April 30, 2012

30 April  2012

Dear Sisters and Elders,

I love being united with you as we read the Book of Mormon together looking for the Doctrine of Christ. Part of the beautiful plan of our Savior requires us to ‘endure to the end.’  I have keenly felt the responsibility to see that you are prepared to be steadfast, faithful, obedient and valiant when you return home. I know that will only happen if you set a pattern now of being steadfast, faithful obedient and valiant.  The Book of Mormon is a crucial foundation of that pattern. Consider the remarkable promises related to daily study and application of the Book of Mormon given in an address at a Mission President’s Seminar by Elder David A. Bednar:

An Elder or a Sister with a deep and developing testimony of the Book of Mormon will be a qualitatively different and more effective missionary in the field; he or she also will remain firm and steadfast upon returning home.  Please listen to this admonition from President Benson, “There is a power in the {Book of Mormon} which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book.  You will find greater power to resist temptation.  You will find the power to avoid deception.  You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path” (President Benson, Ensign, November 19856,7) I cannot imagine greater blessings, particularly the power to stay on the straight and narrow path.  Your elders and sisters who study seriously the Book of Mormon will strive more fervently to put off the natural man and become a saint through the Atonement of Christ the Lord (see Mosiah 3:19).  Such missionaries will come to know the Savior they represent.  And a missionary in the field who is coming unto the Savior, and assisting investigators to do likewise, will continue in the process of on going conversion after returning home.  Your elders and sisters who study seriously the Book of Mormon will find examples of great missionaries and models of Christlike attributes.  And a missionary in the field who uses appropriately the Book of Mormon in the process of developing Christlike attributes will continue to do so after returning home.  Your elders and sisters who study seriously the Book of Mormon will discover a powerful source of dependable, daily assistance  Such missionaries will learn that diligent study of the Book of Mormon sets the spiritual tone for each day of proselyting.  They also will observe repeatedly the following miracle:  The specific scriptures or topics reviewed during a morning Book of Mormon study session will be central that very day to answering an investigator’s question or to a resolving a concern. And a missionary in the field who relies upon the Book of Mormon as a powerful source of dependable, daily assistance will continue to do so after returning home.  In Alma chapter 23 (see verses 4-6) we read about Aaron and his brethren traveling among the Lamanites preaching and teaching the word of God…Now consider the importance of the following scriptural statement: “As many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away” (Alma 23:6, emphasis added).  Please note: these investigators who were converted unto the Lord---not to personalities of the missionaries or to particular Church programs, but were converted unto the Lord---never did fall away.. and missionaries who are converted unto he Lord---not to the exhilaration of achieving goals or to the prestige of leadership positions, but were converted unto the Lord----never fall away.  This plain truth applies equally to investigators and to missionaries who are converted unto the Lord through the Book of Mormon. ( Elder David A. Bednar, MTC, June 2008)

I love this Mission. I love YOU.  I am passionate about your future success and happiness. I know daily study and use of the Book of Mormon is a foundation of your present and future success and happiness. I believe in you!

President Summerhays