Prepare to be Bold!

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

With specialized training and zone conferences behind us, I was able to participate in many companionship studies and district meetings. We're so happy for the great things you are doing! I did note a few things that I think are good to remember that sometimes are easy to forget in the routine of things:

1. The most important part of the day is planning at night. Not only planning, but EFFECTIVE planning. In Ch 8 of PMG, we read: Meaningful goals and careful planning will help you accomplish what the Lord requires of you (p. 137). The unfortunate reality is that the absence of meaningful goals and careful planning means we will unlikely accomplish what the Lord requires. Please review Ch 8 with an emphasis on the planning tools listed on p. 139 and start every planning session with the question, "What can we do tomorrow to help ______________ keep the commitment they have made to us." This includes the multiple commitments that progressing investigators ought to be keeping. Often we think of investigators only, but this list of people should include members as well.

2. Member Commits. It seems like we have lost sight of what we are trying to accomplish with our member commitments. In Ch 11 of PMG, we read:

     • Every finding opportunity—with members, referrals, or personal contacting—should lead to an invitation to act,      usually to learn more about the message of the Restoration.

     • Rarely, if ever, should you talk to people or teach them without extending an invitation to do something that will strengthen their faith in Christ (p. 196).

We are blessed to have good members in this mission who are eager to help us by feeding us. We hope you are gracious at each dinner appointment. We also hope you will look to inspire members and commit them to act. This should be something that is role played and planned during companionship study and added to the goals for the day. If we are having 7 dinners provided to us with approximately 20 members present during those dinners, we should come away with 20 commitments. Anything short of that suggests we have significant room for improvement. If you're not feeling confident in this, ask for help. Members need to see us as encouragers, focused and purpose-driven. If they do, their confidence in us will grow and their desire to help will increase.

We love you and pray for your continued success! Keep up the great finding efforts. Many families are coming into the waters of baptism!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Our missionaries are doing such great work on college campuses throughout our mission. We visited Blinn Community College to see them in action.

Elder Barlow in action setting up a table for contacting on the campus of Blinn Community College

Elder Croft contacting on the Blinn campus. We love how kind and focused they are!

Driving through beautiful Snook, Texas

We got to see these darling hermanans at the baptism of one of their investigators

Beautiful musical number at the baptism

And the winner of the Special Zone Activity is the Cypress 2 Zone!! Congratulations on your excellence and hard work.

We went miniature golfing at an indoor golf course. Some of our missionaries had never done this before! We had a wonderful time together.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the home of Pres and Sister Chappell

Relaxed a little in the media room...without any media!

Great Things are Happening!

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission!

It was wonderful to see each of you this week during Zone Conferences and to see what great teachers you are! We reaffirm to you that as you practice teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ you will find more opportunities to teach it than you previously imagined. Be sure to apply those principles in your own lives. Adopt the Lord's vision/purpose for us as missionaries. Set personal goals and make plans to achieve them in faith and actively repent so you can achieve them. You will find that there is greater power available to you when you do. 

In PMG (p.2) we read, "You are called to represent Jesus Christ in helping people become clean from their sins. You do this by inviting them to come unto Jesus Christ and become converted to His restored gospel. To come to the Savior they must have faith in Him unto repentance—making the necessary changes to bring their life into agreement with His teachings. You can help people develop such faith by teaching them the restored gospel by the Spirit and inviting them to commit to live according to its teachings. Keeping this commitment prepares them for the covenant of baptism and confirmation and the precious gift of the Holy Ghost. They are to put off the “natural man” and become a Saint “through the atonement of Christ the Lord” (Mosiah 3:19)."

We want to thank so many of you for making a concerted effort to involve members more fully in your work. The number of lessons with members present is dramatically up and many of you have told me you have noticed how much easier it is to retain and progress your investigators with members involved. Please remember to do all you can to have members involved with EVERY investigator and that they are offering to "pick up" our investigators to bring them to church just as the good shepherd "picked up" His wandering lamb and brought it back to the flock. We will do a better job of establishing the church here when we do!

Lastly, thanks to all of your who brought investigators to the Fireside last night! We think we had more investigators present last night than any previous fireside! You are doing a wonderful work and many lives are being blessed as a consequence!

It is an honor and privilege to serve with you!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

PS Congratulations to the Cypress 2 zone for winning January's zone competition!

The Mission Department visited our mission last week during Zone Conferences to install boxes in our mission vehicles to help our missionaries drive even safer. They will remind missionaries to buckle up, drive the appropriate speed and not to make any aggressive manuevers. We are so happy for this added protection for our wonderful missionaries. 

Temple Grounds Tours: A great success!

To the missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

Our first evening of temple tours was attended by well over 200 people! Many miracles took place and a few people determined that they wanted to be baptized at the conclusion of their tour! What a great privilege it is for us to bring our investigators onto the temple grounds to help them elevate their vision to the things that matter most. We look forward to many additional opportunities. FYI: Due to the closure of the temple in March, we will likely hold the tour on the 3rd Sunday in March instead. 

It was great to see you all over the course of the last few weeks for interviews and specialized training. We all would benefit from making a more concerted effort to include members in all of our lessons after the first lesson so we can do a better job of helping investigators feel more comfortable coming to church. If we can do this, we will have much greater success leading them to the waters of baptism and enjoying the safety of that covenant as well as retaining them and building the wards/branches in this mission.

We look forward to seeing you at zone conference and hope to work on our teaching of lesson 3: The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Tour guides

Mission Presidency with APs

Even the deer were out on this beautiful evening!

Everyone Needs a Friend

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

In Ch 13 of PMG we read that "Before baptism and confirmation, ensure that members are present at every lesson, if possible. These members should be with the investigators often to answer their questions, understand their challenges, and encourage them." (p. 216)

We have all read this and for some reason we have not practiced it as diligently as we ought to. Please be clear that it should be the rare occasion that we don't have members with us when we teach any lesson after the first lesson to our investigators. I have discovered through recent conversations with many of you that we have developed a culture of teaching without the members. This must change. We are working too hard to not have the fruits of our labors "remain".

Sometimes we confuse "efficient" with "effective". It may be more efficient to just teach on our own, but it is also far less effective to do things that way, because it will be difficult for our members to feel comfortable after their baptism and after we're gone if they haven't truly made meaningful relationships at church. The time to do that is during their process of progressing in their gospel knowledge.

As you know, President Hinckley has said, "There is absolutely no point in doing missionary work unless we hold on to the fruits of that effort. The two must be inseparable."

Elders and Sisters, please do all you can to make sure members are involved in all of our teaching, follow up and fellowshipping. If we can do this, we can be assured that the "fruit" we are harvesting "will remain."

We love you and pray for your continued success!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Mission Leadership Council

Counseling together

Great group of leaders

8 Week Follow-up Training for December arrivals

It was so good to see them together again!

They are doing awesome!

Practice teaching 

Encircling the Sheep that our Fruit Remain

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission!

As I think about your continued great efforts to gather the Lord's sheep, my mind goes to Alma 17:31 where Ammon exhorts his brethren: "My brethren, be of good cheer and let us go in search of the flocks, and we will gather them together and bring them back unto the place of water; and thus we will preserve the flocks unto the king..."

As I read your letters I can hear Ammon's voice. I love your attitudes, your faith and your efforts. If we continue reading however, we see additional light and knowledge about our continued duty once we gathered the flocks. Once Ammon and his brethren gather the flocks as we are doing, we read, "And those men again stood to scatter their flocks; but Ammon said unto his brethren: Encircle the flocks round about that they flee not; (v. 33). We can do better in our efforts to "encircle."

Elders and Sisters, sometimes we act like our only responsibility is the initial gathering. It's not. We have the responsibility to gather and "encircle." In fact the Savior taught, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." (John 15:16). We are to both bring forth fruit and do all that is necessary that it remain.

In this context, as you study Ch 13 of PMG, please review carefully the letter shared by President Hinckley regarding the new convert's perspective on p. 214 and then read how we can better "encircle" these new and returning members on pages 215 and 216 by working with the Ward Council and other members to make sure "they flee not" because we know as Ammon did that "those men" will always be at the water to scatter the flocks.

I love this analogy! Think of it. It would be impossible to encircle with just one member involved. We must have several members involved to comfortably encircle our new members. Seek revelation on this idea and work share it with your Ward Councils to make sure these precious sheep remain.

We love you and love serving with you in this great work!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

We received a new missionary on Saturday! We are so excited to have Hermana Bas with us. She will be wonderful.

We had another wonderful Mission President's Fireside last week in the Houston West Stake. 

It was a treat to hear such beautiful musical numbers performed in Spanish. They sounded amazing!

Here are our wonderful missionaries providing service to the local food bank. 

 And the winner of the Special Zone Activity is....

Houston North Spanish!! 

First zone to have a repeat win. Way to go! We had so much fun with you.