The Miracle of a Mission -- 29 April 2013

I'm learning all kinds of great things from my mission as you already know. Let me tell you just a little about my current situation.

I am training again. We are purging (or white washing) our area. Purging is great because you learn so much, it gives you a unique perspective on the basic foundation on which effective work must be built.

 In a lot of ways, we learn a lot of foundational principles as we serve missions. Elder Holland teaches this in a talk he gave at the MTC in 2000 entitled "Missionary Work and the Atonement."

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2001/03/missionary-work-and-the-atonement?lang=eng

He teaches the importance of having difficult experiences, and why those kinds of things happen. He really puts it all in to perspective:

"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.

For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” ¹⁶ then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.

The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

I testify that the living God is our Eternal Father and that Jesus Christ is His living and Only Begotten Son in the flesh. I testify that this Jesus, who was slain and hanged on a tree, ¹⁷ was the chief Apostle then and is the chief Apostle now, the Great High Priest, the chief cornerstone of His Church in this last and greatest of all dispensations. I testify that He lives, that the whole triumph of the gospel is that He lives, and because He does, so will we."

Anyway, this week I have learned the importance of involving the Lord in all of our decisions. We are purging into an area that does not have any work left from the previous missionaries. so we needed to get a good start. So we studied and prayed, and decided that the best beginning was working with the members. So, we called our WML and got all kinds of different lists that we requested and began to pray over who was ready. Because of that, we have gotten in so much contact and set up many many appointments. We hope that this will yield much fruit, but because we were led by the Lord, I'm sure that He will provide.

I love you all, have a wonderful week.

Rock on. Peace, love, and temple marriage. In that order.

Elder Hill