What Will Missionaries Be Doing in 20 Years: Farewell Mission President's Letter to Czech/Slavak Mission Parents.

Dear Parents

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your wonderful children.  It has been a privilege for Sister Irwin and I to come to know your son/daughter as a disciple of Christ.  We have felt an instant love for them as soon as we learned of their call, but that love has grown and grown as we have shared experiences of this great work and come to know each other better.  We know that our missionaries arrived in good shape but we also know that if we did not send them home better than they arrived then we would have failed.  Three years ago it was made clear to us by the members of the Quorum of the Twelve that the way they would judge our success as a Mission President and Wife would not be by the number of baptisms we have or whether we create a Stake but rather by what our missionaries would be doing in twenty years time.  That is a wonderful illustration of how important our missionaries are to our leaders.  Our goal, therefore, has been to try to help each missionary grow.  We have tried to help them to not only establish the gospel in these great lands but also to establish the gospel in their own hearts.  We are anxious that they return to you – not having gone through a mission but rather having had the mission gone through them.  

For the rest of our lives we will have an interest in your missionary.  We love them dearly and we will miss them.

President and Sister McConkie will be a great asset to the work of this mission and they will bless the lives of the missionaries.  We know the McConkies and we love them and we know that the missionaries will love them too.

Thank you once again – we are full of admiration for you in all that you have done to have provided us with the best missionaries in the world.

Sincerely – David and Lyn Irwin

Glistening Soldiers of Light

Dear Elders and Sisters,

I hope you are having a wonderful day and feeling the spirit still from our zone conference with Elder Nielson.  I want you to know that we are very very proud of our missionaries for your effort and for the spirit that you had with you in the zone conference.  Elder Nielson told you publicly, and told me several times privately that Cebu Mission is the most obedient mission in the Philippines.  We are also the most productive and having the greatest success of all 17 missions in the Rescue.  I hope you can see that those two things are tied together.  Just like our mission motto says, "Success Through Obedience".  I know there are still a few missionaries in our mission who have not learned this principle yet, but increasingly those missionaries are finding that they are alone in their choices.  Let us all love each other and encourage one another to become the Lord's missionaries.

As you know, it has been a very busy but very special 3 or 4 weeks as I have had the opportunity to visit with all of you and see you again at zone conferences.  I want to apologize to all of you for my inability to write letters during these weeks.  And I want to thank you all for the letters you have written me.  They are a blessing to me.  It is the high point of my week to read them and see the marvelous things you are doing with your lives and your missions.  I wish I could be like the prophet Elisha and pray to the Lord that you could see the eternal importance of your work here in the mission.  Elisha said "Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.  And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."  (2 Kings 6:17).  So I would pray for you that you could open your eyes and see yourselfs as glistening soldiers of light in a darkened world, bringing salvation to the souls of men.  Do your work with the utmost assurance that God is watching, and so are his angels, and they stand ready to assist the righteous missionaries in their work.

I am writing letters to all of you this week.  But I am not yet done.  So when you open your email today, if you don't yet have a letter from me, I will give you permission to go back again tomorrow to access your imos account and retrieve your letter from me.

I'm looking forward to seeing you all at the conference with Elder Nelson.  Please prepared to learn from an apostle of the Lord.  There will be no requests granted for a special temple day that Wednesday.  So even if you come in from Bohol or Negros, please don't ask to be allowed to go to the temple.  We'll see you soon.

Love,

President Schmutz

Daughter of Royal Blood

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cebu Mission Office <cebumissionoffice@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 4:05 PM
Subject: Re: Week
To: Annika Bruno <annika.bruno@myldsmail.net>

Dear Sister Bruno,

 

You are an amazing young woman and missionary.  I love the spirit of determination that you show, and your enthusiasm to do your duty in the face of any challenge.  And I confirm that you are a a daughter of royal blood, and you have been ordained to be called up and crowned in the next life.  Live worthy of that great reward and it surely will be yours. 

 

How are you doing with Sister Acain?  Tell me about the work.  But do me a favor and write to me in imos.  It is so much easier to keep track of who has written and then reply.  I have confirmed that your date of release has now been moved to May 21, 2012.  Please confirm that with your parents, and I will inform your stake president of the change.  Do you know if your stake president is the same one who is listed on your application?  As the time draws near, we will need to make arrangements for either a stake or district missionary to work with your companion, or make a temporary assignment with a three some.

 

Sister Bruno, I am so glad you and we came together in this mission.  I hope always to be in touch with you in years to come.  Have a great week and I am looking forward to seeing you at the Sister's Specialized Training meeting on Thursday.

 

All my love,

 

President Schmutz

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 9:15 PM, Annika Bruno <annika.bruno@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Dear President Schmutz,

I have found the mission to be not only the best 18 years for my life but the best 18 month of my life.  Some people say that the mission is to tiring, but i find it a wake up call.  I am sad that some people go away from their mission thinking of all the negatives, and not seeing how amazing everyday here on the mission is.  I have decided to find out the good everyday instead of looking at the bad.  There has been many things that have happened in the last couple of months that could discourage any normal person, but I am here to say I am no normal person I am of royal blood.  No earthly thing will or can or should bring us to despair.  We are given the chance to be happy why should we give that away. 

President Schmutz I am happy.  I hope that my companion is happy too.  I really do love my companion and that she gives her all on the mission.  She is an asset here on the mission.  Sister Acain I can tell is growing in knowledge and faith.  She has a great love for our investigators, and i know that she is going to bring many souls unto Christ. 

Thank You President Schmutz for all that you do and the example you show.  Give my love to Sister Schmutz.

Love
Sister Bruno 

Peace In My Heart

Dear Elders and Sisters,

 

It has been a very hard two weeks, and right before that the zone interviews.  So I guess it's been a very difficult four weeks.  But right now, I feel peaceful and excited.  I want all of you to know that I am exceedingly optimistic about the future.  For out of small things comes that which is great.  If all of you will realize how very important you are to the work, each of you, you will become a much greater part of the vision of the mission.  In D&C 123:14-17, the Lord teaches us a wonderful principle of the importance of a single person in bringing to pass his great work:  "These [things] should then be attended to with great earnestness.  Let no man count them as small things; for there is much which lies in futurity pertaining to the saints, which depends upon these things. You know, brethren [and sisters], that a very large ship is benefitted by a very small helm in the time of storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves. Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

 

If we will all do our parts, in the little things, we will be able to steer the large ship of this mission to its destination.  We will see the salvation of God come into the lives of those we teach and one another, and we will see the arm of the Lord revealed through miracles in our areas and companionships.

 

I know that you all look for my letters. I know that you like to receive personal letters more than letters sent to everyone.  But you must realize that sometimes events are such that it becomes impossible to find the time needed.  Such has been the state of affairs in the last couple of months.  Last week I started on names with letter "A" and wrote until I had no more time.  This week I am starting on "Z" and going backwards in the alphabet.  You should be reading this letter on Thursday.  All of you who did not get a letter from me last week should have one this week.  If you look for it on Wednesday, you are too early.  Check for your letter on Thursday.

 

In the future, I am going to write at least half of you every week.  So you should get a letter at least every other week.  But I want you to write me a letter every week :)  The only weeks when you don't need to write a letter is on Zone Interview weeks, when we have an interview.

 

We love all of you.  PLEASE REMEMBER TO FAST FOR THE MISSION THIS FAST SUNDAY.  Thanks.

 

President Schmutz