APRIL 2010

August

D&C 101:63 -4 . . .
Dear Brother and Sisters,|
Message from the President

In the course of missionary work we sometimes find ourselves with an inordinate

they are willing t

number of appointments being cancelled or investigator commitments unfulfilled. When
this happens it is easy to become discouraged and think “what’s the use.” This can be a
time when the Lord is stretching us and wanting us to grow spiritually. It can also be a
good time to review the formula for a successful missionary and compare it with our
own performance and see what adjustments we may need to make. The formula for a
successful missionary as found in Preach My Gospel on the very last page is as follows:

together of my s
Your purpose is to bring souls to Christ.
Prepare people to meet the qualifications for baptism.
Pray often for yourself and for others.
Rely on the Spirit to show you where to go, what to do, and what to say.
Be exactly obedient.
Study the language of your mission each day.
Plan every day and focus on the key indicators.
Work effectively all day, every day.
Ask for referrals from everyone.
Teach when you find, find when you teach.
Read the Book of Mormon with those you teach.
Teach people that an important way to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of
God is to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.
Contact every investigator Message daily. from the President
Bear testimony frequently. Continued from front page
Have a member at every lesson possible.
Becauseset
Always of specific
the possibility
dates ofand individual
times for perception
the next distorting
lesson. the formula it is very
important
Invite to live by the to
all investigators Spirit so that we
baptismal can adhere to the formula as close to the
services.
Lord’seach
After intent as possible.
lesson, provideHaving the Spiritwith
investigators of the Lord as our
something to guide
read andwill ponder
help us to
in
maximize ourfor
preparation missionary
the nextabilities
meeting. and be as effective as possible. Sister Julie B. Beck,
General
Build President of with
relationships the Relief Societyby
members inserving
the last General
them and Conference
workingsaid,
with“The
the ability
to qualify for,
leadership of receive,
the ward.and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill
that can
Help ward beleaders
acquiredwith
in this life.” And
retention andmay I add theactivities.
activation single most important skill that
can be
Help acquiredyou
everyone on ateach
mission.
make Again Sister Beck, that
commitments “Revelation canabout
will bring come hour by hour
repentance

April 2010
and will
and moment by moment
strengthen theirasfaith
we do the right
in the things…Personal revelation gives us the
Savior.
understanding
Love the Lord of andwhat to do
serve every
Him theday…Promised
very best youpersonal
can. revelation comes when we
ask for it, prepare for it, and go forward in faith, trusting that it will be poured out upon
The
us,”formula for a successful missionary is an interesting thing because an individual’s
perception tends to distort the formula even though the formula itself is simple and
unchanging.
May we under We the
mayinspiration
see our personal
of thebiases
Lord’s enter into
Spirit our perception
carefully reviewofthe a successful
above
missionary. For example, a missionary who is
formula and make any changes we are inspired to make. apprehensive about talking to strangers
may avoid contacting to find new investigators or avoid contacting investigators daily or
spend an inordinate amount of time with members and justify it by saying I am building
With Our Love,
 April 2010
Message from the Assistants
Dear Elders and Sisters,
We ask you to read in the Saturday Afternoon session of conference, especially, Elder
D. Todd Christofferson’s talk on the scriptures, entitled “the Blessing of Scripture," as a
precursor to this letter.

As missionaries in the Latter Days, the Lord has called us to teach the
gospel of repentance to his children. Question: Are we beyond the words of the Lord
when he says in the Doctrine and Covenants, “Hearken ye to these words. Behold, I am
Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Treasure these things up in your hearts, and let
the solemnities of eternity rest upon your minds.” (D&C 43:34)

We have 2 hours a day for scripture study, in our own language and without any
problems like that which William Tyndale experienced as he tried to bring more of the
Notes From the Office:
Lord’s children the word of Christ. Do we take this seriously? As a mission, how many
1. The purpose of the “Kingdom Sheet” [officially called the apartment address
accumulated hours are wasted each day by not studying, or only lightly reading the
list] is to connect the names and addresses of missionaries with their
scriptures? Everyone’s guilty of talking away personal and companionship study time
proselyting areas and phone numbers. With the implementation of IMOS it is
about pointless things. We are aware that such habits may be destructive to areas,
imperative that the information on the “Kingdom Sheet” match the
companionships, and missionaries. What we do with those hours between 8:00and
information in IMOS, including the missionary names, addresses, and phone
11:00 is a forecast for how are missions will be, and a mission is a relatively good
numbers. Therefore, it is important that errors on the Kingdom sheet
forecaster for our lives after the mission.
are reported to the office.
Phones
2.The are assigned
Lord himself to proselyting
called upon areas
scripture when and Satan
facing apartment addresses
as he fasted in the,
not for
wilderness to individual
forty days.missionaries.
We ought toWhen
emulateyouhismove, thealways
example, phoneby does not move
beginning with
with you!
the scriptures. They are revelations given to us from the Lord himself. Proper,
3. Thepersonal
structured mission office is keeping track
and companionship of transportation
scripture advances
study are two of the and
most expenses
simple and
by area
yet strongest and by individual
methods missionary.
for showing More
the Lord you doiscare
coming onyour
about this call
later. In that
and the you
are willing to become “scripturally – literate.”
Baptisms Reported in March 30
YTD as
We of
all 3/31
are want this, it is not a question as to whether or not we all want to
become something better Baptism
than whoConfirmation
we are. Reading the scriptures is a way to bring
about a greater light within us
Name Datewhich in turn Date
allows us to see the cracks of our armor
Location
and better repair them.’
Missionaries
Kalo, Nabil Nasi Waren
We would like to commit you 6 toMar 7 Mar
personally and as aBergen - Missionto again
companionship, Elders
take
Maxwell/Crandall/
up the cause for solid and directed scripture study. Every companionship is different,
but everyone has areas for improvement. Take the time in weekly planning to discuss
Bennett
study topics which you will pursue that week. Build upon your faith and help the faith
Bandura, Johnny Petter
of your companion. There is a light13 Mar
that only 14
the Mar Oslo
scriptures can- Stake
give us and it is our
promise
Sisters that as you
Wallace/ again take the time and effort to break out of old habits of
Emery
complacency
Rauth Chhetri,and to seek new horizons
Liaqat 13 Marwith those books, that
14 Mar there
Skien will be a spiritual,
- Stake
physical,
Elders and mental improvement in your area. Your unity will increase as friends and
Carr/Passey
as teachers to those under your stewardship, and you will reach a greater
understanding of what the Savior meant when he said “Hearken ye to these words.
Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Treasure these things up in your
hearts, and let the solemnities of eternity rest upon your minds.”
 April 2010
Our Miracle Column
We had an experience this week that has strengthened my testimony of the effect of
small and simple things. My companion and I were eating some sandwiches for lunch at
the mall, when a man came up to us, handed us some drinks and said “Those
sandwiches look pretty dry”. He then walked away. We tried to figure out why he gave
us the drinks but couldn’t really figure it out! The man came back to us a couple of
minutes later and told us that when he was our age he was on a trip to Salt Lake City
and a member of our church had bought him a lemonade while he was eating his
sandwich. He then went on to explain how it felt to be on the other side of the story this
time. It’s amazing how people remember such small and simple things- like someone
buying lemonade for them.
∞∞∞
We had a very promising investigator who said he wouldn’t read in the Book of Mormon
before he prayed to God to know if it were true. We were not feeling very positive when
we left him, but when we met with him again, he said that he had been praying about it
and then had a dream where God gave him the Book of Mormon and said “You need to
read this.” It was good to know that he has a sincere heart because that was what we
worried about- we knew that if he asked God without a sincere heart, he wouldn’t get
an answer.
∞∞∞
We were waiting for a bus to come so that we could go into the city and we were going
to go get dinner or something and then the bus came 10 minutes early. The bus driver
opened the door and said he was going only half way to where we were going. We
decided to take it anyway. When we get to the end of the line, no sooner than we
stepped off the bus a man approaches us and introduces himself and says he has
investigated the church a long time ago. He said missionaries are great guys! They are
people you can really trust. So he invites us over to his house. We catch the next bus
with him and go to his house and teach him a first lesson. It was really cool!
∞∞∞
Several weeks ago we contacted a lady on the street. She gave us her address and said
we could talk to her husband. We didn’t follow up right away. Weeks went by before we
made an appointment with her and her husband. She came to the door and said she
had been waiting for two weeks for us to come, but we never did. She invited us in and
told us that her husband would be home in a few minutes. The husband came home
and we taught them both about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit
in the small apartment was stronger than I have felt in my whole life! After we talked
about the Book of Mormon, the father looked at me and asked, “What would the
process be for me to get baptized?” I told him we would teach him for a few weeks and
then he could be baptized. We scheduled the next teach for Sunday night. On Sunday
the wife prepared all kinds of food from India and they talked to us about their Hindi
beliefs, and joked about how their young daughter loved Jesus. Then we watched the
Restoration DVD with them. All six of their eyes were focused so intently on the TV
screenWethat
Love yousilent
it was all, in the room. Afterwards they sat quietly and the room was
filled with the Spirit. We talked to them about making promises to God and described
Elder
baptism. WeMiller,
taughtElder
them Smith
how to pray. They are committed to pray about it!
and Elder Lewis till the 26 of April ∞∞∞
We began to teach an investigator who was very verbal and against everything we tried
to teach. She couldn’t believe the Book of Mormon was the Word of God or that there
was a Prophet on the earth today! She continued to meet with us. It surprised us she
wanted to meet with us. We heard constant complaints about us always referring to the
Book of Mormon. She became very emotional and asked with an upset tone, “Why don’t
you use the bible? Why don’t you refer to Old Testament and the New Testament?” We