Dear Parents,
I thought you would appreciate seeing a version of my letter to the missionaries today. Every Sunday night I try to send a letter to the missionaries with encouragement, announcements, and invitations. Here is today's letter:
We are living in a remarkable time. What a privilege to be a missionary! You carry a message of love, hope, and peace that people desperately need. As Tropical Storm Nicholas bears down on us, I’m thinking of the Savior’s invitation to build a solid foundation on Him—the Rock of our Salvation (Helaman 5:12)—instead of on sands that blow with the winds and waves. “Master, the tempest is raging,” we might call. But he stands firm, with arms outstretched, ready to save. To the billowing storms, he commands “Peace, be still.” He calms the storms in our lives as we turn to Him. And He invites us to help Him share that message.
I love the hymn “Brightly Beams the Father’s Mercy.” Although the “Dark night of sin has settled [and] Loud … angry billows roar,” “to us he gives the keeping of the lights along the shore.” As you keep His light shining bright, “you may rescue, you may save” the “fainting, struggling seamen” in your areas.
How do you keep the light bright?
One critical way we keep the light burning in our lives is to remember our covenants. Every covenant we make includes a promise of spiritual guidance and strength—of light! When we make and keep covenants, we form and then nurture a binding relationship with the Savior. It’s an indelible foundation that outlasts age or circumstance, and only fades if we neglect our covenants. That’s why President Nelson invites us—and those we teach—to stay firmly on the covenant path.
Our covenants are a powerful source of strength, healing, and hope.
To help you remember your covenants, I’m pleased to announce that I have arranged for all missionaries to have the opportunity to attend the temple for an endowment session the last week of this month. This is a sacred privilege. For most of you it will be your first visit since you began your mission. I don’t know when or if we will have the opportunity again. So, we will want to prepare ourselves for the experience.
As we attend the temple, we can remember the covenants we have made and recommit to them. We can also envision bringing our friends here. Baptism is not the endpoint in their conversion. The covenant path leads to the temple, and it will be incredible for us to be there together to renew our commitment to find, teach, and invite those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives, so they can enjoy the blessings of covenants, too.
General conference will immediately follow our temple trips and will be a capstone for this month of consecrated preparation centered on covenants.
I love you all and am grateful for the opportunity to serve with you. Please do all you can to prepare for these experiences. Trim your lamps and shine your light bright. Be messengers of peace to the storm-tossed world. It’s awesome, isn’t it?
With love,
President Richards
No comments:
Post a Comment