Temple Tours and the Blessings of Elevated Vision

To the missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

Thank you to all those who were successful in bringing investigators to the temple on Sunday. We had about 240 people there and the tours were conducted by many of our mission leaders. They each did a great job. Sister Mortensen and I were able to visit with many of the investigators who participated in the tours and saw how they were filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Many determining again that they needed to be baptized. Others realizing that they needed to be married so they could be baptized and then sealed. All of these miraculous changes because they had felt the influence of the Holy Ghost and had their vision elevated to the things of God.

At the outset of this dispensation, the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith the qualifications to be called to His work when He said, "And faith, hope, charity and love, with an EYE SINGLE TO THE GLORY OF GOD, qualify him for the work." (D&C 4:5).

One of the things that the Adversary is very good at is that He gets us to take our eyes off of the Savior or off of the things of God. He does this in a variety of ways. I don't know that's it is useful to list all of the ways, but I do think it's important for each of us to be aware of the effect of losing focus on Him. I see it from time to time as I sit with missionaries who will say things like, "I just don't have the motivation anymore" or "I'm done". Elders and Sisters, the only way it's possible for these things to be said is if we allow the Adversary to turn our focus from the Lord to ourselves. The Adversary would have us seek our own and not the welfare of others. In the scriptures, this is condition is best described as an absence of charity.

The prophets through the ages have understood this subtle tactic of the Adversary. For this reason, President Hinckley has stated that, "“Every morning…, missionaries should get on their knees and plead with the Lord to loosen their tongues and speak through them to the blessing of those they will be teaching. If they will do this, a new light will come into their lives. There will be greater enthusiasm for the work. They will come to know that in a very real sense, they are servants of the Lord speaking in His behalf. They will find a different response from those they teach. As they do so by the Spirit, their investigators will respond under the influence of the same Spirit.” (PMG p. 94).

Please do all that you can to keep your vision elevated on the things you desire eternally. Keep your eyes single to His glory and we will qualify for the work!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

The temple grounds are always beautiful!

Our tour guides

Elder Halterman takes the first group

This great group came to tour the temple grounds from Huntsville

For Where Two or Three are Gathered in my Name

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

In the New Testament, the Savior taught: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt 18:20) Do we really understand that? In our day He said to the prophet Joseph Smith, "But behold, verily, verily, I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me;" (D&C 38:7). 

Elders and Sisters, this is the Lord's work. He wants to direct it and will if we will seek direction from Him. I have spent several evenings this week in planning sessions at night and I'm not persuaded that we realize that as we counsel together in His name and about His work, the Lord Himself is with us. Do we realize that He can open the eyes of our understanding so we have "eyes to see" if we will seek Him? Nephi teaches us that He will tell us and show us all things (2 Ne 32:3,5). This includes where the people are who He has prepared so we can go boldly to find them. 

We have concerns that the way we set daily and weekly goals in our planning doesn't reflect our commitment to God. If we seek Him as we prayerfully set specific goals, have them confirmed by the Lord through His Spirit, we should do all we can to accomplish them (PMG p146). Too often, we simply shrug and move on when we fail to achieve our goals. We cannot do that without weakening our own faith. In PMG ch 8, we read that "Goal setting and planning are acts of faith." We also read that we should "Do everything in your power to achieve our goals while respecting the agency of others." It's often the last door or the last 10 minutes that is the difference between succeeding or not. It's because our faith is being tested. 

We need to think bigger during our planning. We are often too content to just doing this work on our own. Think about the following:

1. How we can mobilize the Primary children and the youth and the other ward members. Let's get many more people to work with us and watch the miracles happen. 

2. Similarly, each of you should have a list of part member families in your ward (if you don't have one, ask for it this week) and then meet with each of your ward council members individually and find out as much as you can from each of them about these families and how you could best approach them. Watch the revelation you receive!

3. Look in your area books for recent converts and review Lehi's vision with them. Specifically focus on how Lehi desired to share the fruit with those he loved. Ask them who they would like to share it with. Once they give you a name, don't cut them off (as we usually do). Instead, ask, "Who else?". They will receive revelation and so will we. 

We are eager for your great success. The Lord is pushing us to move faster. This is an exciting time! We are grateful for the blessing it is for us to serve with such faithful servants as you. We love you for the goodness of your hearts. The Lord will bless you as you invite His guidance into this work!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Here are some pictures from MLC last week

Sister Chappell delights us with one of her delicious object lessons

Sister Niedert participating in another object lesson. What a great sport!

Our MLC is shrinking a bit with the departure of many of our missioinaries

Elder Petersen and Elder Keith with President Mortensen at their baptism on Saturday

Sister Hassell (pictured with her companion Sister Sabin) returned home with honor a few weeks early to take care of an injury. We will sure miss this wonderful missionary! Love you

A Mighty Change of Heart

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

At the conclusion of King Benjamin's sermon to his people, he inquires of them about their reaction to his words. We read their reaction in Mos 5:2 which reads:

"And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually."

Just as King Benjamin's people experienced a mighty change of heart borne of the Spirit of God that they felt as they listened to his words, so must those we teach feel if we expect them to make and keep commitments. Too often we are disappointed by their failure to keep commitments and we assume that "they just aren't ready", when the reality is they may very well be ready, but they didn't feel and recognize the influence of the Holy Ghost in our teaching. Therefore they fail to act. More often than not, this is a result of an absence of the spirit when we teach (D&C 50:13-22).

We would like each of you to study Ch 10 of PMG in personal and companionship study this week. We need to qualify for the Spirit in our own lives first. Having the Spirit with us is the most important thing we can do. That comes as we are prepare faithfully, are exactly obedient and we are lovingly bold. That's why we state this in our Mission Statement. Only then will we see miracles and accomplish our Missionary Purpose.

We testify to you that as you do these things, ministering angels will attend you and attend those you teach. That the Spirit will carry to their hearts the words of truth (2 Ne 33:1).

We love you and pray for your continued success!

President and Sister Mortensen

Here are the pictures taken from last weeks transfer

Sister Rowe's parents meet us at the temple

Wonderful group of departing missionaries at the temple together

Testimony Meeting with Departing Missionaries

Signing the flag

The McLeans pick up their daughter 

Rainy morning at the airport

We squeezed into the elevataor

So cozy!

We were quite the spectacle with all of our missionaries and luggage to check

Elder Pongi was the first to depart

We will sure miss these wonderful missionaries! They have been such a blessing to us and to the people in Houston.

Elder Field needs to catch his plane

Last goodbyes

An hour later we received our new missionaries straight from the MTC and CCMA. They look great and ready to serve. We are so happy to have them here in Houston!

Aren't they the beautiful? We are so excited to have these wonderful new missionaries!

Writing home and eating Texas' famous Blue Bell ice cream.

Group picture at the mission home the next morning before meeting our trainers at our transfer meeting

The next several pictures are of the new missionaries and their trainers. They are all in very good hands! We are already getting great reports from them.