are being led to them by their ancestors. Elder Melvin J. Ballard observed:

"It was made known to me that it is because the righteous dead who have received the Gospel in the spirit world are exercising themselves, and in answers to their prayers elders of the Church are sent to the homes of their posterity so that the Gospel might be taught to them, and that descendant in the flesh is then privileged to do the work for his dead kindred. I want to say to you that it is with greater intensity that the hearts of the fathers and mothers in the spirit world are turned to their children now in the flesh than that our hearts are turned to them. (Melvin R. Ballard, Melvin J. Ballard, Crusader for Righteousness, p.219)."

What a wonderful privilege it is to be involved in this work. We hope you are enjoying the blessing have being able to have your complete focus be on this work. The Lord is mindful of you and will never forsake you as you serve Him with all of your hearts, might, minds and strength. We will inherit the peace that is promised to those who seek Him.

We love you and we love serving with you in the Great Texas Houston Mission!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

The following pictures were taken at zone conferences this past week. It was edifying to be together and learn from the spirit.

 

Too beautiful not to photograph!

We attended District meeting in the Hafer District on Friday. We loved it and were very inspired!

Role play

Elder Vickers is an awesome District Leader

Doctrine of Christ in our District (formerly Area Reports)

Hafer District 

This picture does not do the temple justice! Faith Meets Families was a huge success! Almost 40 recent converts attended with their own family names (and I had to park on the grass)

Zone Conference Assignments

Elders and Sisters,

We are looking forward to meeting with you at zone conference this coming week! As has been the case in zone conferences past, we will be focusing much of this conference on doctrines and principles found in one of the lessons we teach from PMG. This time we will be taking these themes from lesson 5.

In hopes of helping us all to feel prepared to be edified and more deeply converted, we would like to make the following assignments to you for the purposes of preparing 5 minute talks:

1. To the companion who has been serving the longest time: We would like you to give a talk on how our faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement can help us overcome and enable us to help others overcome the potentially offensive actions of others. We would like you to read the following as the basis for this talk:

     - "And Nothing Shall Offend Them" by Elder Bednar (April 2006 Gen Conf)

     - John 6:22-65

2. To the companion who has been serving the shortest time: We would like you to talk on the difference between priesthood authority and priesthood power. All missionaries have been given priesthood authority to teach the gospel so we would also like you to teach how to develop priesthood power. We would like you to read as the basis for this talk:

     - "The Power of the Priesthood" by Pres Boyd K. Packer (April 2010 Gen Conf)

     - "The Price of Priesthood Power" by Pres Russell M. Nelson (April 2016 Gen Conf).

Please be sure to read all of the materials identified. We are going to be beginning an initiative which we will announce at zone conference where you will find that the knowledge of these teaching will prove to be very valuable.

We are excited to learn from each you and look forward to another wonderful experience together!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

We will really miss Elder and Sister Anderson!

We are so grateful to have Elder and Sister Soakai here!

We always love to see our missionaries at church on Sunday 

Faith Precedes Knowledge

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

One of the miracles of the Book of Mormon is that the Lord showed Mormon our day so he knew what things in the records he was given would be most helpful to us as we navigate the challenges of our time. (Morm 8:35)

We often have opportunities to visit with members of the church who have lost their way. Often they are recent converts, but sometimes they are life-long members. It is interesting to see that they have allowed the lack of knowledge/answer to one particular question or another become a stumbling block to their ability to believe anything. So they are willing to throw out the 90% they do know in exchange for the 10% they don't know. Rather than assuming there is an answer and it will come in time if they are patient, they demand an answer immediately and claim that if they can't find an answer, they can't believe.

With the vision of our day that Mormon had, he included some valuable message for us to remember. There are two anti-Christ's whose experiences are shared in Jacob and Alma. Both are former believers and make similar demands to those we hear today. First Sherem says to Jacob:

"And it came to pass that he said unto me: Show me a sign by this power of the Holy Ghost..." (Jacob 7:13)

Later Korihor makes similar demands of Alma, but goes further by saying:

"If thou wilt show me a sign, that I may be convinced that there is a God, yea, show unto me that he hath power, and then will I be convinced of the truth of thy words.

"I do not believe that there is a God; and I say also, that ye do not know that there is a God; and except ye show me a sign, I will not believe." (Alma 30:43,48)

In both cases, the demand is for "proof" so, they claim, that they can then believe. What they don't seem to understand is the Doctrine of Christ. Alma teaches the Zoramites in Alma 32 that "And now as I said concerning faith—faith IS NOT to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." (v 21). He then teaches them that knowledge comes through the exercise and nurture of faith and, over time, can become a perfect knowledge. (vs. 22-34) The ironic thing is that once it becomes a perfect knowledge, faith becomes "dormant" and is no longer a need.

In the New Testament we read of one of the twelve apostles (Thomas) who hadn't received the opportunity to see the risen Lord for himself. Feeling sorry for himself he states:

"Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." (Jn 20:25)

Later the Resurrected Savior teaches Thomas an important eternal truth when He finally appears to Thomas and says:

"...Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

"And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

"Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (Jn 20:27-29)

The Savior values and blesses us for believing and gives us perfect knowledge AFTER the exercise of our faith.

Elders and Sisters, remember these principles. We act because we believe. Consistent actions based on true principles will lead to perfect knowledge eventually. Let's be sure we don't cast aside the things we know when we are confronted with something we don't know. Our hope is that, instead, we can demonstrate the faith of the father of the young man possessed of an evil spirit who pleaded with the Lord to heal his son by saying, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." (Mark 9:24)

This much we know. God lives. He is our literal Heavenly Father. He loves us so much He sent His son to ransom us from the Fall so we could return to His presence. His Kindgom has been restored to the Earth in our day as well as the authority to perform saving ordinances for all of His children. We are on His errand and we will succeed as we act in faith.

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

President Mortensen speaks to a group at Sam Houston University

My Sheep Hear My Voice

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

One of great messages the Savior teaches about His sheep is that they "hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." Our primary objective in the very first lesson is to help an investigator learn to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd by helping them understand what to "listen" for. If we make sure we teach clearly how to hear an answer to their prayers, we will increase the number of "sheep" that follow Him.

Our objective in modifying the way we teach the "How to End Teaching" outline in zone meeting was to focus both on being sure we are taking the time to make sure our investigators know what they should be listening for as well as giving them a reason for us to return after every lesson. Please make sure you are confident in role playing these skills.

In our mission we talk a lot about shepherding. We often cite Ammon's experience in Alma 17 as the example for us to work with members to "encircle" our investigators to lead them to the water. Interestingly, we see that the Savior, consistent with his role as the Good Shepherd also encircles us. In D&C 84, we read:

87 Behold, I send you out to reprove the world of all their unrighteous deeds, and to teach them of a judgment which is to come.

88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."

He has angels encircling us and is trying to help safely lead us to the water...the Living Water which is back to Him. In order for that to happen though, we need to be sure we, like our investigators, know what we are listening for. The best way for that to happen is to be sure we are observing the morning schedule by having meaningful personal and companionship studies. It seems that the greatest casualty of the new schedule is companionship study. Elders and Sisters, we must plan to have companionship study, counsel together about what we studied in preparation for companionship study and HEAR his voice as we will qualify for the revelation and direction we so desperately need.

Our invitation to each of you is to make sure you can be called His sheep because you are doing what is necessary to hear His voice and follow Him as He will lead us to those who He has prepared.

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Bear Creek Zone

College Station West Zone

College Station East Zone

Cypress Zone

Houston North English Zone

Houston North Spanish

Houston West North Spanish Zone

Houston West South Zone

Katy Zone

Klein Zone

The Spring Zone 

The Woodlands Zone

Mission Leadership Council

Role Plays

 We held the 8 Week Follow-up Training for the missionaries who arrived last January. It was so good to see them all together again and hear them teach. We love to see such growth in all of them!

We attended Zone Meeting in the Houston West English Zone last Friday. We were uplifted by the training and inspired by the wonderful discussion among this group of missionaries. What a blessing to serve among them!

Sister Fisi'ihoi in action

Sister Halliday trains on shepherding

Elder Berry get's us all in for virtue

Elder Jones trains on Unity

Role Plays