Monday, March 4, 2013

Oh man. We get a weekly e-mail from our mission president and I just got done reading mine and it is so crazy!!! So I decided to attach the whole thing so you could read it too. Here you go... 
Dear Sisters and Elders of the Great California San Fernando Mission, 

In late December 1832 and early January 1833, a revelation was given through the Prophet Joseph Smith at Kirtland, Ohio. This revelation was given after high priests at a conference prayed “separately and vocally to the Lord to reveal his will unto us concerning the building up of Zion.” We have that revelation recorded today in D&C 88. Two verses of this great revelation, which Joseph Smith called the “‘olive leaf’ … plucked from the Tree of Paradise, the Lord’s message of peace to us,” have great meaning to me today. You have heard me speak of this great prophesy being fulfilled today throughout the world, and specifically, in our Great California San Fernando mission:

“Behold, and lo, I will take care of your flocks, and will raise up elders and send unto them. Behold, I will hasten my work in its time.” (D&C 88:72-73)

Last week, the Church announced that some of the 347 existing missions will be divided to form an additional 58 missions, bringing total number of missions throughout the world to 405. What a great hastening of the work this will be, especially in the areas where the new missions have been created.

Among the 58 new missions, three were announced in California – Bakersfield, Irvine, and Rancho Cucamonga. The creation of the Bakersfield mission is evidence of the great hastening of the work that the Lord is preparing for our mission. 

The new California Bakersfield mission will be created from the California Ventura and the Great California San Fernando missions. Specifically, the three Bakersfield stakes (Bakersfield, Bakersfield East and Bakersfield South) will be combined with the four northern stakes from our mission (Palmdale, Lancaster, Lancaster East and Ridgecrest) to form the new Bakersfield mission. 

The Great California San Fernando Mission will reorganized to include the six remaining stakes – Canoga Park, Granada Hills, North Hollywood, San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Valencia. I will send out an e-mail to your myldsmail accounts with a map of the current and new mission boundaries.

I have felt a great hastening of the work in this area with President Monson’s announcement of the lower age for missionary service. However, now with the creation of a new mission, even more missionaries will be sent to this area! The hastening will be accelerating at an even greater pace! The Lord is certainly raising up elders and sending them to us!

For some of you, this may be the first that you have heard of our mission being divided and a new mission being created and I am sure you have some questions about what will happen. Let me address the highlights.

The new Bakersfield mission will go into effect July 1, 2013. All the missionaries that will be serving in the Palmdale, Lancaster, East Lancaster and Ridgecrest zones on July 1st will be reassigned to serve in the new Bakersfield mission at that time.

I know that this may cause a bit of anxiety for some of you, especially around transfer times, but I want you to know that I will continue to seek inspiration and revelation from the Lord regarding transfers. Just as we Find by the Spirit in this great mission, I assure you that transfers are also done by the Spirit of revelation and prophesy. I will continue to fast and go to the temple as I finalize the transfers every six weeks. I commit to you that I will be obedient and will follow the Lord’s will as I make changes to assignments so you can know with certainty that they are the Lord’s will for you.

This is the Lord’s work and he is involved in the very details. I have witnessed too many miracles in my life to believe otherwise. We may not have known that a new mission would be created in Bakersfield when we received our calls, but the Lord did. He knew that some of you would serve in both the San Fernando and the Bakersfield missions. As a matter of fact, the Lord specifically called some of you to San Fernando so you would be able to serve in both missions.

How humbling it is to me to see such a prophesy fulfilled so completely in our day. The Lord is truly hastening his work in a marvelous manner. I want you to know that I know that this is the Lord’s work. He is in the very details. This is His Church and Kingdom on the Earth and nothing will stop this work from progressing. I know this Church is true. I really do.

With much love and the tender feelings of a parent,

President and Sister Hall
Okay, now that you got that news about that our mission will be partially split (crazy!!!) Here is my little e-mail update about how everything is going. 
First of all, so everyone can have my new address, here you go (I felt dumb because last week right when I got into the car after the library I realized I forgot to include my new apartment address): 
Hermana Whetten 
14078 Astoria St #204 
Sylmar, CA 91342 
Now for some stuff about this week... 
I have to tell you first of all the miracles we are seeing. When I came there was one person with a baptismal date goal. Now there are three (hopefully soon to be five tonight with someone who was an eternigator because of the word of wisdom but who we recently got a text from his wife that he received an answer that this church is true and he has quitting drinking and also their oldest daughter is working on moving back into the home). Those right there are huge miracles!!! But another miracle is that the baptismal date they had, her name is Monitsa, was so excited about the restoration that she wanted to share it with her best friend and so now she and Ashley are progressing toward baptism on March 17th. They came together to church yesterday and they loved it so much. They thought everyone was so friendly and cute. They loved the testimony meeting and when we told them that they do that the first Sunday of every month they were super excited. Ashley said she wants to prepare this month to think about what she would say and that next month she wants to go up and give her testimony. They are so great!! They are like the definition of golden as of right now. I love them so much and the Lord is definitely preparing people to receive him! 
I know the Lord is helping us. The Lord is preparing us and is helping us to become the people he needs at this time. Hermana Tavoian was getting really down and frustrated because she's still not where she'd like to be with learning Spanish and it is really hard for her. So that is really bringing us even closer together as I'm able to try to help her grow her faith in herself and in the Lord and as I work to help her learn little by little more vocabulary, words, and grammar. It is crazy how Satan works to try to make it seem like our personal weaknesses are so much bigger than they are. The Lord is proud of our efforts and he knows that she is doing her best. I know that we all have weaknesses so that we will realize that we can't do it on our own and therefore we can go to the Lord and he will help us. 
A cool thing I learned this week was about light and truth. As we make good choices, obey the commandments, follow the spirit, and do the things we're supposed to like prayer and scripture study et cetera, the amount of light we have (the light of Christ) grows. This illuminates us with the ability to receive more truth. That light and truth is like a symbiotic relationship (as one grows brighter and stronger the other is able to grow brighter and stronger even more as well). As we work in the direction of receiving and not losing even more light and truth, more will become illuminated until we understand all things and obtain eternal life. Cool, huh? The Holy Ghost will teach us the truth of ALL things. God is not a God of confusion or obscurity. We are his literal children and he wants us to understand, know, and receive all things that he has and as we work on receiving more light and truth he will revel it to us little by little! 
That's about all the time I have right now. But know that I love you and am here for you. If there's anything I can help you with let me know! I pray for you. 
Tenga el espiritu consigo para siempre jamas! 
~Hermana Whetten