2 January
2012
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President’s Letter
“Nothing is too hard
for the Lord. Seek after and live for these blessings and you
will save your own souls in the process.”
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The Kyiv Quest
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The Kyiv Quest
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Frohes Neues Jahr! That is Adamic for “Happy New Year”!
My hope and prayer for
2012 is that individually and as a mission we will rise to our potential and
through our faith, diligence, and consecration allow Heavenly Father to bless
us to reach our goals. A common theme from your letters last week was
„President, I don’t know what else to do, I (or my district) am doing all I
know how, but we are still not finding one family a day/baptizing one a month”
etc.
Well, bless you! Let me
share two thoughts on this:
First, consider Elder
Hales’ perspective from the latest General Conference:
“I have
often pondered, Why is it that the Son of God and His holy prophets and all the
faithful Saints [missionaries]
have trials and tribulations, even when they are trying to do Heavenly Father’s
will? Why is it so hard [...]?
As we
ask these questions, we realize that the purpose of our life on earth [our missions] is to grow, develop, and be strengthened
through our own experiences. How do we do this? The scriptures give us an
answer in one simple phrase: we “wait upon the Lord.” Tests and trials are
given to all of us. These mortal challenges allow us and our Heavenly Father to
see whether we will exercise our agency to follow His Son. He already knows,
and we have the opportunity to learn, that no matter how difficult our
circumstances, “all these things shall [be for our] experience, and [...our]
good” (Robert D. Hales, October 2011 General
Conference).
My dear Elders and
Sisters, please remember to not only pray that His will be done, but also that
‘His timing’ be done. And here comes the teaching which I ask you to embrace
with your whole heart and soul:
Maintain your diligence,
hope, exact obedience, being missionaries, praying with people on the street,
and faith REGARDLESS of the outcome, day after day, week after week, and month
after month. When seen in the eternal perspective you are doing these things
not primarily to thereby find people to teach and baptize, but because it is
the right thing to do, because you love Heavenly Father enough to want to be
obedient. More important than simply doing
the right things every day is becoming
the right son or daughter of God in the process.
From Orson F. Whitney we
have this perspective:
“No pain
that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our
education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude
and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we
endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our
souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the
children of God […] and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and
tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which
will make us more like our Father [...] in heaven.”
Undergoing a time of
testing is hard. It hurts. It is unpleasant. Heaven seems far away at times.
Why me, why now? What am I being punished for? Does He even hear my prayers?
Does anything I do even make a difference? Well, I have walked in your shoes my
dear Elders and Sisters! Infinitely more important, however, is that Christ has
walked in your shoes and the question is, “Art thou greater than he?” (D&C 122:8). Brigham Young
said:
“If the
Saints [missionaries]
could realize things as they are when they are called to pass through trials,
and to suffer what they call sacrifices, they would acknowledge them to be the
greatest blessings that could be bestowed upon them” (DBY p. 345).
Secondly - and blessed is
the missionary who understands this – just keep expecting the Lord to bless
you every day to meet the mission standards. Experiencing periods of trial
is not an excuse to think nothing will ever happen. When Heavenly Father sees
that your offering is motivated primarily by your love for Him and His son
Jesus Christ, and that you will hold the course regardless of the outcome over
time, the law of the harvest will become operational in your life! Asking
yourself whether “I am doing all I can” is really all you can give. Have you
placed or are you willing to place your all on the altar? Is there nothing left
in the secret chambers of your soul to sacrifice? Remember that this is a
life-long process for which there is really no substitute and that this
soul-stretching experience refers to the things you DO, the things you THINK
ABOUT and the missionary you are BECOMING.
While you should always
review whether what you are doing is effective or not, there are things you
should not question: the underlying
reasons for being exactly obedient, the Lord’s expectation for you to have a
constant sense of urgency, that the Lord will bless you to find people to teach
and baptize. That never changes.
I close with the words of
Elder Maxwell:
“Next,
as we confront our own lesser trials and tribulations, we too can plead with
the Father, just as Jesus did, that we “might not […] shrink”—meaning to
retreat or to recoil (D&C 19:18). Not shrinking is much more important
than surviving! Moreover, partaking of a bitter cup without becoming bitter is
likewise part of the emulation of Jesus.” (Elder Maxwell, Applying
the atoning blood of Christ, Oct. 1997)
I know that each of you
can find one new family each day and have at least one baptism per companionship
per month. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. Seek after and live for these
blessings and you will save your own souls in the process.
Smile!
With love,
President Klebingat
D&C 93:12 grace for grace
“Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name which is good,
in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto
you.”
The Savior
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Tanya
~Zhytomyr
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Baptismal
Rundown:
This year: 0
2012 Baptism Goal: 250
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Mission Highlight
9 Baptismal Dates!
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“…Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and
come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the
reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the
last day…”
~
The Master
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Mission Totals for the Week
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Baptismal Dates:
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9
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Investigators at Sacrament Meeting:
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18
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34
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New Families:
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56
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Referrals:
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36
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Number of Companionships:
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42
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“If you will
respond to the invitation to share your beliefs and feelings about the
restored gospel of Jesus Christ, a spirit of love and a spirit of courage
will be your constant companion.” –L. Tom Perry
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