Weekly Letter from the Mission Office

From the Assistants

Elders and Sisters,

This past week during Zone Leader Council one of the items that was discussed was our baptismal goal for the rest of 2012. Right now the mission has baptized 533 for the year. The goal that was decided was 670. In order for us to reach that goal there will need to be 69 baptisms in both November and December. That is 8 baptisms per zone per month. This past week there were 10 souls who were confirmed and brought unto Christ. That is a great start and we know that we can do even better! We can reach this goal with diligence and hard work. The Lord will bless us in our efforts to reach this goal. Currently there are 165 baptismal dates in the Texas Dallas Mission. Elders and Sisters it is possible! Continue to work hard and help all of our investigators make covenants with God. We know that they will be blessed with the strength to overcome their trials. Whether it is the Word of Wisdom or the Law of Chastity, through diligence and faith in Christ all things are possible. We love each one of you and look forward to working right alongside each of you as we work towards this goal of 670 in the year 2012. Thank you for your hard work!

Love Los Elderes Beatty  Flitton

From President Durrant

Congratulations to those of you who have reported reaching your individual Ward or Branch 2012 baptismal goals.  And many of you will do the same in the coming weeks.  Make sure that your ward leaders are aware that you are striving to help them reach their goals.  And take opportunity to celebrate success when it is reached.  Attaining these goals is a group effort - missionaries and members working together.

Elder Johansson update:  I spoke with him this week and he told me the healing process is taking place.  He had surgery on his ear about a month ago and he has another month or two of healing time before he will be allowed to return to the mission field.  He is doing all he can to be a missionary while he recovers at home in Gilbert, Arizona.

I want to commend Elder Visser, Elder Larson, and Elder Wilson.  They have reached their zone's Standards of Excellence in Greenville for three straight weeks!

My memorization scripture from last week was Matthew 28:19.  It states, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."  What a privilege we have right now to be doing exactly what Jesus Christ asked of His early apostles!

Over the weekend, Elder Tuma and Elder Stufflebeam were punched several times as they tried to visit a part-member family.  Elder Tuma's nose was broken and Elder Stufflebeam's jaw was broken.  They each received other cuts and bumps and bruises.  Through it all, they were strong and demonstrated positive, cheerful attitudes.  We pray for their prompt recoveries. 

Please do all you can to avoid situations that compromise your safety and security in all phases of our work.  Also, drive slower in your cars and on your bikes.  Safety first in all situations!

I love each one of you and I hurt when you hurt.  Please be careful!  I am praying for your spiritual and physical welfare every day, as are millions of others around the world.

M a M.  With love and admiration,

President Durrant

Texas Dallas Mission

"Mission of Miracles"

Overcoming fear with the Spirit.

On Friday, we received a media referral, who was ready to hear the gospel. We met with him, he told us he read the Book of Mormon in 3 days, but was very confused about it. He wanted to learn more, and so we taught the first discussion with him. He is very curious and wants to know why Latter Day Saints are so family oriented, why families are so close together, and why we are happy. We taught him the first discussion which he accepted and wanted to learn more. He wanted to keep in contact with us, he brought it up himself. He is planning on going to the Marines and was afraid he wouldn't be able to serve since he is killing people, but we assured him that many members serve our country and that it was ok to do so. He is such a neat person and wants to do what is right. I, personally, felt words flow out of my mouth, I was calm, and had no problem speaking about the Gospel. Usually I let my fears get the best of me and I am working on this daily, but to see myself do what I thought I could not do during the lesson with him tells me that I can do anything as long as I do not let my fears get to me. And I know that, but when we started to teach him the Gospel, my fears left me and I was able to carry on a normal conversation. How grateful I am for the Lord in helping his servants! It was an amazing lesson, the spirit was there, and we both did a wonderful job in making sure he felt it. There's no way he could not have felt it. But I am so grateful that the spirit was there to teach him in his heart and I hope to visit with him this week.

Elder McLain - The mistake that wasn't a mistake.

Precious is going to get baptized November 4th at 5pm. I have been working with her since my first week in this area. Elder Reynolds and I found her while looking through former investigators. We chose a teaching record of a family of four or five in the Frances Way Apartments. We went to the apartment number that we thought was theirs. Turns out, it wasn’t. I misread a seven and a two in the apartment number. Precious answered the door, read our tags, saying, “The Elders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are here. Come on in and meet the man of the house.” We entered with the member that was with us and met Jimmy, an 84 year old retired Baptist preacher. He, of course, wanted to talk about Genesis 1:1 and go back to the beginning. After he continued to speak up about that in the lesson, I finally requested 10 minutes of silence from him. He nodded and we were able to share the message of the Restoration with all that were present. Precious was the most interested and none of the others in the house have been. The second time we visited her, she had read the Book of Mormon and received revelation from it. Since that week in August, we have dutifully worked with her and she has received a testimony of the Book of Mormon, the truthfulness of the Church. She texted us last night and thanked us for finding her. I will forever remember that.

Elder Clark - Talk to everyone.

On our way into the gas station there was this man standing outside of the door drinking a slurpee. Before going into the gas station we asked him if we could share a message about Jesus Christ with him. He accepted to let us teach him. He is from India. He converted from Islamic to a Baptist and was very open to learning. We taught him the Restoration and The Plan of Salvation in about 30 minutes outside the door of the gas station. He was very receptive and asking questions. At the end of the lesson we invited him to be baptized and he accepted. He is going to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We have a return appointment with him for this next week. It was a testimony builder to me of the importance of talking to everybody. We could have easily gone into the gas station without talking to him, but we took the time to talk to him. I know the Lord blesses us for talking to everybody he puts in out path. I love this work. I know that this is truly the Lords work.

Elder Adams - Excellent teaching idea for children.

Tambien fijamos una fecha con una nina de 9 anos de una familia menos activa. Hicimos una leccion divertida acerca del bautismo en la cual le pusimos mi mochila y empezamos a agregar pesas, simbolizando pecados (mentir, no hacer caso a la mama, quitarle dinero a tu hermano, etc) y despues quitamos las pesas simbolizando el bautismo y se sintio mas libre y ligera y fue mas facil caminar bien. Ella se animo y la familia acepto esa meta. Esperamos que los padres hagan su parte ahora que la nina tiene ese deseo. Ha sido una buena experiencia ensenar a ninos pequenitos porque tengo que ensenar de manera mucho mas sencilla y entendible y entretenida.

How to earn member trust.

All of my companions have said that spending time with members earns their trust. I feel differently. The best way to gain trust is to go serve the non-members and get investigators and bring them to church. I don't need to spend more than an hour at dinner, or 20 minutes at other times, in order to help a member feel the missionary spirit. There are people that need my help!

Thanks for reading.

JANUARY                     45
FEBRUARY                  56
MARCH                        63
APRIL                           62
MAY                             38
JUNE                            39
JULY                            58
AUGUST                       37
SEPTEMBER                71
OCTOBER                    54
Oct 29-Nov 4                 10
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Total                             533