September 5, 2011

So Tuesday we went to São Paulo. I talked with Elder Wilkinson in the office during a lot of the day because he is training the new financial secretary and has free time. It was great. I love him a lot. We got back late Wednesday. This week we tried to do a lot of finding. The Lord really answers our prayers. We prayed to be guided to know where to go, and we started knocking doors and doing contacts on a street and it was full of people willing to listen. The street is called Silva Barros, and there are already many members on it so Elder Galvão and I decided it must be a very elect street.

I want to share something that I learned while studying my scriptures this morning. I was pondering about goals and numbers and baptisms and all of these worries of 19-26 year old boys that are on missions (I don't include Sisters because I believe that they are above these things). I thought about how to me, Elder Calvert, there is something fundamentally wrong with this type of thinking about numbers. I am reading in Alma 34, where I have seen the amazing missionary experiences of Alma, Ammon, Aaron, Omner Himni, Amulek, Zeezrom, to name a few. I don't recall ever reading a verse that said "And it came to pass that before they set out to do the work of the Lord, they prayed to know how many souls the Lord desired that they could bring unto Him in His Kingdom." Obviously the Lord wants all of His children to return. His work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Not just 88% or 90%. He is shooting for 100%. Now I know it is very unlikely that I can help every single person be baptized in Santana, but I don't believe that the Lord desires me to get really worked up about these things. I know that reports are part of the Lord's organization, so we can assess our work. But I believe that the Lord would rather we try to put of the natural man, through objective goals like scripture study and prayer, kindness and pure thoughts, rather then 23 1/2 baptisms per month and 36 lessons with at least 2 invitations to baptism per contact per second per street. I once read that the judgement day will not be an accumulation of all of the things we have done, but what we become. Missionary work is not different then the rest of life. The same eternal principles apply. Let's work on becoming more for the Lord. I know Christ lives. He is our Savior. Please don't trample Him under your feet. We do this by ignoring His counsel. If you believe in God, I hope that you will ponder about where you stand with Him. If He exists, we ought to be sure we are completing His expectations. I know He lives. It is so clear to me. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church with His authority. Other churches can teach some true principles, but there is something fundamentally missing- His power, His words for today, spoken through His authorized servants. Please consider these things. Love, Elder Calvert