September Transfers/Finding and Teaching using Family History

To the missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

I attended a couple of productive and edifying district meetings this past week. As you prepare for this week's topics in your upcoming district meetings, I want you to consider a couple of Fast Facts about Family History research in the U.S.:

1. 60% of the U.S. population has expressed an interest in tracing their family history, according to a poll by Maritz Research.

2. Ancestry.com is among the top five largest paid subscription sites on the Internet with over 850,000 paid subscriptions. 

3. According to Nielsen NetRatings, genealogy is the most popular lifestyle category on the Internet for older adults.

4. Over 60% of Americans have embarked on a genealogical journey by discovering who their ancestors were and how various forces shaped their pastAccording to the USA Today, genealogy if the second most popular hobby in the United States (after gardening. It is also second on the category of websites most frequently visited.

5. According to the USA Today, genealogy or Family History is the second most popular hobby in America. 

6. There are TV shows like "Who do you think you are?" that show some celebrities being taken on the journey to discover their ancestry (usually filled with emotion). These shows are growing in popularity.

We know that these trends aren't by coincidence, but rather of a fulfillment of the prophesy we find in Malachi 4:5-6. The Spirit of Elijah is really just a manifestation of the Spirit of the Lord. Those who are feeling a growing interest in Family History are going to be more prepared to receive the message of the gospel because they are feeling the Spirit already. 

It will be important that we review PMG p. 163-165 in our personal and companionship study this week to know how we can use family history as a finding and teaching tool. 

It is important that we know how to answer the question "Why does your church invest so much effort into this?" One place we might begin answering that question is by referencing the answer Jesus gave to Nicodemus in John 3:3-5. This answer has confused religious scholars for centuries because without an understanding of the Plan of Salvation, this answer condemns the great majority of people who have ever lived on the earth. Only the gospel as found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can give an answer that soothes the soul. This is the "Good News" that we carry! 

It is a wonderful time to be a missionary! We love you and are grateful for all the good that you do!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Two Bountiful boys

Testimony meeting 

The mission home sounded heavenly

At the airport with the departing missionaries

We are going to really miss these servants of the Lord

Last goodbyes

Just a couple hours later we welcomed our new group of missionaries straight from the MTC

We love them already

Don't they look great and ready to work?

A real Texas BBQ meal

Testimony Meeting 

The next several pictures are of the new missionaries and their trainers

 They are in great hands! We are excited to hear the great things they accomplish together.

Turning the Hearts

To the missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

In the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16), we see the doctrine taught in Malachi play out in a very clear way. Those who come to know the truth in the Spirit World are desirous that those of their family who are yet on the earth will receive the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They desire that angels are sent to their family. Elders and Sisters we are those angels that are being sent. I want you to know that there are forces beyond the veil that are working on those with whom we interact and meet on the streets. The biggest challenge is that they don't equate what they are feeling with who we are. That's one of the reasons we need to be bold in stating our true identity.

Over the next several weeks and months, we are going to have the unique privilege of being trained in family history for an hour each week by experts in the various stakes in which we serve. We hope you will make sure you are focused in your efforts so that this time is sacred and revelatory. The Lord would have us become very proficient in this work because there are many on the earth who are feeling the desire to seek out their family names and they just don't know why. We are true messengers who can help them elevate their vision to a much nobler cause. 

As we become proficient in this work of Family History, we will see miracles. People will be reactivated, people will become converted and their conversion will lead them to the safety of the temple. We will find many of our own family names and our conversion will deepen. There has never been a more exciting time to serve as a missionary and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ! We are truly blessed!

We look forward to experiencing these great miracles with you! We love you and pray for you daily! Be great!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Mission Leadership Council

Senior Missionary Activity at the Chapell's Home

Zone Conferences

To the missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission!

What a wonderful experience to have spent time with each of you at Zone Conferences this past week. As I sat reflecting on the Spirit we felt together, I couldn't help but think of D&C 43:8,9 where the Lord says:

8 And now, behold, I give unto you a commandment, that when ye are assembled together ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know how to act and direct my church, how to act upon the points of my law and commandments, which I have given.

9 And thus ye shall become instructed in the law of my church, and be sanctified by that which ye have received, and ye shall bind yourselves to act in all holiness before me—

10 That inasmuch as ye do this, glory shall be added to the kingdom which ye have received.

Elders and Sisters, the purpose of us gathering together is to instruct and edify each other (this is also true of any other teaching opportunity we have). The important thing is that as we do so, the Lord promises we will receive revelation and be sanctified. The responsibility is then ours to bind ourselves to act. 

After receiving spiritual impressions while we were together, we now have an obligation to:

1. Act on the impressions.

2. Elevate our vision of ourselves and of those we teach. 

3. Study, practice and refine the way we teach that we may experience revelation and that all will be edified. 

4. Testify with power and authority of Him who has sent us.

As we do so, glory shall be added to our kingdoms and we can be confident that the happiness and joy we seek will be ours forever!

We love and appreciate you! Be great!

President and Sister Mortensen

Serenading our lunch servers

One our our lunch crews. It was delicious!

There's our mission nurse Sister Z! We love her!

Master Teaching Role Play

Role playing

More role playing

More role playing

Even more role playing

We are becoming Master Teachers

Working With Members

Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

We look forward to seeing you this week at Zone Conference! We are excited by the great things that are happening and the great reports coming back from those of you working to apply the principles of Master Teaching into your lessons. 

We all know that for this work to move along at a more rapid pace, we need to involve the members in a meaningful way (PMG p.160). Hopefully you each learned at you recent Zone/District meetings how you can apply Master Teaching to invite members to participate in ways that they feel comfortable and then follow up with them. A couple of things to keep in mind as you interact with members whether it's in their homes or at church:

1. Remember that most members know their duty, they want to help, but are just unsure how. 

2. Be enthusiastic about the work even when things are difficult (Alma 59:1,2). Members already have apprehensions about, and struggle, sharing the gospel. They don't need to hear about our struggles. It's not inspiring. Make sure the things we share are about the miracles we're seeing before you ask them about how they are feeling about their responsibility to share. This also applies to our participation in Ward Council meetings. Inspire people like Helaman's letter to Moroni inspired Moroni and his armies. 

3. When you meet with members in their homes, invite them each to commit to do something that they come up with and then do as we do with investigators: write it down, promise blessings and testify. Then follow up. Do this for every person present!

4. We don't need to wait until after dinner to start these discussions. We can do it naturally as we eat. Limit your time to an hour. Be purposeful and communicate that you have work to do and need to go. You will engender great confidence if the members see that you are focused and energetic. 

We have been attending many wards in recent weeks and have loved to see so many of you. It's important that you realize that members draw conclusions about whether they would like to refer their friends to you by what they observe in you. As you see people in your wards you don't know, introduce yourself. Initiate activity. Missionaries shouldn't be sitting in the pews before the meeting starts if they have no investigators to sit by. We should be cheerfully greeting everyone to be sure we don't miss any new faces. Every new face should be warmly greeted. All visitors should receive an invitation to meet with us to learn more.

If we do these things well, members are going to be eager to have us teach their friends. Be enthusiastic and you will see that we can be the catalyst for great blessings in the lives of our members and their friends. 

We love you and are excited to see you this week! May the Lord bless you as you invite members with boldness.

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen


Here are some pictures from a recent service project in the North Houston Area

AND our favorite cowboy Elder Lindsay celebrated his 80th Birthday!

He spent the day solving problems as usual :)

Master Teaching and Pictures from MLC

Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

We had some wonderful experiences this week in MLC as well as our Zone Meetings. We love your energy and your commitment to do the Lord's work in the Lord's way. We introduced a concept of the Master Teacher last week. We hope this approach will cause you to reflect upon the way you have been teaching to better align your teaching approach with the principles taught in PMG Ch 10 (specifically the suggestions beginning on p183 related to "Asking Questions"). 

We hope you will practice Master Teaching with member families more diligently during member meals to help them commit to goals that they feel comfortable with so that they can find joy in the work. Remember to follow up!

We invite you each to practice teaching all of the lessons in a more Master Teacher-like approach as well and watch how much more powerful the Spirit is in the lessons. With this in mind, we will begin spending more time at Zone Conference roll playing to practice this approach. In the upcoming Zone Conference we will focus on teaching the Restoration (Lesson 1). We will invite one companionship at each conference (randomly selected) to demonstrate Master Teaching a few of the principles in Lesson 1 and then we will break out into groups to practice, evaluate and re-practice. Please come prepared! 

Teaching in the Lord's way requires much more preparation. With this in mind, we would also like each companionship to prepare two five-minute talks (one each) before Zone Conference. For those of you in threesomes, two of you pick the same one. The topics to choose from will be "God is our Loving Heavenly Father" and "The Great Apostasy". Two of you will be selected to give these talks (not teach the lesson) during Zone Conference. Please practice them and keep them to 5 minutes. 

Because of your great faith (manifest through your increased collective obedience) as well as your commitment to 25 ITLs each day, baptisms are on the rise in our mission! In the words of Ammon, "Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness forever." (Alma 26:8)

We love you!

President and Sister Mortensen

Role playing

Zone Meeting with the Spring Zone