Daily Archives: June 1, 2014

President Anderson’s Letter – 1 June 2014

President and Sister Anderson have just one month left before being released and returning to El Paso so there will be only a few more inspiring letters coming from the President. I do not know if the new president will continue to send letters to those of us who have been released but if he does we will continue to post them until the last missionary who we served with comes home. Also below is a picture of the last group of missionaries that the Anderson’s will be sending back to their homes.

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President’s Letter ”

The inspiration of this statement is one that I extend to all of you, with the same pledge and effort, “Give us this Mountain, Give us these Challenges”. Accomplishing the purposes God has put us here to achieve, will bring about “promised blessings” that God has pledged to give. God is blessing you for the “Mountains” you are climbing and the people He trusts you with because of your obedience and diligence in opening your mouth:

“My companion saw a girl across the street that was sitting on the front porch of an apartment building. We went over to her and left a Harvest Blessing, and by the end she was crying. She said she had been going through a really rough time. She had just moved here from New York, got scammed out of a lot of money, is going through identity theft…and etc. Basically we were a huge answer to the prayers of her heart. After we invited her to be baptized, and before we committed her to a date she said, ‘so when is the soonest we can do the baptism?’ We told her June 1st and she was so excited. She came to church this past Sunday and basically became best friends with the whole branch. We found out that she smokes, but throughout all of the service she was expressing that she knew she needed to quit. Our member told her ‘I hope you know that you’re gonna be my new best friend?’ She agreed and then apologized for her bad habit of smoking that the member was going to have to deal with. Our member was baptized in January and told her ‘”Don’t worry,  I’m gonna help you quit! I used to have that same problem too.’ She was so happy and she was simply glowing all of Sunday and making friends left and right. A few minutes ago she called us and told us she is now planning to move out of her boyfriend’s house. We haven’t even taught her the law of chastity! She just wants to be right by God. I am so grateful for the blessings that are being rained down.”

Because of the “Mountains” you are climbing, you, as representatives of Christ, are bringing Salvation to many by the Spirit and Testimony you express. You are escalating their interests and desires, building up their hopes and faith; then inviting them to act:

“After teaching an investigator this week, we were heading back to our car when one of his neighbors that was out watering his lawn yells from a little bit of a distance ‘what do you have for me?’ We were a little confused and thought he was mad and he yells again ‘what are you selling?’  We answered ‘salvation’. We walked over to him with our member and we introduce ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and offered to share a harvest blessing with him. He accepts and we ask him what it is that he needs. He says that all he needs is to stop drinking. He told us how his marriage of 30 years had just ended not too long ago because of his drinking problem and you could tell it was very hard for him… He goes and turns off the water and then invites us to come inside. We went in with him knelt down and offered the blessing. The spirit filled the room and after the prayer we all stayed on our knees for a minute, through his tears he says I knew you would come. I felt it as you walked down the street something told me I needed to talk to you guys and I knew I had to bring you over. We testified that God loves him and that he could be healed through the atonement. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes.”

We are helping others to climb their mountains:

“We had met her about two or so weeks ago at a Burger King. We gave her a card and invited her to church. We didn’t have church that week due to the dedication so she was standing outside the building and called us asking for an explanation. We were able to tell her that we didn’t have normal church that week and she was ok with it…  She had come to church before and said that she liked it…  on Wednesday we met with her and she explained to us that she had read over half way through in the Book of Mormon. We were shocked and praised her for it. We didn’t see her for some time then on Saturday night she called and said ‘What do I need to wear to my baptism tomorrow?’ She remembered the date we had set her with and was determined to be baptized. With the help of our wonderful Branch she was able to get into the font on Sunday. She is an example to me that the spirit speaks to all of us.”

President Eyring shared:

“My heart was stirred, knowing, as I did, some of the challenges and adversity he [President Kimball] had already faced. I felt a desire to be more like him, a valiant servant of God. So one night I prayed for a test to prove my courage. I can remember it vividly. In the evening I knelt in my bedroom with a faith that seemed almost to fill my heart to bursting. Within a day or two my prayer was answered. The hardest trial of my life surprised and humbled me. It provided me a twofold lesson. First, I had clear proof that God heard and answered my prayer of faith. But second, I began a tutorial that still goes on to learn about why I felt with such confidence that night that a great blessing could come from adversity to more than compensate for any cost. The adversity that hit me in that faraway day now seems tiny compared to what has come since—to me and to those I love.” ( President Henry B. Eyring, General Conference April 2011)

I know Missionaries that South Florida has no mountains at sea level, but we have many “Spiritual Mountains” to climb as we are “Exactly Obedient” and “Diligent” to what God has called us here to do. We can get 175!!! We have shown God already that we can get 168!!  Every companionship needs to contribute (Baptize) early this month for us to accomplish this.

Set your goals now on who and how many you will baptize this week, this month. Then set goals (specific) to achieve this goal. Then take it to the Lord “if we do this (specific) will thou bless us for our very best effort with these (specific) baptisms?” I know the Lord will bless you as you conquer your mountain!!!

What will we do to prepare for our opportunity to attend the Temple on the 20th of June? What are you prepared to do to have the greatest revelatory experience at the “House of The Lord”?