CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Our new mission president arrived yesterday.  President Christopher and Sister Lucinda Donald from Australia will be volunteering their time as the spiritual leaders of the 90 some missionaries within the Jakarta Indonesia Mission for the next three years.  We had the pleasure of having them join us for lunch today and were able to get to know them better.  We enjoyed hearing about the great experiences that they had in Provo at the Missionary Training Center while preparing to serve here in Indonesia.  They shared with us how touched they were to see so many young men and women together, ready to serve missions.  Everywhere they went, people shared with them stories about where their son or daughter had served. They even dined free at a restaurant courtesy of the owner of the restaurant as a thank you for their service.  They had so much good to say about their time in Provo.  There, they were trained with 172 other mission presidents who are beginning their three year period of service.  There were an unprecedented 58 new missions created this past year after President Thomas S. Monson announced the lowering of the age requirement for missionaries to 18 for young men and 19 for young women.  Now there are a total of 405 missions in our church and an expected 85,000 missionaries will be serving by next fall. 

You have probably seen our missionaries.  Young men wearing white shirts and ties, young women wearing skirts and blouses, older couples, all wearing a black name badge with the name of our church on it.   Sometimes they ride bikes (hopefully wearing helmets).  Sometimes they travel by cars or on public transportation.  Sometimes they walk and knock on your doors trying to share our beliefs.  In Indonesia, we are not allowed to share our beliefs unless someone asks.    We are careful to abide by the laws of the country in which we serve.

Sometimes it might be frightening to let strangers into your house, or you might be too busy to listen to someone that approaches you with our message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. 

In a missionary conference that took place last Sunday in Provo, Elder L. Tom Perry said  "Mormon missionaries will be starting to use social media and other internet tools as part or their teaching efforts.  Because of the changing forms of communications, missionaries will be using Mormon.org, Facebook, blogs and e-mail more often.  Lay members of our church are also encouraged to do so."

“Clearly the missionaries and mission presidents have answered the Lord’s call,” Elder Perry said. “Now He is calling us as members to serve alongside them and Him in this great work. Just as missionaries must adapt to a changing world, members must also change the way they think."

Elder Perry said "This new wave of missionaries will do the same things missionaries have always done: follow the Savior and preach His restored gospel. However, in an increasing digital world the work must change to coordinate with a digital age.The message (the missionaries) will share is that of the atonement of Christ, The Book of Mormon and living prophets, … the same message I shared as a young missionary,” he said.

We are serving as missionaries in Indonesia because a Prophet of God has called us.  We hope that those reading this blog will do as we have done and want to share the teachings of our Savior, or if you do not know yet about our church, please take a few moments of your time to visit www.mormon.org.

ELDER AND SISTER HEALY, ELDER AND SISTER LISK, AND SISTER AND PRESIDENT DONALD