Leadership Letter

Dear Elder Morgan David Lefler,

The Lord has confirmed that you should receive an assignment to train a new missionary, and this is comforting evidence that He loves and trusts you. He expects you to set an excellent example of faithful and Christ-like service. Your new companion is already certified and qualified to be a missionary.  Please involve your companion Elder Joshua K Meldrum right away in all aspects of the work, from studying and planning to teaching and working with members. Even though you are the Senior Companion, please treat your companion as your equal partner in the work, in finding, teaching, and baptizing. Help your companion develop faith and exhibit that faith through dedicated hard work filled with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost should be your companionship's senior companion as you seek to bring our brothers and sisters unto Christ.

Focus your work on Preach My Gospel.  Use it every day as you study and prepare. There may be several chapters that your new companion has not studied yet.  Please give prompt attention to those chapters.  To help your new companion learn and apply the principles found in Preach My Gospel, the Missionary Department has developed a twelve week in-field training for all new missionaries. This program, In-Field Training for New Missionaries: The First Twelve Weeks, will allow your new companion and you to study and work together to master Preach My Gospel.  You can find this guide in the Gospel Library in the section of “Missionary Training.”  You should begin to use this program immediately.  You are to spend between 30 and 60 minutes daily of companionship study, except for preparation day and on days (usually Friday) that you conduct weekly planning. This will permit you to cover the materials in the first twelve weeks. You should also make sure to have Spanish study during those same days. If Church or mission meetings conflict with this schedule, you are to find a time to schedule companionship study during a time of the day that will not conflict.  

You should counsel together with your companion to determine where and how, if applicable, you can be of assistance in helping your companion learn the mission language. Play an active role in helping this new missionary develop a systematic and consistent plan to speak and understand the mission language.  Pay strict attention to the principles contained in the Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ (Missionary Handbook) as you help this missionary master the mission language and become confident in finding and teaching in a new language.

Help your new missionary feel and experience the joy in being exactly obedient.  Review together weekly the Missionary Handbook and other mission rules.  You should read together the Missionary Handbook completely at least every three weeks (4 pages per day).  Observe carefully the daily schedule for misisonaries.  Teach and exhibit proper and effective use of time, including goal setting and planning, as set forth in Chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel.

There is no greater honor or sign of respect that I can confer on you than to trust you to train a new missionary. A mission is one of life’s greatest formative experiences. As a result, a trainer can significantly influence the pattern a new missionary will follow throughout the mission and thereby become one of the key influences in that missionary’s future life and success.  Your companion's future success in the mission field and life will reflect your loving and careful nurturing.  Future generations will call you blessed for your faithful efforts to touch and mold this new missionary's actions, attitudes, and perceptions of what it means to truly become a personal representative of Christ.

This is an important responsibility and one for which you are prepared. The Lord knows you and trusts you to do it well.  So, do I.  Remember whom the Lord calls, He qualifies. You and your new companion will be in my prayers as you go forth to labor in unity and love in the vineyard of the Lord.  I pray that you will be instruments in His hands to bring to pass a marvelous work. Remember the field is white and ready for the harvest!  ¡Éxito!

Sincerely,

Pedro X. Larreal, President

Texas McAllen Mission

cc: Parents, Bishop, & Stake President