THIS WEEK WAS YET ONE MORE FRUITLESS WEEK. BUT I DECIDED THAT I AM GONNA DO MY PART UNTIL THE END AND NOT WORRY ABOUT THE RESULTS, BECAUSE I CAN'T CHANGE ANYTHING, SO WORRYING OR GETTING MAD OR FRUSTRATED DOESN'T HELP AT ALL. ALTHOUGH I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT IT IS VERY HARD TO FIGHT OFF THE FEELING OF FRUSTRATION RIGHT NOW.
the church, and then had a question/answer period afterwards. I
transcribed the following from YouTube for Jon, because I thought it
was very pertinent to his current situation:
The question posed to Elder Holland was something like "Has having
generations of missionaries serving abroad changed the character of
the church?"
transcribed the following from YouTube for Jon, because I thought it
was very pertinent to his current situation:
The question posed to Elder Holland was something like "Has having
generations of missionaries serving abroad changed the character of
the church?"
Elder Holland's response:
"Ostensibly, theoretically, and truthfully, it [missionary service] is
for the church. It is service to the kingdom and religious principles
and to spread Christianity. But in fact, I would do it, and I would
institutionalize it and I would include and encourage everyone to go
who can go and wants to go, if not a single solitary person joined the
church. If not one joined the church, I would still say do it, simply
because of what it meant to me. I think no young man in this church
was ever more affected by a mission than I was. And that partly is
simply the context out of which I have come in my childhood, in my
life, in my youth. So, I'm just a horribly biased person.
We're out to the tune of 56,000 missionaries. Probably soon, our
trajectory, just the demographics are that we'll probably be around
70,000 missionaries in about 3 or 4 years. And [the missionaries] are
supposed to go give service, they're supposed to love people where
they are, and if they join the church, fine, but if they don't, fine.
If they can do ANYthing...ANYthing they can do--ANY single, solitary,
Christian, decent, worthy, thing they can do--they're supposed to go
do. And if people join the church, great, and if they don't [the
missionaries] have left a nation or a community or a family or a
person better than they found them. And that's our call to a
missionary. And that can't help but do good to the individual, and
that can't help but have changed the face of the church in the 21st
century, because it has--there's no question about it."
"Ostensibly, theoretically, and truthfully, it [missionary service] is
for the church. It is service to the kingdom and religious principles
and to spread Christianity. But in fact, I would do it, and I would
institutionalize it and I would include and encourage everyone to go
who can go and wants to go, if not a single solitary person joined the
church. If not one joined the church, I would still say do it, simply
because of what it meant to me. I think no young man in this church
was ever more affected by a mission than I was. And that partly is
simply the context out of which I have come in my childhood, in my
life, in my youth. So, I'm just a horribly biased person.
We're out to the tune of 56,000 missionaries. Probably soon, our
trajectory, just the demographics are that we'll probably be around
70,000 missionaries in about 3 or 4 years. And [the missionaries] are
supposed to go give service, they're supposed to love people where
they are, and if they join the church, fine, but if they don't, fine.
If they can do ANYthing...ANYthing they can do--ANY single, solitary,
Christian, decent, worthy, thing they can do--they're supposed to go
do. And if people join the church, great, and if they don't [the
missionaries] have left a nation or a community or a family or a
person better than they found them. And that's our call to a
missionary. And that can't help but do good to the individual, and
that can't help but have changed the face of the church in the 21st
century, because it has--there's no question about it."
I LIKE THAT QUOTE. I WILL STRIVE TO DO EVERY CHRISTIAN, DECENT, WORTHY ACT THAT APPEARS. IT IS INTERESTING THE DIFFERENCE IN EMPHASIS WHEN THEY TALK TO MISSIONARIES, AND WHEN THEY TALK TO NON MEMBERS. BECAUSE I DEFINITELY WOULD NOT HEAR THAT IN A MEETING OF JUST MISSIONARIES.
LOVE YOU TOO AND THANKS FOR THE GREAT FOTOS!!
LOVE
ELDER HOOKE
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