Archive for August, 2009

Doctrinal Basis of Missionary Work

dallin h oaks For those of you who don’t subscribe to the New Era magazine, or haven’t had a chance to read the lead article yet, this month it was called Why Do We Do Missionary Work? by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The article is great; here are some excerpts:

The doctrinal basis of missionary work is contained in the Savior’s statement to Nicodemus: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

The “kingdom of God” referred to here is the celestial kingdom.

We do not preach and teach in order to “bring people into the Church” or to increase the membership of the Church. We do not preach and teach just to persuade people to live better lives. We honor and appreciate the many ministers and others who are involved in the kind of ministry that makes bad men good and good men better. That is important, but we offer something more.  One can qualify for the terrestrial kingdom instead of the telestial kingdom without the aid of this Church. We are concerned with a higher destination.

The purpose of our missionary work is to help the children of God fulfill a condition prescribed by our Savior and Redeemer. We preach and teach in order to baptize the children of God so that they can be saved in the celestial kingdom instead of being limited to a lesser kingdom. We do missionary work in order to baptize and confirm. That is the doctrinal basis of missionary work.

Nicodemus Taught by ChristHe continued:

The restored gospel gives us added knowledge about Jesus Christ and His doctrine. But the uniqueness of our message is not just added knowledge. The requirement of baptism reminds us that the truths we teach are not academic. The restored gospel consists of doctrines and ordinances. We proclaim that baptism is necessary in order to redeem us from sins according to the conditions prescribed by the Redeemer and that only priesthood holders of this Church have the God-given authority that transforms the act of immersion in water into an ordinance of the everlasting gospel. Our preaching and teaching is unto baptism.

Elder Oaks finished by saying:

The doctrinal basis of missionary work is the word of God,  revealed in every age,  that man cannot be saved in the celestial kingdom without the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and that the only way to lay claim to the merits of that Atonement is to follow the command of its author: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you” (Acts 2:38).  We are called to assist in this great effort.

MISSION the Musical

Today I heard about a new theatrical musical production called MISSION the Musical.  It starts today and runs through September 12th.  I have not seen the show, but if anyone in this reading audience does go see it, please let us know how you like it by leaving a comment below.

Tickets seem pretty affordable, $6 for adults, $4 for children 6-11, and kids under 6 are free. All shows will be performed in the Post Theater at Fort Douglas on the University of Utah Campus. The address is: 245 South, Fort Douglas Blvd. Salt Lake City, UT. See the MISSION the Musical Web site for more details.

Mission the Musical

About the Show

“It is the story of two young men from very different worlds.  Kendall is just turning nineteen and trying to decide what to do with his life.  His protective mother is pushing him to go on a mission, but he isn’t so sure.  Meekum, a fictional character from the Book of Mormon, is just the opposite.  He wants to set out on his own mission and fight for Helaman.  His mother has her reservations and wants him to stay, but knows what the right thing to do is.  Two young men, the same age, with very different mindsets going to fight the same “simple war.” Along the way both will meet interesting and unforgettable characters.  Both will learn valuable lessons about life, faith, and the power of decisions. And both will forge the unbreakable bond of friendship that forms when in the service of God.”

Mission Application Timeline

Today I want to talk in more detail about the mission application timeline, the steps involved in the mission call process, when to begin, and how long to expect the steps to take.

A couple of months ago, I blogged about mission papers and the process for applying to go on a mission. That post dealt with the process from a high-level, perhaps too high of a level, because I still get a lot of questions on precisely when to initiate the steps in the application process. Below I will attempt to answer some of these common questions; let’s hope I succeed.

Mormon Mission Application Timeline

Availability Date

calendarAs you can see in the chart above, the timing for when to start the application process depends on your availability date. So your first step will be to determine the date you are available to start serving a full-time mission.  Your availability date is generally the day your turn 19 if you’re a young man, or the day you turn 21 if you are a young woman.  Your availability date should not be prior to this birthday, but could be later depending on circumstances such as schooling, etc.

Four Months Prior: Start Application Process

Four months prior to the date you are available to start serving, you can begin the application process. Starting your mission papers is done by first setting up a meeting with your bishop.  He will go over the spiritual and physical requirements to serve a mission.  He will tell you about the application process and he will either give you the paper work or give you directions to log in to the mission papers website (the Missionary Online Recommendation System). missionary meet with stake president

Three Months Prior: Submit Paper Work

The process of doctor and dentist visits, filling out the application, getting your photo, meeting with your bishop and stake president, etc. generally takes at least a month.  The last step of the paper work, meeting with the stake president, should take place around three months before you would like to begin your mission.  The stake president, who ultimately submits your mission application to Church Headquarters, is actually not even allowed to send in the paper work more than three months prior to your availability date.

Two Months Prior: Receive Mission Call Letter

After the application is submitted, depending on several factors, you should get your call letter in about 2 to 4 weeks.  That letter will have your mission assignment and the date you should report to the MTC.  The Church normally tries to allow two to four months between the issuing of the call and the beginning of the mission.  In the packet you receive from Church Headquarters will also be additional instructions and information from your mission president specific to your mission.sister mission call letter

One Month Prior: Go To The Temple

LDS Temples Integral Part of Missionary Work and missionaries generally go to the holy temple to receive their endowment just prior to leaving on their mission.  Through the temple endowment, missionaries receive knowledge, power, and protection from on high to do their work.  The Church also has a seven-lesson temple preparation course that future missionaries ought to take.  Talk to your bishop about arrangements for this class; you’ll probably want to start taking this course around the same time you start your missionary application.

Conclusion

So that’s it.  Here’s a recap of the steps and mission application timeline.  Please note that the time periods are approximate.

  • First, determine your availability date.
  • 4 months prior: Start the application process by meeting with your bishop.
  • 3 months prior: Submit the paper work (generally done by the stake after your interview with the stake president).
  • 2 months prior: Receive your mission call letter and further preparation instructions specific to your mission.
  • 1 month prior: Go to temple to receive your endowment.

Then it’s off to the MTC and your mission.  Good luck and may God bless and be with you.

Power of Prayer: Conversion of the Almada Family

The story of the first family that I taught and baptized in Argentina, the Almada family, is a great example of the power of prayer. 

Meeting the Almada Family

Within a week of my companion and I arriving in the city of Parana, Argentina, the Almada family moved into the home right behind our apartment.  With Fabian, the husband, Silvina, the wife, and their four kids living right behind us, our paths crossed often.  I can remember my companion, Elder Loesener, often kicking the soccer ball with their oldest son as we came and went from our apartment. missionary apartment gazano parana argentina

Within a week or two of first meeting the Almada family, we got home one evening and were contemplating what to cook ourselves for dinner. Elder Loesener wanted to cook something that required sugar, but we didn’t have any.  He thought we should ask the Almada’s if we could borrow some sugar.  He also thought this was the perfect time to more formally meet the family and tell them about our message as missionaries for the Lord Jesus Christ.  We borrowed the sugar and ended up having a nice conversation with them, and they agreed to have us come back and teach the first discussion. 

Baptismal Commitment

The first discussion went very well and we scheduled the second discussion.  Fabian was very interested in our message, read The Book of Mormon and everything else we gave him to read.  He was eager to learn, asked many questions, and demonstrated great faith, dedication and determination to begin a new life with his family.  At the end of the second discussion, when my companion asked them if they would be baptized, both Fabian and Silvina said yes without hesitation. 

Bread and Pastries

Fabian worked at nights at a local panadería (bakery).  One morning, after we had begun teaching the family, we awoke to find a bag of warm bread and pastries by our front door.  It was so delicious, hot and fresh, we couldn’t help but gobble up all the pastries within the morning.  And the bread was great for sandwiches that afternoon and evening and even for French toast the following morning.  We began to find the bread and pastries on our door step several times a week, and we were very grateful to Fabian for thinking of us. almada family kitchen table parana argentina

Trial of Faith

The Almada’s were doing great. They were coming to church and progressing in the gospel.  They had been searching for the true gospel of Jesus Christ and recognized it when they found it. When we taught them the word of wisdom, Fabian had his son go to the kitchen, get all the wine, and dump it down the drain immediately.  They were every missionary’s dream of a golden family.

Then, about a week before their baptism, Fabian lost his job at the bakery.  The economic situation was tough in Argentina at that time. Many people were without work.  We knew this would be a great trial to the Almada’s growing faith in the gospel, and we were amazed at how they responded.  Silvina, the mom, told us that the morning after Fabian lost his job he knelt and prayed fervently for 30 minutes.  Afterwards he rose and headed out the door with a determination to find work to provide for his family.

Prayers Answered

Not only did Fabian offer a prayer, but his wife and children and us missionaries were all praying that he would find a job.  We thought it would take days or weeks for Fabian to find something, but the Lord answered our prayers very rapidly.  Fabian came home that very night with not just one job, but two jobs, which was a tremendous blessing.  He was going to be able to work more hours and get more pay than he had before.  It was a true miracle.

The Family is Baptizedalmada family baptism parana argentina

On Thursday night, February 8, 1996, we held the baptismal service for the Almada family.  Our little branch didn’t have a real LDS chapel or a baptismal font, so we had to go to a different ward building in the city.  I baptized Fabian and their 10 year old son Cristian.  Elder Loesener baptized Silvina and Anai, their 8 year old daughter.  It was a wonderful experience for all. 

Following the baptisms, as traditional in LDS baptismal services, there were additional talks once the family had dried off and gotten dressed.  My companion was conducting and, to my surprise, he asked Fabian to come to the front and bare his testimony.  I thought it was a bold move, but Elder Loesener must have been prompted by the Spirit.  Fabian stood up without hesitation and bore a powerful testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Power of Prayer

The power of prayer is real.  As the Savior says in Matt 7:7 “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”  And as James adds in James 1:6, “ask in faith, nothing wavering.” 

When Fabian lost his job, his convictions in his new found faith were not shaken.  He, along with his family and friends, prayed in faith and with great power the Lord answered and poured out blessings, both temporal and spiritual, upon the Almada family.  And so will God bless you, your family, the missionaries, and all who faithfully seek His help through the power of prayer.

Magnify Your Calling

Many years ago, in a BYU religion class, my professor asked us to write a paper on what it means to magnify your calling. I searched and searched in my old college files but could not find the paper.  And maybe it’s better that way. Though I was proud of my work at that time, I don’t believe the paper was extremely insightful or interesting.  Let’s hope this one turns out better.magnifying glass

I have been trying for many years to read all the way through the Old Testament.  It is the only part of the standard works that I haven’t read in its entirety.  I’m about 85% done now (page 1,009 out of 1,184), and I’ve been reading in the book of Jeremiah.  I read a verse that caused me to give new meaning to the term magnify your callingJeremiah 48:42 “And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the Lord.”

When I read this verse, it made me realize that to magnify your calling means to magnify the work the Lord has called you to do and not to magnify yourself. When I was in college, writing about the meaning of magnifying your calling, I expounded on how it meant to do your best to fulfill your calling in the way in which the Lord would want you.  And surely that is a major part of what it means.  But it was clear to me, as I read the scripture above, that you should not perform your calling in an effort to get praise or any worldly gain and therefore magnify yourself.  To magnify your calling from the Lord you should perform your calling with a desire to bring glory to God and serve him by serving his children. LDS edition of the holy bible

Take a look at how the term magnify is used in the scriptures in relation to callings:

  • The prophet Jacob in the Book of Mormon said, “And we did magnify our office unto the Lord.” (Jacob 1:19.)
  • To Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the Lord said, “Attend to thy calling and thou shalt have wherewith to magnify thine office…In me he shall have glory, and not of himself, whether in weakness or in strength” (D&C 24: 9, 11)
  • “And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord.” (Luke 1: 46)
  • “Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me.” (Ps. 35: 26)
  • “Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold.” (Job 36: 24)
  • “Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?” (Isa. 10: 15)

In virtually every instance of of its usage in the scripture, magnifying your calling is in the context of magnifying it unto God instead of unto yourself.  It’s not enough simply to magnify our callings.  You must magnify your calling unto the Lord.gordon_b_hinckley

Magnifying Your Missionary Calling

 President Gordon B. Hinckley said that every missionary has the responsibility to magnify his calling to teach the gospel plan to the peoples of the earth.  “That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you.” (D&C 88: 80)

Said President Hinckley, “when we live up to our high and holy calling, when we show love for God through service to fellowmen, when we use our strength and talents to build faith and spread truth, we magnify our priesthood. When, on the other hand, we live lives of selfishness, when we indulge in sin, when we set our sights only on the things of the world rather than on the things of God, we diminish our priesthood.” (Magnify Your Calling, Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, May 1989)

My Day with Mario

When I had been in Argentina for two months, and my Spanish language skills were still very weak, I spent the day taking the lead with the missionary work in our area.  My senior companion was gone for the day working with the zone leaders in their area, while they arranged for me to spend the day working in our area with a 17-year-old boy from the branch named Mario. 

gazano missionary work elder smith with marioI was very nervous about this arrangement, but I fully expected Mario to help me and do a lot of the talking.  Well, as it turned out, Mario hardly said a word all day. We had a couple of first discussions scheduled that day, but the people weren’t home when we got there. 

We spent the majority of the day knocking doors and street contacting.  Being a member who would soon be going on a mission, I thought Mario would help do more of the talking, but with each person we encountered, I did all the teaching.  When it was apparent that I was only going to get moral support from Mario, I was seriously tempted to just go home and spend the remainder of the day in our apartment.

But I persevered because I knew the Lord expected me to magnify my calling unto him, and that he would support me.  At times I felt like a bumbling fool, but despite my weaknesses that day we talked to at least 100 people, and of those, we taught 12 charla cortas.  (Charla cortas means “short discussion.” This was a metric we reported each week and to qualify, the exchange with the person had to be 5 to 10 minutes and we had to talk about most of the principles of the first discussion.)  From those 12 interactions, we were able to set four appointments for a first discussion.

I know the success of that day came because I sought to magnify my calling.  At the end of that day, I felt the strong impression that had my senior companion been with me, that the results would have been the same.  Though my companion was fluent in Spanish and a far more experienced teacher than I, it is the Lord’s work and it is his Spirit that touches peoples’ hearts and does the real work of conversion.  It was humbling to realize that because I sought only to magnify my calling unto God, and not worry about my own perceived weaknesses, the Lord was able to work through me.

And so it will be with each of you, as you seek to humbly magnify your calling as a missionary, and seek only to glorify God as you teach people the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, you will become an effective tool in the hands of the Lord.

LDS Temples Integral Part of Missionary Work

washington_lds_mormon_temple2

LDS Temples are an integral part of missionary work for two reasons:

  1. The Temple endowment gives missionaries power from on high to do their work.
  2. Baptism is the first step toward higher ordinances of salvation received at the temple.

Temple endowment gives missionaries power from on high

New missionaries generally go to the temple to receive their endowment just prior to leaving on their mission. Through these temple ordinances, missionaries receive knowledge, power, and strength that comes through the greater understanding of Heavenly Father’s plan.  Many modern prophets and apostles have taught the importance of receiving the temple endowment prior to serving a mission: Howard W Hunter

  • President Howard W. Hunter: “Let us prepare every missionary to go to the temple worthily and to make that experience an even greater highlight than receiving the mission call” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1994, 118; or Ensign, Nov. 1994, 88).
  • Jeffrey R HollandElder Jeffrey R. Holland: “Going to the temple for your own endowment . . . [is] an integral part of your mission preparation. . . . [You should] understand the significance of those temple covenants [and] the inextricable link between your endowment and your missionary success. Indeed, the very word endowment conveys the essence of that vital link. An endowment is a gift. “You cannot do this work alone. We have to have heaven’s help, we have to have the ‘gifts’ of God. . . . This work is so serious and the adversary’s opposition to it so great that we need every divine power to enhance our effort and move the Church steadily forward” (“Making and Keeping Covenants” [missionary satellite broadcast, Apr. 25, 1997]).
  • Bruce R McConkieElder Bruce R. McConkie: “The apostles—or any ministers or missionaries in any age—are not fully qualified to go forth, preach the gospel, and build up the kingdom, unless they have the gift of the Holy Ghost and also are endowed with power from on high, meaning [they] have received certain knowledge, powers, and special blessings, normally given only in the Lord’s Temple” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1966–73], 1:859).
  • Joseph Fielding SmithPresident Joseph Fielding Smith: “Do you understand why our missionaries go to the temple before they are set apart for their  mission fields? This is a requirement made of them. . . He called all the missionaries to Kirtland in the early day of the Church to receive endowments in the temple erected there. He said this was so that they could go out with greater power from on high and with greater protection” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 2:255).

Baptism is first step toward higher ordinances received at the templeMormon Baptism

Elder David A. Bednar, in his most recent conference address in May 2009, explained that “the baptismal covenant clearly contemplates a future event or events and looks forward to the temple.“ Quoting Elder Neal A. Maxwell he says, “Clearly, when we baptize, our eyes should gaze beyond the baptismal font to the holy temple.”

Quoting Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Elder Bednar says that when we partake of the sacrament each week, “we do not witness that we take upon us the name of Jesus Christ. [Rather], we witness that we are willing to do so. The fact that we only witness to our willingness suggests that something else must happen before we actually take that sacred name upon us in the [ultimate and] most important sense.”  Elder Bednar goes on to explain that it is in the temple that we more fully take upon us the name of Christ (see D&C 109:22).  (From Honorably Hold a Name and Standing by Elder David A. Bednar, Ensign May 2009)mormon blessing sacrament bread

Elder Russell M. Nelson has also taught this principle when he said that “missionary work is only the beginning” of the gathering of Israel.  He went on to say “the fulfillment, the consummation, of those blessings comes as those who have entered the waters of baptism perfect their lives to the point that they may enter the holy temple. Receiving an endowment there seals members of the Church to the Abrahamic covenant” (Perfection Pending, and Other Favorite Discourses [1998], 207).

My Temple Experienceelder jimmy smith buenos aires lds mormon temple

My experience, in attending the temple and in baptizing families as a step toward the temple, has been that the doctrine above is true.  As a new missionary, I was better able to teach the gospel because I had been blessed with the knowledge, power, and strength that comes through the greater understanding of Heavenly Father’s plan as learned at the temple.  I know of at least one of the families I baptized on my mission, the Almada family, that eventually went to the temple to be sealed together.  It was the sweetest pleasure of my mission to hear that this family will be together for time and all eternity, through the power of the priesthood to bind families together on earth and in heaven.

May you, as a missionary, always remain worthy of the temple blessings, and may you have power and success in bringing many into the waters of baptism, and thus help them take the first steps towards the blessings of the holy temple.