Dear Family,
I enjoyed conference this week! We were blessed to have, in the same
week, Zone Conference as well as General Conference. In the former we
spoke about working more effectively con las unidades de la iglesia;
la clave se encuentra en, como se había enseñado anteriormente, los
frutos bajos, o sea, en los recursos que ya existen, tales como las
familias incompletas, conversos recientes, o referencias de los
miembros que son más eficaces para encontrar personas que se bauticen
y permanezcan en la Iglesia.
I've made quite a list of things to do in order to improve, based on
these conferences. Meetings are for receiving inspiration and
revelation in order to continue receiving it. As Joseph Smith said,
'Revelation is essential for salvation. It is vain for anyone to
minister without it.' I'm trying to emphasize this more in my
teaching; I'm seeing more and more the vitality of the Restoration and
my personal need to understand what needs to felt in order to be
converted—it's a question of understanding how to help others to
understand the Spirit. As a favourite article of mine states in the
January 1976 Ensign:
The basic sequence of events in the conversion of an ordinary
man into a righteous man is: (1) He hears the gospel and is
touched by the Holy Spirit. (2) The Holy Spirit teaches him
how to pray. (3) As he prays the Holy Spirit guides him in
purifying his life through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance,
baptism, and the laying on of hands for the receiving of the
right to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. (4) Now
being in the narrow way, he prays even more effectively under
the influence of the Holy Spirit and endures to the end of
becoming like the Savior: full of righteousness.
I'm committed to putting this into action in my personal life; I feel
that the mission is a time for me to learn to consecrate myself to the
Lord's work, to learn to 'not be so selfish,' as a companion put it
once. Elder Gardner once said, 'I've learned that if all that I learn
in the mission is how to speak Spanish, I'd have failed tremendously.'
I really feel that now is the time to repent, as constantly taught in
the scriptures, and that the required change is complete and lasting.
I'm grateful for this restored and true church which makes it possible
to fully live the gospel of Jesus Christ and become like Him.
Love,
Elder Schlachter
P.S. Happy birthday Alex! Espero que tengás un año muy lindo y que
puedas aprender mucho, especialmente de lo que es el Evangelio para
vos. ¡Que lo complas feliz!
