Mission President’s Letter
January 23, 2011
Dear Missionaries:
We are finally through with the holidays. We are in the dead of winter. We are fortunate that even though it has been snowy in Russia, it has not been too cold. Our mission had a tremendous amount of energy and excitement as we came to the end of December with 16 baptisms, and many investigators. It was hard for many of you to concentrate fully on missionary work during the holidays because the people are so distracted and busy. Now is the time to re-dedicate ourselves to the work of the Lord.
Most of you have now been introduced to our mission goal: 31 by 31. We would like to have 31 baptisms by the 31st of March. This is the end of the second transfer. We hope that each companionship will have a goal to baptize at least one person during these two transfers. We know that the Lord will bless each of you in your own efforts to achieve righteous goals. These 31 are the Heavenly Father’s children who need the blessings of the gospel.
As part of our work, we can and should expect miracles. We are seeing miracles in our mission on a regular basis as missionaries are using every opportunity to talk with people. Let me share part of a letter from Elder Hofman from last week:
“My companion and I hit the street after getting a FIG. A lady got off a bus just a bit in front off us... we said something to her (I don't even remember what now!)... anyways, she wasn't expecting anything and our sudden effort to start a conversation scared her. She kept going, got mad, and started to kind of yell at us. We stood there and took it. I apologized and said, "Well, we just believe that this message we have is worth trying to talk to random people on the street." This is where it started... She started asking SO MANY QUESTIONS. She probably asked me 100 questions in 3 minutes... I am not even kidding... and nothing even about church really... just all about my life. And she just singled me out too... it was strange... but I answered them all for some reason. After this 3 minute question session she knew my entire life history and all of my future plans... pretty intense.
ANYWAYS, at the end of all this, she said, I want to talk to you more - give me your number. We swapped information and went on with the day.
We walked away just thinking that it was just super weird... well, it was.
THE NEXT DAY, we get a call from her (yeah, she called herself) saying that she couldn't stop thinking about our meeting on the street and that she knew that we were from God and that she needed to meet with us... soon!
TALK ABOUT A MIRACLE, HUH?!
We met with her and had an amazing lesson; she asked great questions... Then, at the very end of the lesson (after we prayed), she asked two questions: 1.) How do I pay tithing? 2.) When and how can I get baptized?
To the first one I told her that she didn't need to pay until she was a member... and then when she hit me with the next one... I just kind of chuckled and asked here to repeat the question because I thought I heard it wrong...
She repeated... I looked at Elder Andersen... who also looked like he just went into a coma. I couldn't say anything... and he just said "Well, we have a font." HA! That is all that came out! Oh man... I was just ready to bust. We went and showed her the font and explained things a little better.
Literally mind blowing. She was waiting... and all it took was a little curb-side scare from the missionaries to help her find what she was looking for. I have such a cool job!!!
We have a meeting with her today... we are setting a date... probably the 5th of February. AMAZING.
The best part is... she was talking about her husband and son and friend that she wants to bring to the meeting on Sunday to 'introduce them to God'... yep, another REFERRAL MACHINE.”
His encounter with this woman reminds me of a similar encounter Sister Moffat had on the street last summer when Nina walked up to her and wanted to know more about the church. I saw Nina today in church at the Tula Branch. She is now a strong member who is actively participating and filling her life with the gospel. The gospel is a great blessing to people’s lives, and that it why we are here, to bring them to Christ and bless their lives. We should look for and expect these miracles to happen in our missionary work. There are many people out there who are waiting and prepared, but we must open our mouths if we are going to find these people. We need to pray that the Lord will lead us to those who are prepared. If we are prepared and working hard, we WILL FIND THEM OR THEY WILL FIND US!!!!
As you experience miracles, I would really appreciate hearing about them so that it will help strengthen our resolve and our faith.
One of our Minsk, Belarus branches is focusing on missionary work. They are asking each branch member to pray daily at the same time, 1 pm, for the next month in order to unite the branch in their efforts to strengthen the church in Belarus and help the missionary work. This is a wonderful act of uniting in faith. As you meet with your branch mission leaders and branch presidents, you might suggest this or some other act of faith as a possible unifying idea for your branches.
I was recently reading in Matthew 13 the parable of the sower. Read verses 3 through 8 and 18 through 23. In this parable the sower is sowing seeds on various types of ground. Many of the seeds do not grow well. Some sprout and are burned up, however some of the seeds fall on good ground, which is “he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Vs 23. The important lesson here is that most people will not accept the gospel, or will accept it and fall away. However there are people who are truly prepared. They are people like Brigham Young or Parley P. Pratt, or so many of the leading saints here in Russia. When they are truly converted they are able to multiply the work many times and bring the blessings to many people. As missionaries, we are here to find those people and teach them the gospel so that the Lord’s kingdom will continue to grow and bless the lives of people all over the world.
Our next zone meeting in Kazakhstan will be Saturday January 29th. In addition we will have an all Russia (and Belarus) zone meeting in Moscow on Friday February 4th. We would like each of you to prepare a talk based on some principle the Savior taught in his sermon on the mount (Matt 5-7). Take just one short principle for the talk, not the whole sermon. We will pick a few of you to speak at the zone meeting. The rest will be asked to turn in their written talk.
We welcomed 5 new sisters and 2 elders to our mission two and a half weeks ago. In the third week of February we will receive 4 more elders and 2 more sisters. These new missionaries are a great blessing to our mission. We are so grateful for their enthusiasm and willingness to work hard. As we unite together in our efforts to strengthen the branches and to bring people to Christ we will continue to be blessed by the Lord and see many more miracles.
I want each of you to know that I know that this is the Lord’s work.
Much Love,
President Woolley
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