I cannot express my love for this
work. This week I had a meeting with President Mullen and his wife, the
assistants and all the STLs (there's 6 of us for the mission). We were
able to speak openly and candidly about the needs and progression of the
Sisters in our mission. I brought up something that has been weighing
on my mind a lot lately. As a trainer and an STL, I often feel a lot of
pressure about having a "perfect area" with perfect numbers and the
pressure to hit the mission standard of excellence every week, no matter
what. I know that a lot of other missionaries are always looking at the
"success" in my area and comparing it with their own. I have been very
troubled by this lately and have lost lots of sleep over the matter. My
Mission President also happens to be an accountant and so he is very
good with statistics and knowing what numbers produce baptisms and such.
Sometimes I am so worried that President Mullen is worried about my
numbers that I try to do anything I can to have good ones, even if I'm
doing things for the wrong reasons. As I've gone on exchanges with other
Sisters I see that this weighs on them too and that a lot of them have
started to do things "for the numbers". When I mentioned at the meeting
that we were getting too caught up in the numbers, President Mullen was
so taken aback! It was like that thought had never crossed his mind. I
was also taken aback because I thought he put a lot of weight on those
things. President Mullen expressed his great love for this work and
that, while our numbers do reflect SOME of the work we are doing, it
does not reflect all of it. Especially if we're only working in specific
aspects to have good numbers. It was a really eye opening experience,
and because of it, Hermana Sager and I have changed our goals this week
to only focus on loving everyone. Loving and serving. We will find the
greatest successes as we work in the way the Savior did, and I don't
think he was worried about numbers!!! The people are much more important
than any statistical report that we send in to our DLs or ZLs or
Assistants or anyone. We just need to be reliable to the Lord and
accountable to Him of the children He has entrusted to us.
I
hope you don't misunderstand, of course I have always loved my
investigators and worked diligently to serve them and bring them closer
unto Christ, but now, I'm not worried about anything else. Our success
as missionaries is measured by our commitment to find, teach, baptize,
and help others enjoy the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I wasn't sent
out on my mission to hit standard every week. I didn't leave my family
and friends and job and school to come out here to try and impress
people with my averages and reports every week. I came here to find my
brothers and sisters who are lost and kept from the truth because they
don't know where to find it. I'm here to save souls and to share the
love of our Savior with every person I meet. I am so grateful for this
opportunity and I cannot wait to spend the rest of these 7 months
working as hard as I can to bring souls unto Christ. And in order to
bring them UNTO Him, I need to be right there with Him. I love you all
and I hope that you know that I know that this church is true. There is
no where else I'd rather be.
Alma 26: 1-4
1
And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus:
My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason
have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the
land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great
blessings?
2 And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?
3
Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in
darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how many of them
are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the
blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made
instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.
4 Behold, thousands of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold of God.
Con Amor,
Hermana Rutherford
Hermana Rutherford