Week 47 New mission President the Vores
Wonderful family and friends who have supported our missionaries— we will love you forever for your faith and encouragement of the missionaries in the Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan mission. We wanted to share with you our final letter to our dear missionaries.
A sure and certain plan for life
To our dear missionaries, past and present:
This will be our last weekly letter that we write to you. That is an emotional realization for us. You have blessed our lives in ways that we are unable to count or to measure. We have witnessed great faith, courage, and perseverance in you. Through you, we have visualized the bright future of Christ’s Church. And, most profoundly, we have watched the miracle of Christ’s gospel work through you, as you have sought to learn and apply His doctrine. We love you. We love the Savior and His Church, from whom and through which we receive the teachings that will bring us peace and happiness in this life and the ordinances of salvation, with God’s covenants, that will bind us to Him and to our loved ones forever.
Before we speak directly to you, we want to acknowledge the many senior couples who have served with us. Sister Litchfield and I could not have managed the complexities and challenges of this mission without their dedicated support and assistance. We will be forever grateful for their service. But we are equally grateful for the example that they have shown to you. Dear missionaries, this is what consecration looks like! The work of the Lord is hastening. The needs are great throughout the world, in building the kingdom of God in preparation for the second coming. We hope that you have seen their faith and dedication and that you already have decided to serve a mission later in life with your spouse.
In wondering what we could or should say to you that might have a lasting impact, we do not worry. At the very beginning of his earthly ministry, the Lord himself described His gospel as a “well of living water” proclaiming that “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” (John 4:6-15.) President Russell M. Nelson continues to provide us with that counsel. Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the First Vision, President Nelson reminded us of Heavenly Father’s singularly powerful introduction of His Son Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith, saying, “Hear Him!” Throughout your mission and throughout your life, Heavenly Father invites you to open your ears, your minds and your hearts to the Savior, to “Hear Him!” (JS-H 1:17.)
The Savior’s words, at different times, in different ways, and for different purposes throughout our life, will bring us peace, comfort, strength, guidance, knowledge, and so much more. Truly, we are taught that there are even words to hear that are “so great and marvelous… that they cannot be written, neither can they be uttered by man.” (See 3 Nephi 19:31-34.) Surely, there are times already in our life where we have felt feelings of indescribable joy, or love or gratitude for the gospel and blessings, which feelings simply cannot be expressed by our mortal languages. Perhaps the Savior’s reference to “living water” comes the closest to describing such feelings in terms that we can manage and comprehend.
How do we “Hear Him” in following our Heavenly Father’s charge? Of course, we cannot hear Him without reading and listening to His word. We are familiar with how the Savior’s word was portrayed and referenced as the iron rod in the spectacular vision shared with Lehi and Nephi. This vision was intended to be shared with all of God’s children through publication of the Book of Mormon. The prophetic vision conveys the essential role of the word of God in leading us to salvation. Without the iron rod, we will be lost. We see the lengths to which Nephi and his brothers went to obtain the brass plates in order preserve the word of God for their posterity. (1 Nephi 5:21.) We see how the word of God was carefully conveyed from one king or prophet to another throughout the Book of Mormon. We see the sacred charge that Moroni was given to protect and then deliver the gold plates to Joseph Smith, to provide the word of God, in its fullness again to the earth.
And this is our greatest desire and prayer for each of you – that you never set aside or neglect His word. Hold tightly to the iron rod. Dear Elders and Sisters, it is not sufficient to know that the iron rod exists. It is not sufficient to know where the iron rod is located – on our bookshelf, for example. The Lord’s meaning is clear – we must hold firmly to the iron rod. Without the strength and direction that it provides, we can be too easily overcome by the pressures, the difficulties, and temptations of this world. We hold firmly to it by reading daily from the Book of Mormon and from the other standard works, listening to and studying the teachings of living prophets, participating fully in our wards and branches, serving faithfully in callings, and regularly attending the House of the Lord.
Through these holy practices, our love for the Savior and His gospel will remain deep and pure, and our desire to follow His teachings, and to make good choices, will increase. Our faith in the Savior and even our self-confidence (through Him and the power that we draw through Him) will strengthen, as we receive more fully His spirit in our lives. Importantly, our desire and capacity to repent also will increase. In fact, you will be amazed that as you live the gospel more fully, you will find that your love for and use of the atonement of Jesus Christ in fact will increase. You will embrace the atonement and the process of repentance as the beautiful, ennobling, and ultimately perfecting gift that it is. All of this is how we remain true to our covenants, drawing ever closer to Jesus Christ. This is what we wish for each of you. May you continue to “Hear Him,” by holding firmly to the iron rod, and may the well of living water thus be ever present in your life.
With all our love and respect,
President and Sister Litchfield
Salut
This week was a pretty crazy week. Last Monday we had our mission activity. It was a lot of fun. There was soccer, volleyball, basketball, and ultimate frisbee. I spent most of my time talking with other missionaries and playing ultimate frisbee in the rain. It was a lot of fun.
Tuesday we had district council. In the evening we went and taught these young men/young adults. There were four of them and they were all catholic. It was awesome. They had read a little in the Book of Mormon and had a lot of questions. They weren't dumb questions either. We talked about the prayer, the apostasy, and the priesthood and how no other church has the power to baptize people. They were like, “wait so the catholic church is false?” We were like, “yeah.” It was so cool. We taught them four more times during the week and brought them to church on Sunday.
Wednesday we had exchanges. I was with Elder Aumua who is from Samoa. We had a lot of fun. Our favorite part was meeting back with our companions to a member's place in our sector. She had made futu banane, chicken, and sauce arachide. It was sooo good, and it was free haha. It takes a lot of time to make futu banane so we were very grateful.
That night we had a zoom call with our new mission president and his wife. President and Litchfield left and now it is President and Sister Vore. He speaks French, and she is learning French. They are so nice and excited to be here. I am excited to get to know them.
Thursday and Friday were chill days. During one of our lessons this guy would pull out Meta AI and ask it questions about the Book of Mormon or the church as we were talking to him. It was kind of weird but we told him to stop and it was funny.
Saturday we had a baptism for twins. We had their uncle baptize them and it was great. Saturday night we had transfer calls. I am getting transferred, which is what I expected, but I am going to miss Elder Stevens.
Sunday was good. On our way to church we went and hunted down some friends to bring them with us. We ended up getting 14 friends to church, which was a good week. For 6 of them it was their first time which was a cool experience. Sunday afternoon we went to sector like normal. I said bye to a few people.
Today I am going to try and pack up, we are going to do some errands, and yeah. This week should be fun.
Spiritual Thought:
This week we taught a lot of people to pray, and almost nobody wanted to pray. When we would ask them they would say “no you pray” or “i don't know how to” or “but it's not the same prayer that you guys do.” After this happened over and over again I started noticing it and it kind of bothered me.
Like just take a second and think about something. We have the opportunity to pray to the most loving, powerful, perfect being in the whole universe. We can pray whenever and wherever, and no matter what he will always listen to our prayers. Don't take prayer for granted.
Alma 37:37: “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.”
Thanks for your prayers and I hope you guys have a wonderful week!
Elder Robinson
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