Mission Update

Dear Parents

I want to take this opportunity to update you on the Mission.  I trust that your missionary is keeping you apprised of his or her personal activities and hope that you will find this note to be of additional help. 

Spring was two weeks late this year, but now everything is green and beautiful.  We just need it to stop raining!  On Tuesday we welcome twenty-one new missionaries, including 17 sisters.  This will bring our total number of missionaries to nearly 80 and by fall we will have 95 (there were just over 50 when Sister Evans and I arrived last July).  This growth necessitates more extensive training of those who will be assigned as senior companions as well as the opening of new proselyting areas, either in existing cities or in new ones.  It is hard to open areas that are a distance from a branch or ward, so we grow from the “center out” as much as we can.

Our baptisms are steady but not spectacular.  I recently challenged the missionaries to have baptized 100 people by year’s end.  I know that we are capable of so much more!  I am learning that it is the consecration and faith of the missionary that is a key factor in his or her ability to find, teach and eventually baptize.  Yet I hasten to add that a missionary’s success cannot be judged solely by baptisms.  In the meantime, we are baptizing a greater percentage of people who have been referred by the members.  That rate is now at 50% and member referrals result in higher rates of convert retention.

We started a new tradition a few months ago.  At 11:00 AM we stop whatever we are doing and pray for the success of the mission.  It really brings us together.

Your missionaries are charged each week to spend a significant amount of their time in finding.  There are traditionally four ways that we find:  member referrals, self-referrals, street contacting, and tracting.  In addition, each missionary pair is encouraged to visit five members each week and to share a doctrinal message with them.  Finally, they set a goal of fellowshipping at least one less-active each transfer.  Through it all we work closely with the stakes, wards, and branches.  It is the only way that we will enjoy “real growth” in Norway.

Lately, we have experienced many miracles in the form of people throughout the country who contacted us, wanting to be taught and baptized.  These are people who, in some instances, came into contact with the missionaries months or even years ago.  One man who was recently baptized is 79 years old and had been reading the standard works, off and on, for 50 years!

I want you to know that I love your missionaries.  Each time one of them leaves to go back home, it gets harder and harder to say goodbye.  Your missionaries are my greatest joy as a mission president.  We recently created a private Facebook group for our returned missionaries.  It should be an effective way of staying in touch with them through the years.

Thanks for your prayers—for your missionary, the mission, and for Norway.

Sincerely

President Evans