The Lord's Way

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

We have loved hearing about the many miracles that are taking place since you've been using The Book of Mormon more meaningfully and planning the Lord's way. It is amazing the miracles that take place when the "small and simple things" are done according to the Lord's will. 

This reminds me of an experience between the Savior and Peter that we see repeated in the New Testament, once at the beginning of the Savior's ministry and then again at the end. When we notice repetition in the scriptures it is an invitation to look at the significance and meaning a little more closely. 

The first instance is found in Luke 5:1-11. It is one of the first interactions the Savior has with Peter (Simon). The Savior comes to Peter and asks him to let his nets down for a draught ("catch" or "haul"). Peter initially protests by saying, "Master, we have toiled all night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net". We read in vs 6 that because of Peter's willingness to act in faith in something that didn't make a lot of sense to him, they caught so many fish that the net broke. 

Similarly, after the resurrection of Jesus, He appears to His disciples who are fishing again. He calls out to them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat and promises them that they shall "find' (John 21:6). They "found" so many fish that, the scriptures teach, "they were not able to draw it (their net) for the multitude of fishes." Why did this happen? In both cases, the Savior asks them to perform an activity not really any different than they were already doing it. They are in the same boats, with the same nets and they possess the same skill. Then why the dramatic difference in results? It is interesting to see that simply by doing what He asks of them in faith and humility, their skills are magnified and their harvest is great. 

We see this in our mission when missionaries humble themselves and trust God even when they don't understand. They are exactly obedient. They plan the Lord's way. They understand that the Lord is the preparer of hearts. They then discover that if they exactly follow what He asks in faith, the success is dramatically bigger than anything they can achieve in any other way. 

We love you each and hope that we will have the faith and humility to perform this work in the Lord's way.

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

We had our 8 week follow-up training for the missionaries that arrived in May. They are a small but mighty group! We are so grateful for their preparation and their desire to be Master Teachers. The following are pictures taken from that training day.

 The following pictures were taken a recent baptism in Conroe. It was a wonderful event!

Hermana Christensen and Hermana Haslam sang a beautiful duet.

It was Elder Allen's last night in the mission with us! We will sure miss this wonderful missionary.

We also had Temple Grounds Tours last week! It was another wonderful event attended by more than 250 people. The cloud cover and light sprinkles made the heat bearable. We are grateful for these tender mercies the Lord shows us as we try to fulfill our purpose. Here are some pictures taken that evening.

Our tour guides

Elder Barlow take a tour

We needed those fans!

Elder Spragg leads a tour

Elder Queen handling security

Elder Serrano leads a tour

Sister Niedert leads a tour

"Elevating our Vision"

Hermana De La O leads a tour

Sister Niedert teaches about eternal families

Elder Schinn leads a tour

A great group from College Station 

In His way and on His timetable...

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

We have been grateful to have Elder Allen roaming around the mission in the past couple of weeks reinforcing the critically important principles of planning we have discussed. We have heard great reports from many of you about the better understanding you've gained and increased motivation to plan the Lord's way. We want you to remember one statement as you consider your commitment to planning:

"To learn to plan is to learn to become like God."

If we understand this, we realize that there is great wisdom in planning in order to do the Lord's work. The scriptures are clear that God planned to do His own work. It stands to reason then, that He would ask us to learn to plan if we are going to assist Him in His work.

Sometimes we find that missionaries plan and then, when they don't see immediate miracles, they either lose hope and quit before achieving their goals or they lose the enthusiasm for planning and fail to achieve the results the Lord would have helped them achieve had they had the faith to persevere. Each of these results are big mistakes.

In Mark 6:45-51 we read of a valuable experience that Christ's early disciples had. It begins with the Savior putting His disciples into a ship and sending them off to the other side of the sea while He remained on the land. While they were rowing to the destination, the wind picks up and they begin to struggle in their effort to arrive at their destination. The Lord allows them to struggle throughout the night before He comes to them during the 4th watch (almost dawn). There is a great message in this story. Like the disciples in His day, the Lord has put us onto a ship and sent us to a destination (Houston) to do His work. It is intended to be difficult and it is going to require us to struggle and push through in the face of the wind (adversity and trial). If we have the faith and hope to do so, He will always be there to help us accomplish the task, but the miracles happen AFTER the trial of faith.

Press forward in faith Elders and Sisters. Wonderful miracles are happening. Please make sure that as your are setting goals and planning, you are setting goals that are at least the mission standards (2 New investigators, 3 investigators at church and 5 member presents) and then work diligently through the wind to achieve them. The miracles will always happen. The promises are sure. Our hopes and prayers are that you have the determination to persevere to you can experience them.

We love you and are grateful for the many, many miracles that are taking place because of your faith and obedience.

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

We had Mission Leadership Council last week. Here are a few pictures from that great council.

Door Approach Role plays

Special Planning session with Elder Allen

We received our remaining four sisters missionaries from the MTC last Friday and are so happy to finally have them here! Here are some pictures from that day.

Dinner at Rudy's BBQ

Testimony Meeting and then meeting our trainers!