The Temple: Where Faith Meets Families

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

Since the time we arrived here almost a year-and-a-half ago, we have been trying to figure out ways to place the temple at the center of everything we do so that both we and those we teach have our vision elevated beyond baptism. We need to begin with the end in mind. If we do, we will see baptism for what it is: a beginning.

Because of that pressing desire we have done the following things:

1. We have worked with the stakes to get you all trained on familysearch (that effort is, and forever will be, ongoing. If it's not happening in your area, please let your zone leaders know).

2. We have requested that family history be taught right after a baptismal date is set.

3. We have created a lesson outline and modeled how to teach it effectively.

4. We have implemented tours of the Temple Grounds.

5. We have worked with the stakes to cause that the high councilors over missionary work meet with the zone leaders each week to discuss, among other things, the progress of recent converts to the temple.

In spite of these things, we have felt like we are still not where we need to be. There are too many of our converts who aren't getting the support or assistance to find family names to take to the temple. The Lord would have us do much better in this regard and has made that abundantly clear to us in recent weeks. Our new temple president, President Hayes, shares this vision.

With this in mind, we are announcing an exciting, sustainable initiative that will begin in January of 2016. We are calling it "Faith meets Families in the Temple." The objective of this is to ensure that every recent convert, ward mission, temple and full time mission work together to get our recent converts (the Lord's harvest) safely and timely into the Lord's garners/granary (the temple) where they can be sheltered from the storm. The elements of this initiative will be as follows:

1. On the fourth Friday of every month, the baptistry will be reserved for our recent converts from 6-9pm.

2. We will hold a meeting with all stake leaders in the first week of January to present the details to them so that we are united in our effort.

3. Hermanas Woodard and Sumsion will be spending the next two weeks calling every companionship in the mission to ask that you work with your wards to get all converts in your area from January 2014 to the present who have not been to the temple yet, prepared with their own names to attend on Friday January 22nd.

4. This will continue every month from this point forward with the office couples providing follow up to you and the stakes/wards so we don't lose track of anyone.

5. Sister Mortensen and I will be at the temple to meet your new investigators to congratulate and encourage them to move forward in faith.

The remarkable thing about this is that every convert is a key to thousands of people who are waiting to be released from Spirit Prison. This effort will not only contribute to the hastening, but will more perfectly ensure that the work we do "remains." (Jn 15:16).

We are so excited to serve with you and participate in this great work! What a wonderful time to be in His service!

We love you and look forward to seeing you soon!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Oakcrest District Temple day

Mission Leadership Council

We saw these darling sisters up in Hearne, Texas for sacrament meeting.


We held Temple Grounds Tours today and many people came to tour the grounds to feel the wonderful spirit that is always there. The following pictures were taken at the tours.

Our Awesome Tour Guides

Mission Presidency

Sister Jeppson leads a tour

Elder Sirstins directing traffic

The rain stopped so the tours could commence and then we even had some sunshine break through the clouds. 

Hermana Marlowe leads a tour

Hermana Renteria leads a tour

We all love Hermana George

Sister Winterton leads a tour

Elder Meyers leads a tour

Our friends from Hearne came to tour the temple grounds

Elder Meyers in action

What Gift Will I Give the Savior?

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission:

We so enjoyed being with you during zone conferences this week. We hope you will remember to review your notes and be determined to think more broadly about how we can help strengthen and establish the church in this area. 

We are so blessed to have the temple in our mission. We hope you have a wonderful experience in the temple this week. We also hope that while you participate in the temple presentation that you ponder your role in bringing to light the sacred truths we carry in the lives of those who reside in the Texas Houston Mission. 

We invite you to ponder this question as you sit and listen to the temple presentation: 

"What gift will I give to the Savior this Christmas season and for the rest of my mission?" 

We promise that as you sit and pray particularly in the Celestial room that the Lord will help you understand how you can better consecrate yourself to this work. As you act on these promptings, greater blessings will be yours as you will become more perfectly aligned with Him. 

Please remember the following:

1. Please take a family file name out of the "Texas Houston Mission" box in the drawer at the top of the stairs. 

2. Please arrive to your session at least 30 minutes early so you can have time to sit in the chapel and prepare yourselves to receive revelation.

3. Please return quickly and safely to your proselyting areas at the conclusion of your session.

We love you and look forward to seeing you all later this month!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

It was so fun to have my parents visit the Texas Houston Mission! 

We found these cute sisters while touring Texas A&M. They are outstanding!

President Mortensen taking care of business in the Mission Home. 

 We held Zone Conferences this last week. It was wonderful to get together and learn how to more fully Strengthen and Establish the Church. We were all pretty excited at the many possibilities for us to further the Lord's work! We love the Texas Houston Mission!

Fall Birthdays

Fall Birthdays

 

We found these elders already implementing what they learned at zone conf. Awesome!

Fall Birthdays

Words of Faith

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

As missionaries we are in the unique position to represent the Lord in His work. When we are living according to His standards, our words are His words, our promises are His promises and our invitations are His invitations. Sometimes, even though we may understand this, our words betray us; we fail to use words of faith.

For example, sometimes when we invite others to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, we will say, "Will you read the Book of Mormon to know 'if' it's true?" Using the word "if" suggests that there is some doubt as to whether or not it is true. The fact is, it is true. We are only inviting them to act so that they too can know this truth. So instead, we suggest that we consider using words of faith by saying something like this, "The Lord would have you read the Book of Mormon and pray so that you too can know 'that' it is true. Will you accept His invitation to you to read and pray to know that it's true?"

Similarly when we extend an invitation to be baptized, we sometimes say, "We have prayed to know when you could be ready and believe that you can be ready by December 19th. Will you pray to know 'if' you should be baptized on that date?" If the Lord has truly confirmed to us that a person can be ready, shouldn't that change the way we word the invitation to something more like this: "We have prayed and know that the Lord would have you follow His example by preparing to be baptized on December 19th. Will you accept the invitation to prepare for this date?"

As we speak in words of faith and allow the Spirit to carry our words unto the hearts of those we teach, they will be more inclined to accept our invitation and follow the Lord.

We love you and are eager to meet with you at our zone conferences this week. Please come prepared with a 5 minute talk one of two topics:

1. The Importance of Members (PMG p.160-162)

2. How do I work with Stake and Ward leaders? (PMG 213)

We look forward to a wonderful conference!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

The Larsens arrived in the THM last Wednesday and we are so happy to have them! This is the fourth mission they have served and we love them already.

Here are some of our missionaries from the Cypress Zone at a recent service opportunity. They are blessing so many lives!