Farewell Missionaries

This week we said farewell to a few missionaries.  Elder and Sister Eldredge have been serving for the past eighteen months at the Huntsville Institute of Religion as a CES couple and with the Heritage YSA ward.  They have given their heart, might, mind and strength to the work and will be missed by many, especially all the young single adults and Huntsville missionaries they have touched.  We wish them well as they settle in Orem, UT.  Also, Hermanas Allred and Hansen received their visas and left to serve in the Cusco Peru Mission and wonderful, Elder Mickelson, returned home a bit early due to some complications with his back.  He served an honorable, faithful mission.  Finally, a few pictures are attached of a North Zone service activity.

 

Elder and Sister Eldredge with Pingrees

Hermana Allred

Hermanas Rife, Hansen and Crandall

Pingrees with Hermana Hansen and Elder Mickelsen

Elder Mickelsen with President Pingree

 

Faith Leads to Miracles

Dear Sisters and Elders –

I received specific and clear revelation from the Lord for our mission during the mission tour with Elder Golden: 

“We must raise our expectations to baptize.  This is the Lord’s work, not ours.  He wants to bless us more than He has.  If we are obedient, virtuous, and work hard, the Lord will perform mighty miracles.”

Elders and Sisters, our God is a God of miracles.  However, He only performs His miracles based on the faith of His children (see 2 Ne. 26:13; 2 Ne. 27:23; Mormon 9:19-21; and Ether12:12, 29-30).  As our faith in God grows, so will the miracles that we experience in this mission.

How do we demonstrate faith in God as missionaries?  At a minimum, God requires us to be fully obedient to the commandments and the missionary rules.  He requires us to be virtuous.  He requires us to work hard and use our time wisely.  If we meet these minimum requirements, we have access to His power and promises.  If we don’t, then we are left to our own strength.

Please ask yourself these following questions:

• Am I fully obedient to the missionary handbook?
• Am I pure and worthy?
• Am I using my time effectively and working hard?

I invite you to review your performance in these areas and to make necessary improvements.  In addition, I invite you to encourage your fellow missionaries to do the same.  If one missionary is not living the minimum requirements, it damages the faith of our entire mission.

I testify that God has tens of thousands in our mission boundaries that are prepared to receive the restored gospel at this time.  They reside in each of our areas.  We must exercise our faith for Him to help us find, teach, and baptize them. In the strength of the Lord, we can do all things (Alma 26:12; Phil. 4:13).

 

With much love, 

 

President Pingree

 

Mission Tour

This past week, the Texas Houston Mission was blessed to have Elder and Sister Christoffel Golden come on a mission tour.  Elder Golden has been a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy since 2001.  He and his family are faithful church members from South Africa.  While he was here, he held three mission conferences where he met with three zones each day.  He also held leadership training meetings each afternoon, interviewed a few missionaries, visited with the office staff and inspected an apartment or two.  His evenings were spent doing a youth fireside and a meeting where missionaries could bring recent converts and investigators to learn more about the Church.  We all learned a lot from Elder Golden!  He is a master teacher.  Among other things,  he primarily taught us to set higher goals and raise our expectations in sharing the gospel by trusting in the Lord and His promises rather than in our own skills and strength.

 

Before each conference, a group picture was taken.  Aside from a few late arrivals, most missionaries are pictured.  We also managed to take a few pictures during lunch, but ran out of time at the last conference.  A big thank you to local Relief Society sisters for providing yummy food for us to eat!

 



Elder and Sister Golden