August 12, 2013

The Elder Poe Report

              

               This week was an exciting and interesting. This week I saw the Lord’s church in action and some powerful lessons on the importance of trust in the Lord.

               We will start with the bad news of this week. David unfortunately was not there yesterday for the appointment we are not sure why, but we will try getting back in contact with him soon. In addition we had two less active members this week tell us they would prefer not to have any contact with us or the church anymore. So that really stunk in the extreme, but people were given their agency and they are free to use it, that is what we fought a war in heaven over was whether or not we would have that agency. That makes it all the worst that people seem to be so willing to give up their agency to a substance or behavior because it is making them slightly happy for the time. I really just wish I could help people see that the Gospel of Christ can free them from worry, sin, and remorse. That is what the Gospel of Christ is here for, to make us free and happy.

               Yesterday I saw what was nothing short of the Lord working a miracle for the benefit of his children. There is a man, we will call him Les, in our ward who is a little bit elderly and several months ago had a serious stroke that brought about a speech and memory impairment, as well as some degree of physical disability. During church you could tell that he was not doing very well, another member of the ward Robert saw that, and he could relate as he had a similar experience occur to him several years ago. After church we got a call from Robert asking us if we would be able to come with him to go talk to Les and see how he is doing, we immediately accepted and later that evening went to see Les, who we talked with for a while and who was doing better after we left. The thing that really struck me though is that one brother of the church saw another one of his brothers struggling and acted as Christ would’ve to comfort him, because he cared and loved him. Isn’t that what we covenanted at baptism, to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort? Additionally this showed me why we really have the home teaching program, home and visiting teaching is more than just visiting once a month and sharing a lesson, it is loving another family and caring and looking out for them and helping them come closer to Christ. It is really about loving another family as the Saviour would, how blessed are the members of this Church that we have the opportunity to serve each other selflessly and exercise the saintly virtue of Charity.

               The final experience was more of a weeklong learning experience. At a certain point this week I was feeling a little down on myself, due to a previous day spent mostly in tracting without fruit being brought forth and several other items this week that were aforementioned. I expressed my sentiment to my companions and they helped me to see that this work is not necessarily about convincing others of the truthfulness of what we have but rather finding those who will receive us as it says in D&C 42:8. As  it says in 2 Nephi 12:3  “many people shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob” it doesn’t say let’s go convince other people to come up to the house of the Lord  because of how good it will be for them but rather that they will have a desire to. God is preparing people to receive the message but not all of the people are being prepared all the time to accept the Gospel, like a good friend said to me shortly before I departed and reminded me in an email. We aren’t teaching people anything new everyone we teach already knows everything we are telling them they were taught it in the Pre-Earth Life (not the Pre-Existence, that is for you Parke family) they just forgot it for a while. Our duty as missionaries is to create an environment in which the Spirit can be present to bring these things to their remembrance.

               I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, I know that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to work an infinite and all powerful atonement, and that through it all mankind can saved through Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. I know also that all these truths were restored through Joseph Smith, who was called of God to be the prophet, seer, and revelator that opened the dispensation of the fullness of times. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is God’s church once again restored on the earth again in these last days and it is lead and guided by Thomas S. Monson under the direction and guidance of Jesus Christ.

The Report of Elder Hunter Poe

August 5, 2013

The Elder Poe Report

               This week has been an interesting week full of many exciting challenges and opportunities. In short prayer and fasting works, the scriptures are the word of God written specifically for you.

               So the first big incident that caused a problem this week was that on Wednesday we went in to visit a less active member and although I had my planner when I got out of the car when we returned to the car after the brief appointment my planner was nowhere to be found, even after a diligent search. This was incredibly unfortunate as I have the memory of a goldfish if something isn’t written down, and so we had to rely for most of the week on Elder Fiefia’s planner all week, but it was a valuable lesson to me about the importance of having a remote backup.

               The big awesome news this week is that we found a wonderful new investigator from Texas named David. It all started Saturday evening, our mission president decided that this fast Sunday that as a mission we were going to fast that those persons who have a baptismal date in August will be able to keep those dates, and that those of us who don’t have investigators will be able to find new investigators. So on Saturday evening we opened our fast with a prayer crying mightily upon the Lord that we would be able to find persons that are open and receptive to the Gospel and that those persons who had a baptismal date for August would be able to keep it. The following day (Sunday) we had an appointment at 1:30 with a wonderful young Indian lady named Guyetreah scheduled. I was really excited for this appointment because I figured this would be when the Lord answered our prayers and we would be able to teach her entire family and commit all of them to baptism. But then to my utter disappointment when we went there, no one was home. It was incredibly sad and depressing. However as we were about to drive home, a random person popped into my head. You see several months ago I went on exchanges with my district leader into the Strongsville  West Area that I am now in, and while there we had done a little bit of tracting and found this guy who was really nice and had even given us some bottles of water while we were out, he had lived in Texas for a while and gotten in an accident and was in the hospital for a while and the missionaries had been some of the only people to visit him while he was in the hospital. At the time me and my district leader had talked to him he hadn’t really seemed interested but we left a restoration pamphlet with him and told him he could visit mormon.org  if he wanted to learn more, and left it at that. Yesterday though he popped into my head, and I could see in my mind the exact street he lived on, and I got the prompting we should go visit that house. So acting in faith and trusting in the promptings of the Spirit we went and visited that house. That same young man, David was his name, answered the door and said that he had read through the Restoration pamphlet and thought that it all made sense and sounded true. We then taught him a wonderful first lesson, which was not at all because of us, but rather the Spirit guided and led that lesson to address it to exactly what David needed to hear. The Spirit was super strong as we taught a simple first lesson on the doorstep but the faith that was exercised by all involved parties allowed miracles to be wrought, David committed to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and when we extended the baptismal invitation he accepted it, and we now have a return appointment with him for this next Sunday it was wonderful to gain a surer knowledge that the Lord will answer any prayer we offer up to him in righteousness, not necessarily in our time or our way but He will make sure that the answer is for our good and benefit. I would encourage everyone that reads this to as it says in Malachi “prove [the Lord] now herewith if, [the Lord] will not open the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” God has promised that anything we ask in the name of Christ will be answered unto us. As it says in Alma 17, the sons of Mosiah had “given themselves to much prayer and fasting;” and through this they were given the power to bring forth the works of the Almighty God. 

               I know fasting and prayer works, I know that there is a hoard of blessings the Lord wants to pour down upon our heads but can’t until we ask, to preserve our agency, I know that he loves us and I know that He cannot lie, Christ has promised us that whatsoever we ask the Father in His name will be given unto us. When we exert the faith to trust in the promises of God there will be no thing on this earth that we will not be able to do, there will be no knowledge that God will keep hidden from us and we will be confident knowing that we will stand on the right hand of God at the great and terrible day of the coming of the Lord and what else matters except that.

               God loves all of us His Son Jesus Christ loves us just as much and He wrought an infinite and eternal atonement so that all of us can be free from fear, worry and guilt if we will trust in Him and strive to do his works. This knowledge was restored through Joseph Smith who was called as a prophet of God to bring forth the fullness of the Gospel in these last days, and President Thomas Monson is the continuation of that line, and Christ is as the helm of His Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The Report of Elder Hunter D. Poe

July 29 2013

The Elder Poe Report

               This was a good week where I learned the power of prayer, and fasting, as well as I am seeing the miracles that can be done when the pure love of Christ is manifested through us.

               The first big thing that I wanted to discuss this week was the power of prayer. One morning me and Elder Fiefia and myself had a half an hour to plan for early in the day, where we didn’t want to leave the apartment because we were short on miles, and had to come back to the apartment anyway right after. So because of a wonderful district meeting we had earlier that week about the power of prayer we decided we were going to spend a solid half an hour praying and asking for the Lord’s help and guidance for the work in our area. We were going to pray specifically for help with finding persons that would be open to being taught, because right now we have one non member we are teaching right now and we haven’t been able to get a hold of her for over a week almost. So we got down on our knees individually and prayed for thirty minutes, and during that time we weren’t just talking to God, we were waiting for responses and in the words of President Hinckley spoke with him as one man speaketh to another. After some discussion we realized part of the problem might be the relative uncreativity of how we have been going about finding people. Knocking doors isn’t real original, so we discussed it a little more, then my companion Elder Fiefia received the inspiration to suggest we put together a talent show, and thus was born the idea of the Strongsville Ward talent show. So the Strongsville District of the Ohio Cleveland Mission, will be orchestrating the Strongsville Ward back to school talent show on Friday September 13^th. (Fanfare and applause) Although this is a monumental task and will require nothing short of a miracle to pull it off we are already seeing the miracles starting to pour out, as the Lord has stretched out his arm to hasten his work.  We came up with this idea Saturday morning and had to get it ready to present before the Ward Council the following day, coordinating between six different missionaries, yet we managed to do it, we planned out a lot of the work that would need to be done, and diagrammed it out. The next major hurdle was going to be getting the approval and backing of the Ward because without the Ward behind the idea it was going to go south faster than a Swallow with a coconut in the winter, however we prayed to ask the Lord to help us know how to present this in such a manner that the ward would find it a great idea, and when we had our turn at ward council we brought it forth and although there were some initial concerns the entire ward council decided to back it and the work of the Lord now continues to roll forward. All that started from a simple prayer offered up in faith trusting in the promises of the Lord.  Prayer works, it is one of the single most important things in this world, it is an opportunity to consult with the All Powerful Omniscient Architect of the Universe to help you with your personal problems that you are having in your life, and call upon His divine aid, knowing that He has said that whatsoever thing we ask in the name of His Son will be given us. I really don’t know how anyone can not truly pray.

               Another slightly more comical event this week was as we were out tracting we knocked on a door where a little nine year old boy answered the door. From the back his father yelled “Who is it” we introduced ourselves and the boy yells back “missionaries” the father in the back then responds “Tell them that we’re not interested and they are a cult that needs to learn who Jesus really is.” The little boy then looked at us, particularly Elder Fiefia with a pretty scared look. It may in a small part be due to the fact that Elder Fiefia is a large Tongan gentleman, very large, in fact enough that he is going to be playing for a fairly prestigious football university upon his return home. We just told him to have a nice day though and spared the boy the rather frightening experience of telling Elder Fiefia he was wrong. Although the event was humorous it was also saddening to see someone be spreading such anger and misunderstanding through such a small child, and already indoctrinating intolerance.  It is sad.

               One final note I wanted to hit on was how the when we start seeing things as they really are, everything changes. Once we look beyond these brief 80 years on earth, and look rather to the fact that we are creatures of eternity it will alter us forever, the people whom you interact with each day are not just your neighbors and coworkers, rather these are persons that the Saviour loved enough to suffer and bleed for, they are beings of eternities, they each have the potential to become like unto God and heir to all the Father hath. The next person you see I challenge you to view them for a moment as what they really are divine children of God, your literal brother or sister of spirit, then ask yourself would that change the way you treat them if you could see them like that constantly. Furthermore that perspective helps us view more accurately the trials of this life. They are not hardships inflicted upon us by a cold and uncaring universe, rather every struggle we go through was specifically laid out and planned for us by the Master Refiner to help us best grow into who we are meant to become throughout the eternities.

               So in short, God loves us, He loves every person reading this, He loves every person we pass on the street, He loved us so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son down to earth to suffer and atone for our sins, so that each of us could return to have the fullness of joy that He has. Our Savior loves every one of us so much that He endured every pain and hurt we ever have or ever will endure, he also has endured every sickness and infirmity, every broken heart, every ounce of guilt we have felt from sin, because He loves us. He will never leave us alone, abandoned, or forgotten, He knows each one of us by name and personally, all of our fears and desires, all of our favorite foods, and least favorite colors, He knows that, and whenever we want to feel His unbounded love, or feel His comforting Spirit the only thing we must do, is kneel down and pour out our whole soul to Him, speak with Him honestly and earnestly, and He will answer He will let us know that we are loved that we are valuable and that He is there.

The Report of Elder Hunter D. Poe

July 22, 2013

The Elder Poe Report

               So this is the beginning of week two of my third transfer now and things are still going great if taking a little time to pick up. I have had several interesting lessons learned this week, but basically the entire week can be recapped as follows. Stop by someone who isn’t home, tract, repeat until 8:30ish. Elder Fiefia and I are “shotgunning” the area, it means that neither of us has ever been in it before, and due to that we have been spending most of the week trying to find new people to teach, trying to get appointments set up with the people that the previous missionaries were teaching, and getting into the homes of less active members.

               This leads me to one of the first lessons that I learned this week, the importance of record keeping. For those who haven’t served on a mission each area has what is called an area book, basically a big ole honking binder that has information about people that the previous missionaries have been working with as well as names and contact information for people in the ward you need to keep in contact with and several other important pieces of information. If a missionary does not keep this up to date and accurate it can cause very severe problems for the missionaries that come in next as they have no reference for who to contact for what, or how those they are working with are progressing along, meaning that people will fall through the cracks and not have an opportunity to receive the fullness of the Gospel. In addition this week I was reading the part of the Book of Mormon where the people of Nephi flee the land of their fathers and come across the people of Zarahemla, because the Nephites had kept a record of their fathers, and had the plates of brass they were able to preserve the writings and teachings of the prophets and consequently were not left to dwindle in unbelief, whereas the Nephites because they had preserved and handed down the records were able to continue to have additional light and knowledge and receive instruction from God concerning the things that they should do. The point of all of this is that we should record the knowledge and information we get in our study of the scriptures and other spiritual experiences we have in life so that we can remember the tender mercies of the Lord in our life as well so that our children will one day be able to see our faith and our diligence in serving the Lord and will be able to have their own testimonies be strengthened by ours.

               Another slightly more humorous experience that occurred was at a large fair that occurred in our area this week. As a missionary I love fairs because that means a lot of people all in one location that are generally less defensive than they are in their home and are expecting to get handed free stuff, all of which adds up to a wonderful opportunity to share the good news of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a lot of people. Unfortunately when we got there we talked to several people and then some police officers showed up and told us that it was actually technically a “private” event and the ladn we were on had been rented and that we weren’t allowed to proselyte at the fair. Being good law abiding citizens we did leave, and proceeded to contact around the fair, however as soon as we stepped foot off the fairgrounds it started to rain, not heavy but enough to be annoying. I won’t say that it happened because they cast out the Lord’s servants but I also don’t believe in coincidences so take it at what you will.

               Other than that one important thing I learned was how a vital component of missionary work is patience. Like I said this week was not an incredibly productive one in terms of teaching people and helping people receive the Gospel, and there was a large amount of time spent doing not so pleasant tracting, however I had faith in the Lord that as long as we are diligent in doing His will he will promise to bless us and grant unto us the desires of our hearts. As a result although little was accomplished last week by a miracle we have gotten half a dozen appointments set up for this week within the last couple of days of the week. With that I know that when we place our faith and trust in the Lord He will always make sure that it works out in the end. In fact my mother gave me one of my favorite sayings of all times “It will all work out in the end, and if it hasn’t worked out it isn’t the end” this is ultimately the most important thing is if we live our lives in accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ because if we do, it will work out.

               One other experience I feel prompted to share is something that happened in my quarterly interview with my mission president this week. Lately I have been feeling like I have been struggling with some problems of self doubt and feeling like I am not being a good missionary because there are many areas which I could need to improve significantly on as a disciple of Jesus Christ and as a missionary, but in my interview President Vellinga told me that Heavenly Father loves me, and that he is proud of me and what I am doing. I know that God cannot lie and this brought an overwhelming sense of peace to me and has helped me become more confident in myself and what I can do with the Lord’s help, it also brings to mind something Elder Holland said this most recent general conference. “So be kind regarding human frailty—your own as well as that of those who serve with you in a Church led by volunteer, mortal men and women. Except in the case of His only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with” This really helps me realize that God doesn’t want a perfect people overnight, he will mold us and help us learn in the way that will be best for us, our only responsibility is only to try to be obedient and be more like Christ and we will become joint heirs with Christ possessor of all the Father has.

               I know that God lives, I know that Jesus Christ is at the head of the Church that bears His name, and that every part of it from the prophet at the head to the president of the every deacons quorum receives and is guided by revelation that comes directly from Him. This is His work he leads, guides and hastens it, (especially through the ICS department) and there will come a day when all those who have been faithful unto Him will receive all the blessings of Eternal Life.

D&C 1:38

What I the Lord have spoken I have spoken and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth shall 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.

The Report of Elder Hunter D. Poe

July 15, 13

The Elder Poe Report

 So in a surprise turn of events Elder Poe will not be serving in the biking area and will instead be serving in the Strongsville West area of the Strongsville ward (my address is still the same), it was quite the surprise when this happened. In addition my new companion is Elder Fiefia from West Valley City Utah, of Tongan ethnicity; he is a great guy and has been serving in the Ohio Cleveland now for 19 months. He seems like an awesome guy and I am very excited to be looking forward to work with him. We already have found a wonderful less active member that has three daughters and a husband that haven’t heard of the Gospel and we have a return appointment with her this week so that was very exciting.

In this report rather than discuss the events of this last week I would instead like to take a moment and reflect upon the completion of my training and what I have learned in these past 3 months.

The first and foremost thing I have learned is that Charity is the single most important thing, in missionary work, and life in general. As Paul said “if I have not charity … I am nothing”, charity is defined as the pure love of Christ and as is also stated by our Saviour you must love the Lord your God with all of your heart might mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself, upon this hangs all of the laws and all of the prophets. Furthermore as King Mosiah declared that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service our your God” (Mosiah 2:17 thank you mother) The fundmental essential of missionary work is Charity, because once you truly love those you are serving your greatest desire will be to see them enjoy the fruits of the Gospel and be able to experience the blessingis that come from having the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Also as a slight side note President Harold B. Lee said once “Missionary work is but home teaching to those who are not now members of the Church and home teaching is nothing more or less than missionary work to Church members” (PMG pg 13) so anytime I reference missionary work I also mean home teaching.

One of the other great lessons that I have learned is that this is the Lord’s work that is being done, and He will ensure that it is done. We just need to be worthy to be the vessels through which it is done, if we trust in the Lord and put forth our best effort and demonstrate our faith in Him he has promised he will stretch forth his hand and bring about miracles among the children of men. When we are talking about the blessings of the everlasting Gospel and the joy of salvation nothing else will suffice except miracles, as such if we want to see others enjoy the blessings of the Gospel and the joy of taking full advantage of the Saviour’s Atonement we must exercise the faith for the miracle of conversion to happen in the hearts of the lives of those we love and care for.

Unfortunately I am running a little low on time and it would take me a week and a half to adequately explain everything I have learned so far but it can all be summarized in this. God lives, he loves us each, and knows everyone of us perfectly and completely and only cares about our happiness. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to be our Saviour and Redemeer so that all of us can be made free from death and hell and the chains of sin which bind each of us, our Saviour wrought an all powerful and all encompassing Atonement so that all of us can find eternal life and eternal joy if we will turn to Him. I know that these truths were restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith who was called and commissioned by God to be a Prophet Seer and Revelator in these last days, finally I know every person on this earth can come to the same knowledge if they will read the Book of Mormon ponder in their hearts the message it contains and then ask God the Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ if it is true. Every person who does this with a sincere heart and real intent will be able to come to the same knowledge that I have and will find the joy of the Gospel in their lives.

 Moroni 10: 4-5

 And when ye shall receive these things I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having a faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost, and by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

The Report of Elder Hunter D. Poe

July 9, 13

The Elder Poe Report

               Well the big news first, last night we received transfer calls and I Elder Poe will be remaining in the Strongsville Ward, with a 99.9999% certainly that I will be in the Strongsville Biking Area that covers Middleburg Heights, Berea, and Brook Park Ohio. In addition we did have to move apartments yesterday so my new address is

14752 E Bagley Road

Apt. # 308

Middleburg Heights, Ohio

44130 United States

I should be there for at least the next six weeks. The other big piece of news is that I have finished training this week and on Friday I will be getting a new companion, and my trainer, Elder Schmidt, will be off training someone else. I wanted to take a moment and give a shout out to Elder Schmidt although me and him had our differences in the beginning I am very grateful to have had him as a companion and he has really helped me develop and progress as a missionary, and I know he really does love those whom he works with, and there is no higher praise I can give him them that.

               There was also this week unfortunately a rather sad event that transpired. We have been working with a sister named Corrinna since I got here, she was actually my first appointment with an investigator, and Wednesday we met with her and she told us she was not going to keep certain commandments and commitments and that she wouldn’t be willing to try. Unfortunately she has also not gotten an answer on whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet she says, and as anyone who is familiar with the principles of faith and prayer knows, it is by our actions we demonstrate our faith in the Lord, as well as our words. If we want to receive an answer to a prayer we must show that faith by what we do, and so if we don’t keep commitments and commandments to know the truth of them we will not be able to receive an answer or not as to whether they are true or not. Corrinna also told us that she felt like we were being too pushy and so we offered to back off and let her contact us for the next time she would like to meet. She agreed, however later that day and well into the following day she started sending us very angry, upset, and slightly bizarre texts about how we had given up on her, and how we were never her friends. This was heartbreaking to watch and it was sad, but as Christ said when someone has an opportunity for truth, light, and the Gospel, and they choose to turn it away not only do they lose the knowledge they would’ve gained but they also lose what they had already learned, and the last condition is worse than the first.  So let us all as Elder Holland said “Lead with the faith we do have”.

               This week I have also gotten to see how the Gospel can and will influence and enlighten every person it touches. We have been working with a less active member Michelle for a little while now, and due to a change in her employment situation is now even attending Church almost every week.  One of the things we have been doing for her each week is going over and tending to her yard and lawn for about an hour and a half under the direction of her father Wally. Wally himself is a great guy; however he never has really been open to the message of the Restoration of the Gospel and is quite set in his Catholic ways. Each time we go over to tend to the yard we sit and talk with him for a little bit, and always do share a verse from the Bible or a spiritual thought with him, even though he doesn’t really always show receptiveness to it. This week we spent the 4^th of July at Michelle and Wally’s house and had dinner with them which went quite well, and Michelle told us that even though he hasn’t said anything Wally has been kinder and more tolerant, and has been less negative about her membership in the Church than he has been before. Even though Wally had never really shown an openness to our spiritual thoughts it had been an influence for good in his life, this really helped build my testimony of the power the Gospel of Jesus Christ has to soften the hardened hearts.

               This week has been an excellent opportunity, and I am very glad for the chance to get to be serving in the amazing Strongsville Ward for at least another six weeks, I know that Jesus Christ lives and is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and that there will come a day when we will all have an opportunity to see his perfect face, and I know at that day it will be filled with a  perfect love for each an every one of us.

1 Nephi 1:20

 … the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.

The Report of Elder Hunter Poe

July 1, 2013

The Elder Poe Report

               This week had several difficult challenges and concerns that have shown me how important the Gospel is.
               On Monday we had an appointment with an elderly gentleman that we had talked to and given a Book of Mormon. He had read several of the chapters in Nephi 1 after three weeks or so and when we asked him what he thought of it his response was that he thought it was interesting and he wanted to read more before he prayed about it. We have had several people recently that read through some of the Book of Mormon or The Restoration Pamphlet and have said they thought it was “interesting” or “nice” but not that they wanted to learn more. This brings to my mind a story President Monson once shared in General Conference, him and his wife had given a copy of the Book of Mormon to one of their dear friends and asked them to read it. Several weeks went by and the Monson’s asked their friends about it, to which they responded they thought it was a nice and pleasant book, President Monson looked them in the eye and told them he knew they had not read it for nobody that really reads that book will have such a nonchalant reaction to it. He told them to go back and read the book, several weeks later they came to him with tears in their eyes professing they knew the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. This is how I feel every time someone responds to our message so casually I just want to shake them and tell them how important what we are talking about is. If what we are saying about Joseph Smith, about Jesus Christ, about continued revelations and prophets, is true then it is the most important thing on this earth, and I think that alone merits some studying of it, not to mention that more blessings than any of us can imagine will be poured out upon the heads of those who come to know the truth of what we say.

               I hope that all you who have not had a chance to watch the broadcast “Hastening the Work of Salvation” will do so soon. We saw a remarkable miracle of member missionary work this week with one of the members of our ward. One of my first weeks here in Ohio we had dinner with a lovely young college family in the ward. Unfortunately due to timing we had to leave a little early and did not have a chance to share a message with them, but we did leave with them a family proclamation and asked them to think of someone they could share it with. We had dinner again with this same family on Wednesday and talked to them about it, they told us with great pride that they had given the Family Proclamation to one of their friends and had discussed it and talked about it a little bit, and now their friends would be attending church with them this Sunday, it was a remarkable example of how we can bless the lives of others through the Gospel.

               The final thought I wanted to share was about the importance of converting a resolution or desire into action. We had Ward Mission Correlation with our Ward Mission Leader this week and we talked about how the desire to do something about the missionary work could be transformed into action. We decided we would come up with specific measurable attainable reasonable timely goals to present to the ward council. These experiences helped me understand how important it is to take feelings and desires and transform them into action if we actually want good to come of it. All the inspiration in the world amounts to nothing if it is not acted upon. This is not just in Missionary Work or the Gospel this is a true principle throughout any human endeavor. In the words of Elder M. Russell Ballard, Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, “I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to realize we reached but a small part of our full potential. When on learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.” So I would invite every person who is reading this to find some area of their life in which they wish was better, then set a specific goal on how you will make it better, and then make a day by day plan of how you will reach that goal.

               I know that persons who set and reach their goals will always move farther, get higher, and do more than those persons who simply are acted upon in this life. Those who desire to make a difference and then go out to make that difference will live a much richer and fuller life than those who do not. I know that the Saviour knows every struggle and challenge we will go through in this life and because of that He knows perfectly how to help and aid us if we will turn to him and call upon His aid.

Moroni 7:29

 And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men.  

The Report of Elder Hunter D. Poe

Note: Please forward this report  to all those you think would benefit from this message.