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
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| Too beautiful not to photograph! |
We attended District meeting in the Hafer District on Friday. We loved it and were very inspired!
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| Role play |
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| Elder Vickers is an awesome District Leader |
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| Doctrine of Christ in our District (formerly Area Reports) |
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| Hafer District |
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| 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) |