Monday, July 11, 2016
Unity
To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,
Toward the conclusion of the Savior's ministry, He offered the great intercessory prayer on behalf of the twelve and any who would believe on their words when He prayed:
11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Elders and Sisters, we love to see the growing unity within our mission. We see it as we travel from zone to zone and district to district. This unity is resulting in an unprecedented number of miracles in our mission. It is exciting to witness the way the Lord hastens His work as we unite with Him.
Recently we have wondered if this unity is extending to our wards and stakes. Do they know the miracles we are seeing? Do we share with them the experiences of the people we are teaching and the successes we are having? We need to share these things to give hope and promote faith.
President Howard W. Hunter once gave a talk at BYU entitled, "Hope Maketh an Anchor to the Souls of Men." In it, he mentioned that despair and discouragement are among the chief tools of the Adversary. Many of you have likely heard some of the recent unrest taking place in our country. 10 officers were recently shot in Dallas (5 died) in response to what are believed to be innocent lives being taken by officers in other parts of the country.
We are living in the times prophesied of in the Bible (2 Tim 3:1-5). The message the world needs to hear (including members) is that the gospel is rolling forward. People are craving messages of hope. We have the privilege of carrying the message to them. Greater darkness provides a greater contrast for the light of Christ and the light that comes to those who believe.
There has never been a better time to be on the earth and to be involved in this great work. We love you and are grateful to work side by side with you in creating this unity of faith among our brothers and sisters in this part of the Lord's vineyard.
Love,
President and Sister Mortensen
President Mortensen and I attended District Meeting in Sealy last Friday. We loved being with the diligent missionaries there and feeling such a powerful spirit among them.
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2:34 PM (23 hours ago)
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That is so cool. I can't wait to have experiences like that is 20 plus years.
I definitely have learned that we choose to act and not to be acted upon and we can choose to be happy. It's when we are in the service of others that we are happiest. So true.
Love you Dad!
-- Elder Mark Vickers
-- Elder Mark Vickers
On Jun 20, 2016, at 3:59 PM, DEANNE VICKERS <deannevick@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey Toade,
So I had an awesome experience this last week. My favorite companion stopped by. I have not seen him for the last 20 or so years. As I embraced him it was like no time had passed. I truly love him like a brother.I am so glad that you and your companion get along so well. Try and do a selfless act of service for him each day. I was listening to a BYU devotional and the speaker quoted President Hinckley as saying if you want to be happier focus on saying thank you and expressing gratitude to others. I'm going to try it. Mom and I are on the way to Dr. Hyde's so I will need to sign off for now. We love you with our whole souls!!!!!Mom and Dad
On Monday, June 20, 2016, DEANNE VICKERS <deannevick@gmail.com> wrote:
Awesome !
On Monday, June 20, 2016, Mark Owen Vickers <mark.vickers@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Hey Dad!Thank you. It's been quite the growing experience. My new companion is really helping me understand where I want to be by the time I get ready to return home. Here is a picture of our companionship 'vision' we made 2 weeks ago.<image1.JPG>
Sent from my iPad
On Jun 13, 2016, at 5:40 PM, DEANNE VICKERS <deannevick@gmail.com> wrote:Hi Toade,
It's Dad. It is so good to see the light in your eyes and your beautiful smile. What you have gone through is perfectly normal. It is a preview of the rest of your life. There will be plenty of times when you don't feel like home teaching, having family home evening, going to church, etc. Remember then the conversation you just had with a servant of our Heavenly Father. The most important conversion you will be involved with on your mission is your own.We are more proud of you than we have words to express. Have a great week.Love Eternally,Mom and Dad
On Monday, June 13, 2016, Mark Owen Vickers <mark.vickers@myldsmail.net> wrote:
I wish he could meet my mission president. I might recommend sharing with him the account of Peter walking on water and how the waves came and he was scared but as soon as he called out to the Savior he caught him up.
Sent from my iPad
On Jun 13, 2016, at 5:25 PM, DEANNE VICKERS <deannevick@gmail.com> wrote:Those are essentially the words I shared with Lance the other night:). We were up talking about his testimony until about 1:30 am. The stake here is doing Trek on the 27th so we're working on getting him to that!
On Monday, June 13, 2016, Mark Owen Vickers <mark.vickers@myldsmail.net> wrote:
He's from Montana.So it's a bit hard to explain. I was honestly in a rut for awhile there. I have it pretty well documented in my journal so maybe full details in 1.5 or the next time we get to skype. :) I met with president and he helped me realize what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Essentially that duty trumps desire and even though we may go through tremendously hard things we must do what the Lord expects of us. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve as one of the Lord's servants. There is nothing quite like it.
On Jun 13, 2016, at 5:05 PM, DEANNE VICKERS <deannevick@gmail.com> wrote:Where is home?:). Also do you remember what you were going to share last week? Life changing?
On Monday, June 13, 2016, DEANNE VICKERS <deannevick@gmail.com> wrote:
Dad started crying again:). He says you look so gooD!
On Monday, June 13, 2016, Mark Owen Vickers <mark.vickers@myldsmail.net> wrote:
He goes home at the end of this transfer in 5 weeks. We workout every morning. I'll be down another 20 pounds for sure by the time he heads home. :)
Sent from my iPad
On Jun 13, 2016, at 4:48 PM, DEANNE VICKERS <deannevick@gmail.com> wrote:Where is Elder Vissar going home to?
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