130 Manila Missionaries

We had Stake Conference this past weekend and it was really good. We learned that there are 130 full-time missionaries serving from the Pleasant Grove Manila Stake. Pretty cool. We have 1 of them!

President Livingston, who lives in our ward, spoke on missionary work. He said that we don't hasten the work; the Lord does. Will we keep up? He wants us to be missionary families. He wants us to:
1. Ask "how would we change if our family got a mission call?"
2. Pray specifically for those we know who need the Gospel.
3. Use our time wisely
4. Have FHE
5. Use Preach my Gospel
6. Have personal and family scripture study.
7. Attend the temple.
8. Watch "I will go where you want me to go" (a church video)
9. Memorize the purpose of missionary work from Preach my Gospel
10. Counsel as a family on how to do this.

Elder Keetch of the Quorum of the Seventy was our visiting authority. He told great stories. He said that the #1 way to do member missionary work is to...wait for it...serve others. Hey, I can do that! Imagine Christ's ministry without all the service He did. Without the service, Christ would have been a great guy who studied the Gospel and taught some people. With the service, He's everything. We need to reach out and help. In John 13, we see what Christ did as His last act with his apostles. He served them by washing their feet.  He also said "a new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one another as I have loved you." (John 13:34) We need to be a friend.

Sister Keetch reference the song "We Are All Enlisted." This song is my favorite hymn in Spanish. I LOVE IT. Well, it says "happy are we." She mentioned that the Gospel truly does make us happy. She also quoted sister Hinckley as saying "If you don't like your lot in life, build a service station on it." I have tried to look up the quote and find the source. I can't. It's a great quote, whoever said it.

It was great. The meeting even ended 15 minutes early.