President Anderson’s Letter…

After a week of Zone Conferences President Anderson shared these missionary experiences in his letter of May 12…

Repentance will be a great joy for us and them, It only take seconds for them to feel it:

“About 8 days ago we were harvesting in a complex.  A man walked down the stairs.  We contacted him briefly, testifying that the blessing could help change his life. He just kept on walking, but we were able to get him to shout out his apartment number to us as he was walking away.  We didn’t think too much of it, but we were impressed to pass the referral to the YSA sisters even though we didn’t have too much info, saying something like ‘And if you want, you can try Dwayne in f9’.  Eight days later he was sitting in front of me in a baptismal interview, talking about the many ways that his life had changed in just a short week as a result of the sisters’ teaching and of having the spirit in his life.  He had obtained a strong and sincere testimony of the truth and was so happy! He was smiling the whole time. My favorite part of the interview was when he said ‘The moment I heard you guys testify that day as I walked past you, I felt something.  I knew that now was the time’.  I resolved in that moment to never let a chance to testify and invite to pass me by again. A 10 second contact has now changed the eternal course of his life!”

They will feel the Spirit and the desire to change from you and their new surroundings:

“A couple weeks back we harvested into a guy named Bruce, kind of a rough character, wouldn’t give us his name at first and acted real suspicious about what we were doing, but boy his composure changed after the blessing. His heart melted and he had tears in his eyes. He knew we were guided there for a reason. Later in a lesson we asked how work was going (he’s a construction worker). ‘Going good, today we were working over on this church on the 75’. That piqued my interest. ‘The 75 and what?’ ‘Griffin, you know, it’s got the gold statue of a man blowing a horn on top?’ Wow, Bruce is working on the Fort Lauderdale temple!!!! He saw my companion and I light up, and he did too . We then taught the significance of the holy temple, that it’s not just another church, our hearts filled with the holy spirit. Bruce told us that everyone working out there recognizes that it is a holy holy place, and they stay on their best behavior. No smoking, and they all watch what they say and are extremely careful in the work they do – if any part of the temple is dented, dinged, or cracked it is reported immediately. Bruce told us how blessed he is to be working on it, and then we told him about the worthiness requirements to enter into the temple and the high standards you must be living… he was speechless that he had seen and been inside such a holy place. We told our friend about the purposes of temples, how families can be forever together, and about temple marriages. Our eyes got a little moist as we told him how God wanted this for him and his family. He didn’t allow Bruce to work on the holy temple that wasn’t 20 minutes from his house and then guide us to his door for nothing. He knows this too and said, ‘God has something here for me, and I’m not going to let it go’. We invited him to prepare to attend the temple by being baptized, and he accepted. That was the best lesson of my mission. Isn’t it a miracle?”

Repentance will be evident, and you will be inspired to help them:

“A great experience we had this week in our personal area was with a man named Isaac.  Isaac is an older man who was happy as can be and accepted baptism from the start. The only obstacle that we encountered during the teaching process was his addiction to coffee, which he said, like most people do, that it would be impossible for him to give up.  We taught simply and testified powerfully about the blessings that come from repentance and living the WOW, invited him to live it, and left.  The next day as we were driving over to his house to follow up, I felt prompted to stop at a supermarket and pick up a $2 package of Hot Cocoa to give to him.  We showed up at the appointment and followed up.  As we asked him about the coffee, he said ‘I’ll give you my coffee if you give me something to replace it with’.  I smiled as I pulled out the hot cocoa and gave it to him.  As we were about to leave after the lesson, Isaac smiled and said ‘Now, don’t forget to take my coffee!’  He was baptized on Sunday.  This experience was great for me, and really taught me once again the importance of following prompting of the spirit, as well as the great changes that the spirit can bring to people’s lives.  His attitude and motivation completely changed overnight, and I know that it was because he felt the spirit.”

We have a responsibility Missionaries, to redeem God’s people through the Power of our calling as representatives of Jesus Christ. We are His “authorized messengers” to do this.



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