January 1, 2012
Dear California Santa Rosa Missionaries,
Welcome to the year 2012! I look forward to sharing the coming year with each of you and I anticipate that we each will experience wonderful things in our life.
A new year is always a time to reflect on what happened during the past year and to also set new goals and heights to accomplish in the coming one. I hope that each of you had a wonderful time speaking with your families and loved ones on Christmas Day.
I hope you are looking forward to shaking off some of the holiday rust and gearing up for your work with renewed vigor, energy, and purpose. Let’s make this a memorable year not only for you personally but also for the mission collectively.
I pledge my full focus, energy, and love to each of you during this coming year and count my time as your mission president as a highlight of my life.
Recently I was asked by Sister Hsiang-Hua Wang, one of our former missionaries who finished her mission last August, if I would be willing to write a letter of recommendation for her. She was applying to graduate school at several universities here in the United States and I eagerly agreed to write her a letter.
My instruction was that the letter was to be sent to the various universities directly in a sealed envelope with my signature along the sealed portion so as to ensure those receiving it that it did come from me, and that it was not a forgery. I was struck by how vigorous the admission committees were in ensuring that no false or fake letters could be submitted. I was also a little concerned because the only thing that I could comment on had to do with her time here as a missionary since I had no experience with her professionally or educationally.
As I attempted to write the letter, I had to start over a few times because I didn’t feel comfortable that I was telling the committee who she really was, regardless of her educational or worldly credentials. I wanted them to know the person that I knew and that it had little to do with her prior grades or status. This is just a little of what I wrote to the various committees in the letter:
“It is a privilege to write this letter of recommendation for Hsiang-Hua Wang for consideration to your graduate program.
Hsiang-Hua is a very driven person with an infectious personality. She is happy, funny, articulate, and has a passion for learning and understanding people. She demonstrates leadership and maturity beyond her years. She mastered the English language both in speaking and in writing very quickly and she served as a trainer many times to newly arriving missionaries. She also served with distinction in the various wards and stakes of the church throughout the mission and all who met her were taken in by her sincerity, her compassion, and her faith. She will make an outstanding student and I predict will be at the top of her class should she be admitted. Her drive to achieve and to make of her life a life of service to her community and to her fellow man is exemplary. In short, she is an inspiration to me.
I recommend her without reservation and urge you to consider and accept her application to join you.”
In writing this, I realized that this is how I feel about every single one of you. You each are an inspiration to me. You each are so valuable and cherished by your Heavenly Father and if it were up to me to write a letter of recommendation to Him or to the Savior about you, it would be a privilege to do so.
I know how much He loves each of you and how deeply proud He is of your life and of your desires. I know that mission life and life in general can be at times difficult and challenging, but you each are so capable with unlimited potential.
I look forward to the New Year. This week we receive 22 new missionaries. This Friday is Zone Leader Council meeting and the following week we will be holding our zone conferences. Over a third of our mission has turned over since September. We have our work cut out for ourselves.
It is exciting to consider our future and what we can accomplish if we are unified, obedient, and dedicated to the Lord. Let us all, myself included, do all that we can to establish the church and to bring about real growth in the hearts of our people.
I love you each. Words nor tears will ever adequately express that love but I hope that you will feel it and know how much you each mean to me and even more importantly, how much you mean to your Heavenly Father and to your Savior.
My love,
President Bunker
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