Week 99 - Consecration by collaboration

Dear family and friends,

What a week! Lives changed, opportunities given and agency activated. Although I can not write all the minute details that each week consists of, it is often the small things that we appreciate the most when present. I love the feeling of waking up everyday knowing that I am "going about the Father's business". The divine purpose of bringing to pass the Lord's will of "immortality and eternal life of all men" invigorates each day with meaning and joy and love. 

Elder Peterson and I are doing well. The investigators are doing well and the miracle family will be living up to their title within the next week or two. Elder Peterson is a great missionary and we have a great time together. I am learning from him just the right things at just the right time in my mission. The ward council is doing great and the divinity facilitated by communication, accountability and unity has brought great revelation and results. 

The Divine council... To live up to such a title can be almost instant for some wards as others before us have sowed the price. Reaching divinity in most cases, includes longer than just a few weeks or even transfer cycles of missionaries that may never enjoy the shade of the seeds they planted. However, establishing the church isn't that small of a task either. But great things are brought about by great means. 

The body follows the head. Elder Ballard's statement rings to be true on every level, "councils are the most effective way to get real results, and are the Lord's way". The divine ward council is the head of the body of members throughout Armenia. To see real results in establishing the church, there must be a real council transcending into real action. 

We see temporal and spiritual results of a divine council in every way as ward members learn to emulate the example of their leaders in "imparting of their substance both temporally and spiritually that there may be no poor among them". They do so as they take hold of their primary responsibility of retaining and reactivating. Likewise, establishing the church through a divine council by continual counselling has lead to greater revelation and changes in the way we work, or in other words "hard work and smart work". Continual counseling and the manner of thinking to establish the church through a divine council is a foundation, means, and catalyst for something greater.

1 Timothy 6:18- That they do good, be rich in good works, ready to distribute, and willing to communicate.

19- Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, they may lay hold on eternal life.

"There is absolutely no point in doing missionary work unless we hold on to the fruits of that effort. The two must be inseparable". Finding, teaching, and baptizing is under the direction of the mission president while retaining and reactivating is under the direction of the bishop. But these two must be inseparable? With the direction of the work under two different bodies of leadership there is a natural margin for dissonance.

We believe that the fundamental purpose of all of this counseling and talk of divinity has been to merge the work of mission president's finding, teaching, baptizing, and bishop's/ward council's retaining and reactivating into one work. Two different bodies of leadership through congruence of the ward council and missionaries creating a venue to establish the church. This has been facilitated by weekly planning through the ward council.

One of Elder Kacher's commitments he left us and our councils, was every Sunday have the bishop hand out names of those in need of strengthening to each council member. More often than not, us missionaries try to activate and reactivate without the help of the ward council. And in the rare case that the ward council is fulfilling their primary responsibilities of activation and retaining then those efforts are not communicated.

Consecrate our performance--This past week we met with each member of the ward council and prepared them with information from chapter 13 for comprehension of "the doctrine". We asked each member of one active member they would like to visit (other than their home teaching assignments) the upcoming week--covering retaining-- and likewise one less active members. Each member of the ward council has an active member to strengthen and a less active to reactivate and clear instruction from the bishop to communicate with us their visits.  9 members of our council, each with two people (one active one less active) to visit, in the realm of retaining and reactivating our week is planned for the next week and efforts collaborated.

 "The work of proclaiming the gospel will move forward more powerfully when full-time missionaries and members coordinate their efforts and work in unity together". This took preparation beforehand with every member of the council especially the bishop as it all came from him. Counseling, like faith, is a principle of action. Combined efforts of members and missionaries in the ward council by weekly planning in the council has been the apex for continual counselling and a divine council. It is all one work, not one laborer, but only one work, when we all become laborers.

Thank you, 

Elder Lunt