Elder D. Todd Christofferson Visits the Pacific

**The following are notes from a fellow missionary, Lynda Bennett, who posted them on her blog.  She did a great job, so rather than paraphrase we will just give her the credit and share her thoughts.  It was a wonderful meeting and very uplifting.  The meeting was on Saturday, January 30, 2016.

Meeting an Apostle

Today we had an opportunity to be taught by an Apostle, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we sustain all members of the Quorum of the Twelve as prophets, seers and revelators. They are special witnesses of the Saviour in the same way Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the other early apostles were. It was a very powerful meeting. There were about 500 missionaries in attendance, mostly the young sisters and elders from both the Auckland and Hamilton Missions; as Senior Missionaries, we were also invited to attend. Elder Christofferson made a point of shaking the hands of all of the missionaries. In addition to hearing from both Elder Christofferson and his wife, we also heard fabulous talks by the Pacific Area President, Elder Kevin W. Pearson and his wife, June.

We started with Sister June L. Pearson who focused on three things:

1) Have faith in yourself and your calling.
She reminded us that we have been set apart as missionaries by one in authority. We are called to our missions at this time and in this place by a prophet of god. She affirmed that all things are possible when we are on the Lord's errand and that nothing is too hard for the Lord. (See Luke 1:37).

2) Obedience and sacrifice is the price of our success.
She quoted President Nelson who once said "Obedience brings blessings. Exact obedience brings miracles. https://www.lds.org/church/news/elder-nelson-delivers-spiritual-thanksgiving-feast-to-mtcs?lang=eng 

We will make or break our mission based on what we do and what we do not do between 6AM and 10PM. We each will choose every day how dedicated we want to be in our mission. The degree to which we fully turn to our Father in Heaven and faithfully follow all mission rules, the greater will be the reward.

3) Make sure you seek for, live for and ask for the companionship of the Holy Ghost.
Referring to the famous missionary scripture in D&C 4, Sister Pearson promised that as we give all our heart, mind and might for the work, the Lord will bless us.

Next we heard from President Kevin Pearson. He told a great story about the power of a magnifying glass. When he was a young boy he had a friend who showed him how to fry ants and bugs using a magnifying glass. As a 10 year old, he had never seen one before, and he was amazed by the power of this incredible piece of technology!

He then spoke about how in the same way a magnifying glass could focus the rays of the sun, as we align our will with that of the Saviour as guided by the Holy Spirit, we can achieve great things. Some of the quotes I captured in my notes include:

* "Your power as a missionary is a function of being aligned with the spirit."

* "Power comes from constancy and consistency."

* "Great learners equal great leaders."

* "Average is the enemy of excellence. Improve your abilities every day."

* "You can't see what you aren't looking for.”
                                               
* "Our lives must be a relentless pursuit of Christ until we come to see him face to face."

* But perhaps most important of all - "Your success in your mission will not be based on number of baptisms. It will depend on your personal commitment and dedication to serve." We need to remember this and keep it ever in our thoughts when we are going over reports or assessing the outcomes of all that we do.

The other great thing about what he said is that it means there is no way we can fail in our mission, so long as we put forth the commitment and dedication he speaks of. We are only responsible for our own choices. So the real measure of the success of a mission will be based entirely on the degree to which we are doing everything we can to align our will, our thoughts, and our actions to what we understand the Lord is asking of us.

That means if the work was going forward regardless of our efforts, we can't ride the wave of that success while being lackadaisical in our efforts. It also means if the work stalls despite our very best efforts, the Lord will still look upon us and say "well done, my good and faithful servant". Who doesn't want to hear those words?

The next speaker was Sister Katherine Christofferson. She related the story from 2nd Kings, Chap. 4 about the poor widow woman who comes to the prophet Elisha for help. Although her husband had been a righteous man, when he died he left her with a crushing load of debt and no means to pay. The creditors of the day were able to take a son as bondsman to pay a debt. Her creditor was threatening to take both of her two sons as bondsmen to pay this debt. She was at her wits end, not knowing what to do. Elisha asked her what resources she had in her house. She was a very poor woman. All that she owned in the world was a small pot of oil. Elisha instructed her to go borrow every empty vessel she could from her neighbours. Her sons went out and gathered many vessels. She went back to Elisha and he told her to go home, shut her door and start to fill the vessels.

She then did exactly what the prophet had told her to do. Then close the doors of her house and begin  pouring her oil into the vessels, then take the vessels of oil and sell them and to live on the remainder. She filled every one, yet her own pot of oil had remained. The oil did not stop till the last vessel was filled. She was able to sell the oil she had poured into the vessels and pay the debt which was owed, securing the freedom of her sons and she had enough left over to sustain her. Sister Christofferson pointed out: "The Lord will bless us to the degree that we are prepared to receive".

She followed that with a talk about a pair of missionaries who were directed where to go. As they started their day, they both felt rather uncertain, not sure why they were going the direction they were going. They had no specific plan or appointment, but by following a spiritual prompting knocked on door at a certain house. When they knocked on the door of the houses no one was home, so they were baffled as to why they had been led there. As they were leaving, the lady who lived in the house came jogging by as she had been out getting some exercise. She greeted the missionaries and told them she wanted to be baptized. This lady had apparently been taught before but never made a commitment to be baptised. When the friend who had introduced her to the gospel moved away, she committed, "If missionaries from your church ever come to my house, I will get baptised."

These missionaries had no formal referral to find her but the Lord knew her heart and knew she was ready, so He guided his servants to go to that home. However, those missionaries had to be prepared to receive the prompting through faith and obedience. They had to be willing to follow the spirit even though they did not understand why they were being asked to go there. We do not want to limit the number of vessels we have available to gather in the Lord's blessings. As we continue to pattern our life after the Saviour and get more adept at recognizing and following the promptings of the spirit, we too can see miracles in our lives.

When Elder D. Todd Christofferson took the pulpit he asked for questions. Rather than giving out a pre-planned address, he used his time responding to what the group most wanted to learn about.

One of the questions was: "How can we personally know the Saviour?" Elder Christofferson reminded us that in addition to knowing Jesus Christ, we must strive to come to know the Father, as it says in the scriptural account of the Last Supper: "This is life eternal, that they might know the ever living God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent." Elder Christofferson spoke about things we can do, ways we can come closer to both the Father and the Son such as continuing to study and ponder the attributes of Christ, to live and serve according to the Saviour's example. He said "There are times when Heavenly Father wants us to pray for certain things. The Spirit can guide you to know what to pray for."

He asked for other's input, President Pearson came back to the stand and said something I hope I will always remember about wanting to know Heavenly Father and the Saviour: "Remember that we do know them. We just can't remember it because of the veil. Part of mortality includes mortal amnesia. That is why we feel comfortable in the temple. It takes us closer to our true nature, our true home.

"What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away; but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."  D&C 1:38

Humanitarian Work in the Islands Continued . . .

As promised, here is a brief report on the other wonderful missionary couples we work with.  The couple called to Vanuatu is from Germany.  They arrived on the island nation of Vanuatu on Monday, March 9, 2015.  Just four days later, Cyclone Pam hit the islands of Tanna and Efate on Friday, March 13th with 180 mph winds.  Our couple have been up to their eyebrows with the recovery on the two islands receiving the most damage.  Many people question why it is taking so long to rebuild.  The answer:  This is a complicated, large dollar project.  The humanitarian project provides materials and training for those who's homes/shelters were damaged so they will be able to rebuild a stronger, safer family shelter.  Some of the homes are totally gone.  Those people will receive basic training and material to help rebuild a safer structure.  Others will get supplies to make repairs.  Teaching people to "help themselves" and become self-reliant is a big part of the project.  Our couple has been visiting and making assessments of all the homes that are in need of repair.  This has been done on both islands.  There are no street addresses, so a local person has to go with them to help locate the people and do the assessments.  It has been an arduous task.  The assessments are now complete and technical specialists have helped to streamline the project with a few changes here and there.  Several "model" shelters have been built and it looks like things are starting to move forward.  Needless to say, they have not had a lot of time to think of anything but the Cyclone Pam rebuild.

We actually have two couples doing humanitarian work in Fiji, a missionary cople from Switzerland and couple from Calgary, Canada.  When we were there in August we visited a village which wanted help improving their community hall.  This community building was also use to hold church meetings.  A humanitarian project was approved and the before and after pictures tell the story.  Local people did the work themselves.

In Samoa we had a couple from Redlands, California.  They helped to provide clean water to many communities.  They were also instrumental in distributing used school furniture shipped from New Zealand to needy schools in Samoa.  They also helped build a walkway so children could more safely cross a stream to get to school.  This couple finished their mission the end of January.  Our new missionary couple replacing them are currently on the job.  They are from Las Vegas, Nevada and have just arrived in Samoa after a few days of training in New Zealand.

On the tiny island nation of Kiribati (Tarawa) we have a couple from Kaysville, Utah.  Since Tarawa is a very flat atoll (a coral island) there is always a problem with flooding.  This missionary couple have helped several villages build seawalls to protect village families from flooding; a constant threat.

In the Solomon Islands, our couple does double duty as self-reliance and humanitarian missionaries.  They have been helping people to secure and install rain-water catchment tanks as well as helping teach dental hygiene and assisting the young women to assemble maternity packs for new mothers.  They were also able to help provide local schools some needed badly needed sports equipment.

In addition, we also have two couples who operate the Church humanitarian dental clinics on the islands of Tonga and Samoa.  They are retired dentists who have been called to serve for 18 to 23 months managing the dental clinics and helping improve community dental hygiene.  Their wives help in the clinics as well as with community training.  The couple in Tonga is from West Viriginia and the couple in Samoa are from Calgary, Canada.  The clinics are on the campus of the Church run schools and the services are free.  Originally the clinics were started so that the young missionaries turning in their mission application papers would get a "real" checkup prior to their mission.  The dental services are on a first-come, first-served basis and serve the entire community of both Church members and friends of other faiths.  Their objective is to improve dental health and to help the local dental community increase their skills and expand their services. 

"When called to (serve), we should focus our efforts on being what we are called to be, not on what we feel qualified to do."  Dallas H. Oaks. "Life's Lessons Learned"

Humanaitarian Work in the Islands

Our main missionary responsibility is to support other missionary couples who serve as humanitarian missionaries and county welfare managers on the islands of Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, and Vanuatu.

We feel we have some of the finest couples to work with.  They truly work hard at their callings and each have done a marvellous job.

Our couple in Tonga are from Inkom, Idaho.  They are doing marvelous work in teaching young children that a key to preventing diabetes is to exercise and choose the right foods.  They a created contest between the schools as a method of teaching diabetes prevention. There were 12 schools invited to participate.  The children competed by performing skits, songs or write essays and poems on the theme of "choose the right".   To emphasise the message, each student received a CTR ring to wear as a daily reminder.

Their efforts are part of the church’s continuing initiative to support Pacific Island Ministries of Health and Education in their fight against diabetes.

In Fiji we have a wonderful couple from Switzerland.  They have taught the people on the island of Tavenuni how to garden.  They went a step further than just giving them seeds and teaching them how to plant and care for their crops.  They also taught them how to gather seeds, preserve them and plant again the next year.  This has been a very successful project and the people are able to feed their families as well as have a little extra to sell at the market.

Our couple in the Marshall Islands are laying the groundwork for a framework of diabetes prevention.  Together with a local wellness center run by Canvasback.org, a Seventh-day Adventist organization, they have weekly clinics where they measure blood sugar, teach cooking and exercise.  They are educating the people about diabetes detection, treatment and prevention.  They are also teaching them how to garden in containers or small spaces. 

We will make another post soon and tell you about the couples on the islands of Kiribati, Samoa, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands.

"A child who sees his father and mother forgo comforts for themselves as they reach out to those in distress, will likely follow the same pattern when he or she grows to maturity.   Gordon B Hinckley, Stand a Little Taller.