Here is Dad's letter for this week. Some of it is specific to missionaries, but most of it can be applied by all of us in our many roles. We have thought and taught a lot about charity this past month. It is the key to daily happiness and eternal salvation.
Dear Elders and Sisters,
In recent letters, we have reviewed the Lord's clearly stated expectation that our primary motivation for missionary service be the sincere love we feel for Him and His children. The following statements in Preach My Gospel provide a perfect summary of these principles:
"Charity is "the pure love of Christ."
"Charity is a gift from God."
"[Charity] includes God's eternal love for all His children. We are to seek to develop that kind of love."
"When you are filled with charity, you obey God's commandments and do all you can to serve others and help them receive the restored gospel."
"As you [pray for charity and] strive to do righteous works, your love for all people will increase, especially those among whom you labor. You will come to feel a sincere concern for the eternal welfare and happiness of other people. You will see them as children of God with the potential of becoming like our Heavenly Father, and you will labor in their behalf."
"Charity, like faith, leads to action. You will develop charity as you look for opportunities to serve others and give of yourself." (See PMG 118)
The apostle Paul referred to the motivation of charity, or the pure love of Christ, as "a more excellent way," (1 Cor.12:31) emphasizing that even if a servant of God "[speaks] with the tongues of angels, and have not charity [he or she is] become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal…" Paul continued, "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, … and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." (1 Cor. 13: 1-3)
In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith the Lord commanded full-time missionaries to serve God "with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day." (D&C 4:2) Elder Oaks observed: "We learn from this command that it is not enough to serve God with all of our might and strength. He who looks into our hearts and knows our minds demands more than this. In order to stand blameless before God at the last day, we must also serve him with all our heart and mind."
Missionary service, according to Elder Oaks, "must be motivated only by the pure love of Christ." He concluded: "If our service is to be most efficacious, it must be accomplished for the love of God and the love of his children." (October 1984 General Conference)
Elders and Sisters, I understand that this is a very high standard and presents a challenge for each of us from time-to-time. Clearly, we will not always have feelings of charity towards others. We will not always be motivated in our missionary service by the right thoughts and feelings. I am confident, however, that because God expects us to be motivated by Christlike love in serving His children here in Russia, He will bless us with the gift of charity, through the Holy Ghost, as we sincerely strive to do everything He has asked us to do to receive this essential spiritual gift.
As we have discussed before, the prophet Mormon invites us to "pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love," and then he adds the qualifying condition: "which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of His Son, Jesus Christ." (Moroni 7:48) Elders and Sisters, we certainly must pray with all the energy of heart to be filled with this love. But we must also be strivingto be true followers of Jesus Christ in order to be recipients of this most essential spiritual gift.
I invite you to consider some specific requirements a full-time missionary must satisfy in order to be a "true follower of Jesus Christ."
1.A missionary who is a true follower of Jesus Christ will exercise faith in Christ's atonement, sincerely repent, and strive to become pure in his or her thoughts and actions. When you feel Christ's infinite love for you through the cleansing, purifying, healing power of His atonement you, like Alma the Younger, the Sons of Mosiah, Enos, and others, will naturally feel Christlike love for others. This is why Elder Oaks declared: "God expects us to work to purify our hearts and our thoughts so that we may serve one another for the highest and best reason, the pure love of Christ." ("Why We Serve" October 1984) It was their great love for the Savior and their fellow men, which accompanied the remission of their sins, that motivated the Sons of Mosiah to forget themselves in their missionary labors and experience great miracles in bringing thousands of Lamanites to Christ. I pray with all my heart that you will experience the profound joy, peace and love that accompanies the remission of sins through the atonement of Christ. Please examine your thoughts and actions each day and, with meekness and faith in our Savior's atoning sacrifice, sincerely repent of your sins.
2.A missionary who is a true follower of Christ honors the covenants he or she has made with God and strives to follow Christ's example by submitting his or her will to our Father in Heaven in humble obedience. God, through His prophets, has revealed His will regarding the standards and guidelines He expects His full-time missionaries to follow in these latter days. They are set forth in the Missionary Handbook and Preach My Gospel. A missionary who is a true follower of Christ will humbly and meekly strive each day to understand and obey these standards and guidelines, even when they may not make logical sense to him or her. He or she will say, without reservation or hesitation, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded." (1 Nephi 3:7).
3.A missionary who is a true follower of Christ consecrates all of his or her thoughts, time, talents and attention to finding, teaching, and baptizing children of our Father in Heaven who reside in this mission, striving to retain His children who are already members of His Church and striving to reactivate those who are less-active members of His Church. He or she follows the Lord's revealed standard of consecration for full-time missionaries in this dispensation: "Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day." (D&C 4:2)
Serving "with all your heart" means loving the work of assisting your brothers and sisters in their journey back to their Heavenly Father and having no superceding desires or affections that distract you from this sacred work.
Serving "with all your might" means physically getting out every day and, with urgency, interacting with, teaching, and serving as many people as possible.
Serving "with all your mind" means constantly focusing your thoughts on Christ and the children of God whom you are called to serve and avoiding or immediately discarding any thoughts that distract you or cause you to lose the companionship of the Holy Ghost. It means following the example of the sons of Mosiah who "waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God." (Alma 17:2)
Serving "with all your strength" means conquering emotional discouragement and physical trials and fatigue so that you, like the sons of Mosiah, are "patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls." (Alma 17:11)
4.A missionary who is a true follower of Christ will strive for love and unity with his or her companion and others with whom he or she serves. The Savior taught: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John 13:35) Please do your very best to be understanding, forgiving, kind and patient with each other. Meekly and humbly overlook differences in personalities, maturity, life experiences, traditions, spiritual development and personal viewpoints. As a true follower of Christ, kindly and lovingly encourage your companion to follow the standards of a consecrated missionary discussed above if he or she is reluctant to do so -- or, if applicable, please humbly honor and support your companion's desire to obey these standards and guidelines if you feel reluctant to do so. If you experience disagreements of any kind, please remember, as Elder Quentin L. Cook taught, "that how we disagree is a real measure of who we are and whether we truly follow the Savior." He reminded us that "it is appropriate to disagree, but it is not appropriate to be disagreeable." (General Conference April 2010) As you consistently show kindness, love and respect to your companion and others with whom you serve, especially in trying circumstances, you are acting as a true follower of Christ.
5.A missionary who is a true follower of Christ thinks outwardly and not inwardly throughout the day. He or she, like the Savior, looks for opportunities throughout the day to acknowledge, support, and extend kindness to everyone he or she encounters. As you meet and interact with others, concentrate more on how the Savior feels about them and how He expects you to feel about them. Have a prayer in your heart to feel the same love for them that the Savior feels for them. Like Ammon in his first encounter with King Lamoni, look beyond yourself and be open, interested, respectful and loving.
Elders and Sisters, I testify that charity, the pure love of Christ, is absolutely essential in finding, teaching and baptizing new converts. It is essential to retaining and reactivating members of the Church and strengthening our branches. I testify that it is a gift that God bestows upon true followers of His Son, Jesus Christ, who pray with all the energy of heart to receive it. You must qualify as a true follower of Jesus Christ by giving your very best efforts to follow His example of meek and submissive obedience. God endowed each of us with spiritual power and promised essential gifts of the spirit when we were set apart as full-time missionaries. As Preach My Gospel promises: "As you [pray for charity and] strive to do righteous works, your love for all people will increase, especially those among whom you labor."
I plead with you to exercise your agency to do everything you know you must do, including the things discussed in this letter, to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. This will qualify you to be a recipient of the gift of charity as you then pray with all the energy of your heart to be filled with the pure love of Christ.
It the greatest desire of my heart and my constant prayer that you will experience this gift as a missionary and then continue to be blessed with this gift for the rest of your life as a husband and father or a wife and mother, and as a servant in God's kingdom.
President Christensen
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