Dear Elders and Sisters,
Many of you commented in your emails last week that you were
grateful for the opportunity to experience the fun, food and culture of
Guonian, but were looking forward to things settling down and getting back to a
regular work routine. I hope that you enjoyed getting to know the members in
your ward/branch a little better and were not too stressed out about your key
indicators. This week we will meet in zone conferences and also have some power
week activities to help you get back up and running. Please remember to study
the two talks that you were given to prepare for zone conference. I look
forward to discussing them with you and seeing what you learned that will help
you be more fully engaged in the work and become a consecrated representative
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our prayers were answered this past week as we welcomed 18
new missionaries who had been serving in various other missions while awaiting
their Taiwan visas. They are an outstanding group and have definitely added faith
and energy to our mission. We look forward to helping them settle in and learn
what it means to be a Taiwan Taichung Missionary. Although the visa situation
is mostly resolved for our young elders and sisters, there are still problems
to be worked out for our senior missionaries. Please pray especially for Sister
Chao (Sis. Blickenstaff’s mother) who is still awaiting her visa and is badly
needed in the office now that Elder and Sister Wheeler have returned home. Also
continue to pray for our January missionaries who were temporarily re-assigned,
as well as our March missionaries who likely will not arrive as scheduled next
week.
Perhaps the most important skill that we must learn as
missionaries is the ability to recognize and follow the promptings of the Holy
Ghost. “The Holy Ghost will help you in every aspect of your work” (PMG, pg.
90). In the annual seminar for new
mission presidents last June, President Henry B. Eyring taught, “The Lord knows
his servants and their capacities in detail. He prepares their way in detail if
they are willing to follow it. [Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ] know the
extent to which you have been purified and sanctified through your faith and
your service as you have worked in the cause of the Savior. Success in this work
depends on our ability to claim the promise that God made to send the Holy
Ghost to be our companion if we keep our covenants with [Him].”
I am grateful for each of you. I appreciate who you are and
who you are becoming. I am pleased with your desire to serve and give of
yourselves. You are faithful and dedicated. I believe that as we better
understand our roles and responsibilities, we can accomplish even more. I don’t
think we necessarily need to work harder. Perhaps we need to be more focused.
We need to continue to be worthy, obedient and diligent. We need to more fully
consecrate ourselves during the short time that we have to serve in this
remarkable way. I look forward to seeing each of you this week and discussing
what we can do to improve.
President Blickenstaff
Mentor of Champions
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