I felt that this letter should be shared in full…

Dear Missionaries.

I know that as a Mission, we recognize the importance of “doing” as a principle of action. The principle of faith and action starts with us finding someone to teach, just as Preach My Gospel tells us “Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach” (p.156). The next principle of faith and action is getting them to make commitments. One of those important commitments is to get them to Church. We know that when we get them to Church, most of them get baptized. Setting goals to get our investigators to Church “Round-Up” (PMG p.148) will bring them closer to the Spirit and inspire them to make commitments and covenants that will bring them to Christ. When they experience the sacred ordinance of the Sacrament, they will feel the desire to make additional covenants… especially baptism.

After Alma baptized the converts at the “Waters of Mormon” he taught immediately the importance of keeping this commandment:

“And after this manner he did baptize every one that went forth to the place of Mormon; and they were in number about two hundred and four souls; yea, and they were baptized‍ in the waters of Mormon, and were filled with the grace‍ of God. And they were called the church of God, or the church‍ of Christ, from that time forward. And it came to pass that whosoever was baptized by the power and authority of God was added to his church. And he commanded them that they should observe the sabbath‍ day, and keep it holy, and also every day they should give thanks to the Lord their God.” (Alma 18:16-17, 23)

When Alma taught this important commandment, amongst other commandments, to “observe the Sabbath day”, he saw a tremendous growth in the Church. They went from 204 members (Mosiah 18:16) to more than doubling their success in a short time to 450 members (Mosiah 18:35).

Coming to Church not only increases their desires and leads them to baptism, it helps keep them on the path to eternal life, as Moroni teaches, “to keep them in the right way”:

“And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith. And the church‍ did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls. And they did meet‍ together oft to partake of bread and [water], in remembrance‍ of the Lord Jesus.” (Moroni 6:4-6)

At Church our investigators will feel the love and familiarity of the members as a place of worship:

“Several weeks ago we were on our way to the place that we had picked out to go harvesting when we pulled over the car to pray with this man. As we were talking to him his sister in law came out and we prayed with them together. We invited them both to be baptized and she said yes! She came to church and discovered that she already knew people in the congregation. She said that she wanted to be a member of this church, and she said ‘aint nothin gonna stop me from getting my baptism on!’ and she was true to her word because she came and got baptized…”

They will come to Church and increase their desires to “want to be baptized”:

“It was about 8:40, and we had 10 spare minutes before we needed to get home.  My companion and I decided that we needed to use the time wisely, so we would just knock a door with the porch light on.  We walked down the street to the only house with the porch light on, and met and blessed a woman.  When we followed up with her, she told us, ‘I don’t know what possessed me to turn that light on that night!  I have been making sure to keep it off to save on electricity, but that night, I remember consciously thinking that I needed to go turn the porch light on!’  I thought it was incredible how God used physical light to bring her the spiritual light that she needs!  She came to conference [Church], and basically begged us to let her be baptized the following week… of course you can!”

They will come to Church and it will increase their desires to change:

“While harvesting, we came across a guy! He was standing outside his house smoking a cigarette and we OYMed him! He was open to the prayer and accepted baptism right off! We had stopped by the following day and he was not home! We decided to leave a note on his door and he called us back! He was wanting us back! Well, we applied the tools of the how to begin teaching and asking inspired questions! He was so open and told us everything he wanted for baptism! He later revealed that he was outside that day thinking of calling his friends to get some drugs after being clean for 5.5 months! It was a real struggle and that’s when we showed up! We were able to invite him to General Conference and he came! He is now getting baptized this Sunday! What a huge miracle and power behind opening our mouths!”

Coming to Church will be an answer to both your prayers and their prayers. Church can give them the desire to be baptized immediately:

“We were driving past these apartments one day… when I felt that we should harvest there. So… as we were passing it again to go to the apartments that we have been working in, I felt like we should turn in so I did and we parked and said a prayer before starting. We walked right up to this apartment door without thinking too much about it and met this man who was open and inviting so he let us pray with him and really enjoyed the prayer. After, when we asked how he felt, he told us something that touched my heart. Three hours earlier, that afternoon, he had been praying to God that He would send someone to minister to him and then we knocked on his door that night. He couldn’t believe it! He was so excited that he started giving us his information before we could even get our planners out and asking when we were coming back! We quickly told him about conference this weekend and he’s been dying to go to church and was really excited to come, all he needed was a ride! Saturday comes around and he came all ready with his scriptures to the priesthood session and we gave him a tour of the church when he asked if he could get baptized that day! The members were so welcoming and he was fascinated with our church! Miracles truly happen… someone prayed and God led us to them. God answered my prayer that day too.”

Elder Oaks teaches us the “why” in keeping this commandment:

“This is a commandment with a promise. By participating weekly and appropriately in the ordinance of the sacrament we qualify for the promise that we will ‘always have his Spirit to be with [us]’ (D&C 20:77). That Spirit is the foundation of our testimony. It testifies of the Father and the Son, brings all things to our remembrance, and leads us into truth. It is the compass to guide us on our path… The ordinance of the sacrament makes the sacrament meeting the most sacred and important meeting in the Church. It is the only Sabbath meeting the entire family can attend together…. In his writings on the doctrines of salvation, President Joseph Fielding Smith teaches that we partake of the sacrament as our part of commemorating the Savior’s death and sufferings for the redemption of the world. This ordinance was introduced so that we can renew our covenants to serve Him, to obey Him, and to always remember Him. President Smith adds: ‘We cannot retain the Spirit of the Lord if we do not consistently comply with this commandment’ (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 2:341)…. How can we have the Spirit of the Lord to guide our choices so that we will remain ‘unspotted from the world’ (D&C 59:9) and on the safe path through mortality? We need to qualify for the cleansing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We do this by keeping His commandment to come to Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit and in that wonderful weekly meeting partake of the emblems of the sacrament and make the covenants that qualify us for the precious promise that we will always have His Spirit to be with us. (Elder Dallin H. Oaks, General Conference, October 2008)

Missionaries, we will be at the feet of this very Apostle this week. Let us prepare well and get a record number of souls to Church!!!