June 2011
The month of June was a month of inspiration and revelation for us. We learned so much about God’s love for us as His children. We also learned about our love for Him and how we can demonstrate our love for Him. Finally, we learned together to love our neighbors and ourselves. It is a privilege to be with our missionaries. They are full of charity, and they are constantly striving to share God’s love with all they meet. As they teach and preach the true doctrine of Christ, many souls come unto our Savior, through faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost. We pray always that they will be able to stay active and endure to the end.
June 15 and 16, 2011 Mission Tour
During June, we had the blessing of enjoying our last mission tour with Elder and Sister Zeballos. Elder Zeballos is a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and is a counselor in our Area Presidency. Normally, these mission tours occur in November or December, but it was clearly a tender mercy for us to have it happen in June as we embark on the last year of our Chile journey. We were able to ponder and pray together about the needs of our mission, and we were blessed with inspiration and revelation to be able to see what we need to do in order to better direct the mission work during our final year of service.
As we prayed and counseled together to prepare for our mission tour, our feelings kept coming back to the importance of the Doctrine of Godly Love in Missionary Service. And so, we decided to teach our part of the mission tour on the Doctrine of Godly Love in Missionary Service. Then after we finished our part on the program, Sister Zeballos taught about the necessity of being pure and clean so that we can have the Holy Ghost in order to be the Lord’s hands and voice so that as His representatives, we can share His love. She shared much wisdom that our missionaries really needed to hear and to know about the Holy Ghost and what we must do to qualify to have the Holy Ghost with us at all times so that we can do the Lord’s work in His way. Then Elder Zeballos taught us about the importance of faith, hope, and charity in all that we do as missionaries and representatives of Jesus Christ. We were amazed at many of the things they taught. It was as if the Lord Himself were speaking. The only way they could have known to say the exact things we needed to hear is through the gift and power of the Holy Ghost to inspire them and to cause them to give us the direction they gave us. It was a tremendous blessing for all of our missionaries to be with Elder and Sister Zeballos. We felt the strength of their testimony and the blessing of their love. We felt the Lord’s love through His chosen servants. They are faithful and wonderful. They are obedient and loving, and we will forever admire and respect them for their commitment and their determination to serve the Lord. They inspire us to want to do and be better.
Monday June 27, 2011 Change Council
We had the wonderful blessing and opportunity to be with every missionary in our mission on June 27, 2011. We talked of God’s love again. We handed out a thank you letter for every family in our mission…thousands. The missionaries will deliver each one individually and share their gratitude with them for all they do to cause the Lord’s Missionary work to move forward with urgency and charity. They will leave challenges with them for the coming months so that they can share the Gospel with even more excitement and love. We know that our mission needs to work more closely with the members. We know that if the members feel our love and God’s love, they will help us to find people who want to learn more about their Heavanly Father and His son Jesus Christ. As missionaries, we are prepared to teach with power and authority. We know that if we work together with the members, and the members feel God’s love for them and for their families and friends, together we will experience miracles and be able to bring many souls unto Christ.
It is really beautiful to us to see how the Bishops in each ward work so diligently to help their ward to understand the importance of every member being a missionary. We have had the opportunity to participate in several ward firesides where a loving Bishop plans and prepares and even cooks goodies to help his little flock to have the courage to reach out to those in need and share the Gospel. It is remarkable to see how much love a ward generates when it’s members work together to do the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way. The missionaries are happy. The Bishop is happy. The families are united, and neighbors really love one another and step outside of themselves to serve others. The Lord blesses them abundantly for their diligent efforts.
What a fantastic group of Missionaries! We will miss them. We love them. They have left the City of Santiago better than they found it. They have served faithfully. Each one of these missionaries had a unique and special mission designed very carefully and lovingly by our Father in Heaven. Even though we have all served together in the same mission, each mission has been drastically different. That is because each of these Elders and Sisters is unique and beautiful with different needs and hopes and dreams and futures. We so enjoy seeing how the Lord creates a unique experience tailored especially to meet each missionary's needs and teach him or her exactly what he or she needs to know and learn and become. It is such a privilege for us to be a part of this magnificent work!
It gets more difficult to let go of each wonderful group of missionaries that completes their missions. We shed tears of sadness because they are leaving us and tears of happiness because they have become such lovely young servants of our Father in Heaven. We will miss every one of these fine Elders and Sisters. We love them and will keep them forever in our hearts and prayers.
We also said farewell to three wonderful Missionaries from the Chile, Santiago North Mission on June 28. President and Sister May and their daughter Sarah completed their mission service and returned home to Utah. They have been such a strength and blessing to us. We will miss them tremendously, but we have learned so much from their example of true Christ-like love and charity, and we are better for having known them. We love them and honor them. We know our associations with them will last throughout eternity. 
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