Stake Conference!

We attended stake conference.  President Maluenda was presiding.  Elder Martino was the general authority and the topic was "Hastening the Work."  It was seriously one of the best church meetings I have ever been to!  They talked directly to both the members and the missionaries and gave us counsel on how we could better work in unity.  What was said there was gold.

President Maluenda left every member the commitment to ask everyone they know if they would be willing to listen to a message about Jesus Christ.  If the answer is no, just keep being their friends.  If the answer is yes, get the missionaries over there! :D  He promised that in the future, we will be very thankful that we had shared the gospel with those around us.

Elder Martino pointed something out very interesting.  He first defined that priesthood keys were the right to receive revelation to direct the church or an organization in the church.  He then said that the mission president has the keys to direct the missionaries and determine who gets baptized.  However, the keys over missionary work belonged not to him, but to the Stake President and the Bishop.  Isn't that interesting?  

He then read Moro. 10:31 and said that it's a commandment to us as members that we extend the boundaries of our stakes. There are three parts to this commandment:

1) Finding those who don't have the gospel

2) Retaining new members - they're babies in the gospel!

3) Reactivation! - these are people who have been baptized, but are not participation in the sacrament which means they're not renewing their baptismal covenants week after week.  Covenants are important because only through them can we participate completely and fully in the Atonement of Jesus Christ

He read Moses 6:31-34, which talks about Enoch being called to preach the gospel.  Enoch was super scared, but the Lord promised him that he would receive the help he needed and he would succeed if he worked, did his part, and opened his mouth.  The same is true with us as missionaries and as members.  We need to work, do our part, and open our mouth and we will have everything we need to participate in the hastening of the work.

The meeting was so awesome!  He shared with us the story of Alma and Amulek and pointed out that Amulek was a less-active member who became reactivated then he helped out the missionaries (Alma) by being a Member Present during the lessons and because of that, he was able to help convert more hearts to the gospel than Alma was able to by himself (Alma 8-12).  It's really good.  I encourage y'all to read those chapters with that in mind.