I loved Mindy’s letter today because she shared some really great counsel that she received during a recent training session with Elder Clarke.
She is so lucky to be taught frequently by these general authorities with incredible wisdom and experience, and I’m so glad she shares it with us!
Happy summer everyone!
Karen
Wednesday- MISSION TOUR!!!! Elder Clarke is incredible.....that's all I can say. I hope that I will be able to apply everything he taught us in my mission, and also when I get home. I think so much of what he taught is so important to us staying good, successful members of the church throughout our whole life. One of the major things he talked about was the Book of Mormon. He told us that we HAVE to be reading the BOM! He said that the ONE thing that will cause someone to become less active is when they stop reading from the BOM. He also mentioned that the other day he was at a good family friends’ house for dinner. They were all talking about their favorite books and how much they enjoyed reading them everyday. He observed and told us that he was devastated and very sad that no one said their favorite book was the Book of Mormon. That made me think about the books I enjoy, (even though I don't like to read :)) and wondered if I would say that one of my favorite books is the Book of Mormon? But I think it should be! I have decided to really sincerely immerse myself in reading. I read daily, but I want to love the Book of Mormon so much that I would honestly tell someone that it is my favorite!
He also encouraged us after our missions to make sure we read the Book of Mormon with our families and our future families; because it will fix families. He said he lives by the quote, "Love problems...Love life!" He said you have to love problems.......they happen to all of us, and they happen a lot. So, if we HATE problems then we are going to HATE our lives. I like that! Last time when he came in December, he talked a lot about Chapter 8 in Preach My Gospel; Using Time Wisely. This chapter is amazing! He not only related this to our missionary work, but our careers after our missions. He talked about 3 things
1. Vision: We have to have a better vision than everyone else or we won't be better or more successful than anyone else. He told us we need to have a higher vision than our boss, so that you will never be fired and you will always make your boss happy! :)
2. Goals: He said we HAVE to have goals on our mission, but we HAVE to have daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly, goals AFTER our missions too. He showed us a card that he keeps in his pocket that has his goals for that day. That is the only thing he carries in his pocket and it is planned for each hour. I think what I liked the most though, was he said that our goals need to come from US. If they come from your mission president or from your boss, they won't matter to you. But if they come from YOU, they will mean so much more and you will TRY to accomplish them, and you will DO it!
3. Accountability: He stressed how important it is to be accountable to someone (companion), yourself, and the Lord. He brought up how in the Temple when Jesus Christ and Adam created the earth, they go and report back to Heavenly Father after every single time. He said that some of us might think it’s repetitive and takes up a lot of time, and he said it would cut the whole temple session in half if you took the reporting out. He said it makes an important point though, that it is so important to report and to be accountable to the Lord. He also said they never ONCE went back and told Heavenly Father they were only able to finish half of their goal; they always accomplished ALL of it! We should do the same. We should not finish our day until those goals are accomplished; just like Nephi when he was commanded to build the ship he didn’t say, “Yes I will try”, but rather he always went and DID IT!
Let’s just say that I learned SO much and although I felt like my missionary work was going pretty well; now I have a lot of new ideas that I want to implement! I want to just go out and work soooo hard and do all of these things, and see how it changes the work :)
Thursday- ONE YEAR!!!! Wow so weird! Honestly, the day was not extra special or interesting at all. One great thing that did happen though was Benson came to Temple Square to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice so we were able to visit with him. He is amazing and is seeing the elders regularly and is EXTREMELY excited about getting baptized! He is like another Ben and I feel so blessed that people that are this prepared are being put in my path so that I can teach them and help them learn more about the Church.
Friday- The Humanitarian Center was DEAD! Not one tour came in and I had all these appointments with investigators in Africa. But the electricity was down in Africa because of the storms, so I wasn’t able to talk to ANY of them! I did call this guy who someone transferred to me and he is from Sudan.....…(another African) and he is so excited and so receptive! He wants to learn so bad so I am super excited to start teaching another African!
Saturday- Today was a great day! I got to see Nate and Sara Perk and our future cousin McCall. They were at a friend’s wedding. Also, we finally got a hold of Liberia! We were getting a little worried and praying so hard that the investigators would do well and I was trying to put all my trust in God, and my prayers were answered. Everyone was doing well and everyone is still progressing very well! The best thing happened; Ben went to the temple for baptisms!!! He loved it so much and felt the Spirit so strong and told me that it was so special and he learned so much and could feel the Spirit of the pioneers. He said he could feel of the love and all the hardship and sacrifice that the pioneers went through. I am so happy and it was the best thing to have a recent convert go to the temple!!!
Sunday- Exchanges the whole day! We went to Music and the Spoken Word and it was incredible. They had a special program for Memorial Day and wow! We had such a fun tour of 50 people from a family reunion and the family was SO cute! They were all members, and they were so interactive and participated in everything; even the kids and teenagers. We had one of the kids volunteer and we asked him to bear his testimony. It was so sweet and the mom told me afterwards that she had never heard him bear his testimony before. Then we had 4 of the other little kids sing, “I am a Child of God” on the stage in the Tabernacle, and at the end we invited the grandparents to share their testimonies to the whole extended family. It was so much fun! We also had a lesson with Bobby and Ben helped us. Even though he is such a new member, he was wonderful. He bore a powerful testimony and told him that “Baptism is the greatest thing that he can do in his life right now and that he will be blessed so much if he follows in the path of Jesus Christ”! GO BEN!
Monday- Another lesson with Bobby today and Ben helped again! We taught the Word of Wisdom and Bobby is awesome…....he already lives the Word of Wisdom. We told him herbal tea was okay but to stay away from black teas....…it was so cute; he said he didn’t know what black tea was :) Then Benson came to the Square so we could teach him. He is incredible! I wish all of you could meet these people in real life, they are 100x better in person. Anyway, we had a really good lesson about baptism, priesthood, marriage, faith and the law of chastity.....…it was a long lesson and we talked about SO many things. All Benson could say was, “This church is amazing and it is so smart and teaches and blesses everyone!” So, pray for him that Satan will not get in his way for his baptism in 2 weeks. He needs the prayers more than ever since his baptism is so close and Satan is going to try and do everything to not have it happen. I have faith and Benson has faith that nothing will go wrong. He is very strong and not worried!
Good news, our friend Osazee (the one we were only able to e-mail because he was traveling in the US), went back to Nigeria yesterday. I was finally able to connect with him today and he has been reading the Book of Mormon and is SO excited for us to teach him more!! It was a wonderful day because I gained another African investigator!
I am ONLY going to teach Africans the rest of my mission I already decided! :) But seriously I LOVE AFRICA!! I love you all and hope that everything is going well! CONGRATS on graduation Clara and happy Summer break!
The church is true.
Sister Mindy Marsh
Mom, Dad, Clara or Krissy, I know this might be a weird request, but I would love for you to send an email or a letter to Sister Ye my last companion. When Elder Clarke was here he had all the sisters stand up who are from North America who get emails and letters from their parents each week. Then he had all the sisters stand up who don’t get letters or emails form their families at all, and Sister Ye stood up. Her family does not support her at all and they hate the church and that she came on a mission. There were about 8 sisters in the mission who stood up and then he had all the North American sisters stand up again and he said it is our responsibility to have our families adopt them and write them…...it made me just cry so much to think how I would feel if I didn’t have the support from my parents, my siblings, extended family and friends. I think that Sister Ye would love to receive a letter from you. We are very close now and from being her last companion I feel an obligation to help her and to love her. If you would please do that I would be so grateful! You know the mailing address because it is the same as mine and her email is: xiaoce.ye@myldsmail.net thank you. I love you!
