Member Involvement

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

We love the great work you are doing. As we are immersed in this great work, we want to remind you about the need to never lose sight of the vital role the members play in the process of referring, fellow shipping and shepherding our investigators to church, to baptism and to the temple. It is vital that we earn their trust. Just this week we received an email from a local bishop raving about a Sister in his ward who was getting transferred. This is what he said:

"I wanted to take a second and share with you my feelings of gratitude to the Lord for the exemplary service that Sister _________ has rendered these past few months that she has served in the our ward. We are sad to see her go.  The ward has been the blessed recipient of the consecrated efforts of this exceptionally diligent, humble, and talented sister missionary.  We cannot express enough how instrumental she has been in building up the Kingdom in this wonderful part of the Lord's vineyard. She has been a sweet and enthusiastic influence for growth and we will do our utmost to maintain that light going forward. Thankfully, she leaves us with a high quality teaching pool of investigators, which I'm confident her companion and the new companion will successfully care for.

"There have been many sweet miracles experienced by our ward with Sister __________  working with us. She loved the people she taught, and worked with determination to ensure they had every chance to hear the truth of the restored gospel, be fellowshipped by members, come to church, and progress toward full conversion.  God bless her for her work and sacrifice. She has been one of the most successful in working in an integrated way with our ward members - she understands that vision well." 

We have received several similar emails. We hope these kinds of things can be said of each of you as you are found ministering to the members as you encourage them to assist you in this great work. Ours is the duty to build faith in everyone with whom we interact. With this in mind, we have a couple of requests as you work with members in your areas:

1. Always be aware that you are being observed. Be sure that your actions are reflective of one who represents the Lord.

2. Quickly respond to texts and calls from members.

3. Quickly (within 24 hours) follow up on referrals from members and report back to them immediately on how things went.

4. Never teach a member's referral without inviting the member to participate.

5. If a member is going to participate with you in a lesson, be sure you counsel with them about how you would like them to participate and explain to them the objectives of the lesson (commitments). They don't understand the Doctrine of Christ as it relates to progressing investigators. You do!

6. When asking a member to reach out to one of our investigators, set them up to succeed. Let the investigator know they will be calling so the member has a positive experience. This will increase their desire to help in the future.

7. Praise members for every attempt to help.

8. We very careful to keep your relationships purposeful. Members may allow you to over stay your your visit, but they will lose respect for you if you aren't obedient.

We love you and we are excited by the fact that we are on track to keep our commitment of 630 so far as a mission!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Such a great lunch with these lovely sisters!

Temple Trip with departing missionaries

Sister missionaries are amazing

The Elders looking like models :)

Dinner at the mission home

Testimony meeting

We are sure going to miss them!

It's go time!

And they are off! They will be great

Here are our new missionaries!! 

They look great!

Here are our new missionaries straight from the MTC

A little training at the Stake Center

Here comes Sister Masters our only one from the Mexico MTC

Texas BBQ at the mission home

We love Sister Chappell!

Blue Bell ice cream is the best!

All the missionaries from Idaho! Wow!

Temple trip to remember to begin with the end in mind

The following pictures are of the new missionaries with their trainers. They are all in good hands!

We attended District Meeting in the Spring area. It was great to be there for Elder Christensen's first meeting as District Leader. He did a great job and we were inspired by his teaching and the church tours!

Elder Christensen in action

Spring District

Our Duty to Teach

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

As we have reflected on our email to you last week, it has occurred to us that some may wonder that if we are "agents to act," why should we need to council and commit each other to do certain things. If you have had that question, we want you to know that we believe it is a thoughtful, sincere question and one deserving of a equally thoughtful answer.

Why Do We Teach?

As you all are aware, one of the primary purposes for our mortal existence is to learn to exercise agency in righteous ways. As Lehi teaches his sons in 2 Ne 2, the only way this can happen is if we are "sufficiently instructed" (v.5). One thing we must remember is that it is impossible for righteousness to be chosen if righteousness is not taught (v.16). That is why the Savior's last admonition to His apostles was to "teach all nations" (Matt 28:19).

What Do We Teach?

The Savior doesn't simply say that we should teach, He continues by telling us what we should teach by saying: "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt 28:20). He then promises us that as we are found in the path of duty to fulfill these commandments, He will be with us.

In our day, through both latter-day scripture and latter-day prophets, this council has been expanded to "preach repentance." As we have discussed previously, the way we preach repentance is to teach faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. As missionaries and, in time, as future parents and church leaders, we have been taught that one of the primary ways we teach repentance is to invite others to make and keep commitments (PMG Ch 11). 

How Do We Teach?

In His visit to the Nephites, one of the last things Jesus taught His disciples was to do "that which ye have seen me do" (3 Ne 27:21). This is why we spend so much effort in our mission to learn to teach "after the manner of the Master."

In addition to teaching by word, one of the most powerful ways for us to teach is by the way we act. This is one of the reasons the Savior taught the Nephites, "what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am" (3 Ne 27:27). Elders and Sisters, we need to regularly ask ourselves this question, "Do my words, my actions and does my appearance make me easily identifiable as a disciple of Jesus Christ?" If the answer is "no" we must repent. Because we can't afford to let these things keep us from fulfilling our divine commission to teach.

Who Do We Teach?

The answer to this question may be obvious, but we want you to remember that we teach those we love and we love those we teach. Often, the people closest to us are the people we find hardest to teach, but are the people we can influenced most profoundly. We need to remember that teaching is one of the greatest expressions of love. This is why the Savior spent His life teaching.

We feel lucky to be associated with such powerful teachers. We are excited that so many of you understand that we commit because we love and because we love, lives and eternities are being changed forever!

We love you!

President and Sister Mortensen

We had these wonderful missionaries to dinner last week!

We held two leadership council meetings last week. We received some great revelation as we counseled together and learned from each other and the spirit. Here are some pictures I took that day.

We attended District Meeting last Friday in the Tomball District and were inspired by the great leadership of Elder Myers and the missionaries in that district. We love District Meeting!

Agents to Act

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

We are excited by the opportunities that the revised reporting structure will give us to learn to exercise our agency to choose righteousness. This is one of the great doctrines taught in 2 Ne 2. Lehi instructs his sons about agency and how it works. One of the great lessons learned as missionaries is that we don't have to be enslaved by our circumstances, emotional states, or any other circumstance that would seem to "cause" us to fail. We are empowered to choose righteousness in spite of all of those conditions. That IS the reason we have been given agency (Moses 7). As President Russell M. Nelson taught in our last general conference, joy is the reward of those who understand and act in righteous ways. 

We want to remind you that along with the opportunity to exercise our agency, the scriptures teach that we will be judged according to our choices. This is the principle that Alma tried to teach Zeezrom (Alma 12). So, as there is greater freedom to choose, there is also greater accountability for those choices. We expect that any area falling beneath these standards will get the attention of their leaders so we can help each other succeed. 

We hope you are each taking the time to plan to achieve the standards of excellence each week. If we are planning to find at least one new investigator everyday and teach two lessons, and hold ourselves accountable to those commitments, you will find that the work will be more rewarding and we will be entitled to greater success. We are excited to see it. 

We promise you that as you use your agency to act in righteous ways IN SPITE of your circumstances, the Lord will bless you openly and bless those you serve in ways that will build your faith and shape your future in ways that will astonish you.

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

We had Mission Leadership Council last Tuesday and enjoyed a wonderful council with these amazing leaders. We feel so blessed to learn from them!

Houston West South Zone

Katy Zone

Bear Creek Zone

Houston West North Spanish Zone

Houston North English Zone

The Woodlands Zone

College Station East Zone

Klein Zone

Spring Zone

College Station West Zone

Houston North Spanish Zone

Cypress Zone

Mission Leadership Council

We attended Zone Meeting last Friday in the Woodlands Zone. It was such an inspiring meeting and we were filled with the spirit as discussed how we will adapt to the new changes to the key indicators and the daily schedule. We feel the Doctrine of Christ permeates the things that we do personally and with our investigators.

Elder Vickers training

Sister Leavitt's training

Sister Gutierrez trains us

Elder Bird's training

The Woodlands Zone

Impressions from the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast

To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,

We were so happy to see you this week as we watched the training broadcast. We are so grateful to be led by prophets, seers and revelators. We sustain them with all our hearts! We hope you have had an opportunity to review the notes you took. If you haven't please take the time to do so and share those impressions with your companion and zone this next district meeting. Here are a couple of thoughts that we have had:

Doctrine of Christ as it applies to us in our current roles as missionaries:

     1. We demonstrate faith as we: are obedient, study the scriptures and PMG, make goals and plans and find

     2. We repent by always being willing to make the changes necessary to qualify for the powers of heaven. These corrections may come by the Holy Ghost, but also make come through our leaders (D&C 1:38).

     3. We are "baptized" and renewed every time we worthily partake of the emblems of the Sacrament each week.

     4. We are able to endure to the end by remaining worthy so that the Gift of the Holy Ghost can tell us those things we should do to find, teach and baptize those the Lord has prepared to receive the blessings in store for the faithful.

Doctrine of Christ as it applies to the way we progress investigators:

     1. We give them an opportunity to exercise faith by accepting the commitments we extend to them.

     2. They have opportunities to repent by keeping those commitments (PMG ch 11)

     3. We give them an opportunity to be baptized AFTER they have had the opportunity to repent sufficiently. DON'T SKIP ANY STEPS!!

     4. We help them endure to the end by making sure we they are continually taught the good word of God, are able to participate in temple ordinances both for themselves and for their kindred dead and then help "strengthen the church" (PMG p.10)

Elder Oaks stated that, "If we do things in the proper order, the invitation to be baptized with be both persuasive and powerful." We add our testimonies to those we heard on Wednesday. This is Christ's church. He leads it through Prophets and Apostles and it is our great privilege to serve with them in assisting the Lord in hastening His work!

Love,

President and Sister Mortensen

Waiting for the broadcast to begin.

We attended District Meeting in the Katy North District. The following are pictures taken there.

Elder Okleberry is a great district leader! We were edified by his training.

Role Plays

Celebrating Sister Alone birthday

Elder Labbee and Elder Stevens made the cake

Katy North District