Yesterday was one of the
great days of my life. I felt so privileged to attend an historic stake
conference held in Taichung during which a third stake was created in Taichung.
Our Area President, Elder Gerrit W. Gong, presided over the conference and his
first counselor, Elder Randy D. Funk, was also in attendance. In addition to
these two general authorities, three Area Seventies and the Taipei Temple
President and Matron attended and shared their testimonies. During the conference,
we were reminded that the Asia Area contains half of the world’s population and
that Taiwan contains half of all of the stakes of Zion in the Asia area. We are
so blessed to live and work in such a remarkable place. I love it here!
Last week we welcomed 30
new missionaries to our ranks, including 7 local missionaries, 13 who had been
reassigned to temporary missions in the US while awaiting their visas, and 10
who came directly from the Provo MTC on their original assignment date. Our
mission currently consists of many newly arrived as well as nearly finished. We
have many great and experienced missionaries nearing the end of their service.
We also have 54 companionships involved in various stages of training. It is an
interesting and exciting time to be in the Taichung Mission. We hope to learn
as much as we can from those who will soon return home. We need to continue to
establish, preserve and improve our mission culture of worthy, obedient and
diligent missionaries who know what to do to accomplish our purpose of inviting
others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through
faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the
gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.
We currently have 212 investigators
with baptismal dates. I am very pleased that you are responding to the
invitation to become “Challenging and Testifying” missionaries, as per the talk
by President Alvin R. Dyer that we studied during our last zone conferences. We
are struggling, however, to help those with baptismal goals progress, keep
their commitments, and actually receive baptism. Too many are not “rolling
over” each week in order to continue to progress. I believe that we need to
give greater attention to helping our investigators keep their commitments to
attend church meetings. I also believe that we need to contact every
investigator daily as instructed on the back-inside cover of Preach My Gospel. Please
consider these two aspects of our work, and perhaps others that I have not
mentioned, during personal and companionship study and planning to see what you
can do to improve. I believe that as we continually study the scriptures and
PMG and seek inspiration as to how we can do things better, the Lord will
reveal unto us our weaknesses and instruct us as to what we need to do to
become strong in His hands (see Ether 12:27 and 2Ne. 32: 3, 5).
President Blickenstaff
Mentor of Champions
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