A Letter From Elder McBride

Dear California Santa Rosa Mission,

 

  What a beautiful week it was.  It was so wonderful seeing all of you this week at zone conference and I hope you have all been able to apply the things that you learned.  It was very spiritually uplifting for me and I enjoyed being in your presence each day I was around you.  It has been exciting to see the growth the mission is taking already, and I pray that will continue to improve.  My remarks this morning to you are going to be from the things that we've seen with zone conference and I hope to call your attention to the need for constant striving. 

 

   This zone conference we focused on three main points in our workshops and I want to reiterate those points to you and invite you to continue to focus upon those.  Teach three lessons a day, be actively living the doctrine of Christ by inviting to baptism early and often, and help your investigators come to sacrament meeting. We are all striving to be the best that we can and sacrifice for the Lord, and these will help us continue in that direction.  I want to share some experiences with you that Elder Gardner and I had this week.   While we have been working to apply the things that we learned from zone conference, we noticed specific blessings that came.  We taught three lessons a day, almost every day this week and that was a good reminder to us both that it is possible, we just have to dedicate our time and planning to achieve those.  Then Saturday, a random number called us and a Brother Brockway told us about a commitment he made to some missionaries back in 2004.  We invited him to come to the church and get a tour and if time permitted him too, we would teach him.  When we taught him and gave him a tour, he mentioned to us he felt the spirit and felt enlightened.  We invited him to be baptized and he said yes, but would not set a specific date.  All of these blessings came because of a determination to leave it all on the field,  to follow the spirit that had touched our hearts and taught us what we might do to be better during zone conference.  It is miraculous to hear that others around the mission are seeing similar miracles occur.  The promise is there, if we will give the Lord everything we had that day, He will chang our perspective and lead our area. 

 

  While I was sitting in zone conferences, thinking about how I am going to apply all this into my missionary effort, I was reminded of the talk given this last general conference by Elder Christofferson, "The Divine Gift of Repentance."  As we move forward from what we have learned, many, if not all of us, feel the need to repent and to rededicate ourselves to this work and to the mission.  There are a few comments from Elder Christofferson's talk that I want to emphasize.  He said, "repentance means striving to change. It would mock the Savior’s suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross for us to expect that He should transform us into angelic beings with no real effort on our part. Rather, we seek His grace to complement and reward our most diligent efforts (see 2 Nephi 25:23). Perhaps as much as praying for mercy, we should pray for time and opportunity to work and strive and overcome. Surely the Lord smiles upon one who desires to come to judgment worthily, who resolutely labors day by day to replace weakness with strength. Real repentance, real change may require repeated attempts, but there is something refining and holy in such striving." 

 

  Elders and Sisters, there is something refining and holy in such striving.  You may not get three lessons every day a week, you may not get a new investigator with a baptismal date, or your investigator might not show up for sacrament meeting, but you didn't stop trying, you never stop trying.  Striving to teach at least three lessons a day to help others come to know about the gospel of Jesus Christ, inviting them to live the gospel and follow the example of Jesus Christ, and to work each day to help those you teach come to feel our message is true through sacrament meeting attendance.  That is what our striving is.  We must be striving to change, we must strive to have the Lord be well pleased.  I love you Elders and Sisters.  We have been given an opportunity to grow, an opportunity to give our time and ourselves to the Lord.  I pledge with you to do this fully and wholly.   

With love,

Elder Michael McBride