President Monson Addresses New Mission Presidents at MTC
Place: MTC, Provo, UT
When: June 27, 2010
Purpose: Address newly-called mission presidents
A week ago last Sunday President Monson and many other General Authorities gathered at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, for a special sacrament meeting with the newly-called mission presidents and their wives who were training there before going into the field. It was part of the annual Seminar for New Mission Presidents, from June 24-27. President Monson addressed the group in the meeting, and Church News editor Gerry Avant reports on what he said:
“I know that you are dedicated to the work of the Lord and to the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I also know that the missionaries who will serve under your direction will be loved and guided by you,” President Monson told the new mission leaders.
Acknowledging the women who are serving with their husbands, President Monson said, “I am reminded of words from the Book of Ruth in the Bible: ‘Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God’ (Ruth 1:16).
Then President Monson added, “I pay tribute to you sisters.”
He spoke of “that precious commodity” entrusted to the care of the mission leaders — the missionaries. He quoted Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that sayeth unto Zion, thy God reigneth!”
“The missionaries,” said President Monson, “represent the flower of youth. They represent the hopes, the prayers, the dreams of their parents; they represent the element of sacrifice. If you as mission presidents can realize the importance of their missions in the lives of these young men and young women, and in the lives of your senior couples, then you will be in a better position to motivate them properly.”
Many fathers and mothers have sacrificed so that their sons and daughters “might go forward as a servant of the Lord,” he said. “The young men and women have been trained in their Church classes and in seminary. They are qualified by age and by virtue and by experience. They have been interviewed by the bishop and found worthy, interviewed by the stake president and found worthy, and set apart as a missionary in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
Further, he said, “The parents of our missionaries kneel in daily prayer and ask our Heavenly Father to bless that son or daughter in the mission field. And in that prayer they ask a blessing upon you, for you in effect become a mother and a father to their child. You become, as it were, the determiner of the destiny of that young man or that young woman. Someone said the power to lead is also the power to mislead, and the power to mislead is the power to destroy. Let there be positive leading, positive motivation, positive uplift on your part as you inspire missionaries.”
President Monson gave instructions pertaining to motivating missionaries. He spoke of the importance of welcoming missionaries “to the greatest mission in all the world,” and conducting personal interviews, reminding mission presidents that to “provide help — we love, not scold. ‘Show how’ is more important than ‘tell how.’”
He assured mission presidents that they can receive inspiration in all things pertaining to their calling. As an example, he spoke of having felt the definite inspiration to move one young elder from the city of Belleville, Ontario, to Welland, Ontario, when he presided over the Canadian Mission from 1959-1962. It was only after he transferred the elder that he learned that the young man was fluent in Italian. In his new city, the missionary taught 10 Italian-speaking families whose English skills were limited.
“I was unaware that [the elder's] mother was Italian, and that she had taught her boy to speak in her native tongue. By listening to the Spirit and transferring him, he was able to carry the gospel to those Italian families in Welland.”
Another area of motivation on which President Monson gave counsel was preparation day. He cautioned against missionaries becoming involved in activities that might lead to serious injury, which, in turn, could result in their being unable to perform their labors or even be released from their missions.
“It’s a shame to teach a young man Portuguese, let’s say, and have him wait week after week after week for that visa and then finally get down to Brazil and then get in a game of touch football, break a leg, then have to go home and lose all the Portuguese training, all of that motivation — all for a game of football,” President Monson said. “There are other things missionaries might do on preparation day that could destroy and damage the Spirit. We need to be very careful about what activities are allowed on that day.
“I think a guide that will give you what you need in handling the motivation of missionaries on preparation day is to tell them this: ‘Do nothing on preparation day that would rob you of your spirituality.’ If you keep that in mind, every elder and every sister will be able to make his or her own decisions. I might point out that we have no preparation evening. Preparation day comes to a close at 5 o’clock. Every evening should be a proselyting evening.”
President Monson gave mission leaders “the Monson Rule of Proselyting: a letter or e-mail every week to parents.”
“I like to tell missionaries that it isn’t so significant how much you write — just be certain to write.”
He said that letters and e-mails from a missionary son or daughter can bring parents into the Church or back into Church activity.
President Monson counseled mission leaders to involve the membership of the Church in the proselyting effort. “There is just no substitute for a member-oriented proselyting program,” he said. “Tracting will not substitute for it. Golden questions will not substitute for it. A member-oriented program is the key to success. It works wherever we try it. I hesitate to deal in dramatic statements, but let me try one: The greatest thing you as a mission president can do to increase the effectiveness of your missionaries and their productivity is to ensure that the proper relationship is maintained with the ecclesiastical leaders in the area where they proselyte.”
He told mission presidents to instruct every new district leader, every new zone leader, that the first thing he is to do when he moves into his district or into his zone is to call on the bishop and the stake president that they might jointly have a successful proselyting program.
“It was President Spencer W. Kimball who said, ‘No mission can achieve its full potential without member help.’ Then he said, ‘We expect to … involve the members of the Church generally in opening the gospel doors to our Father’s other children.’”
Concluding his address, President Monson said, “My brothers and sisters, you have been hand-selected. You have been chosen from among the most faithful in the Church, and now you have the opportunity to go forth in the Lord’s harvest field.”
See the original story on the Church News website below:
Prophetic counsel for ‘hand-selected’ leaders
