I Learned So Much This Week!!

We had zone conference this week! It was held on two days: my zone went on Tuesday. So all of us went up to the Utah State Capitol and got an insider’s tour! It was so fun to go through the whole building and sit in their fancy chairs! After that each of the zone leaders that were there taught a lesson, and then we were instructed by President and Sister Gillette and the AP's. It was so great! I learned so much and took tons of notes.

Before the conference they had us all study a talk about becoming a consecrated missionary, which means to put all of the things that we naturally want on the altar of sacrifice so that we can serve the Lord wholeheartedly. When we came on our missions we burned the bridges behind us and there is no returning to who we used to be. So incredible. Giving up our pride, disobedience, romantic feelings, fear, sarcasm and negativity is what we signed up for when we became servants of the Lord. We simply cannot let those things be part of who we are anymore. There is too much work to do. But if we still look for the easy way out, we will find it, but the Lords work is not easy. If it is easy, we are not doing His work.

In fact, the training we got at Zone Conference reminded me so much of my favorite missionary talk, by President Lawrence E. Corbridge, “The Fourth Missionary.”  I mentioned it several months ago; it is still so inspirational to me and I study it often.  I try every day to be “The Fourth Missionary.”

The Fourth Missionary
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34660140/The-Fourth-Missionary

“I am guessing that generally speaking, out of 100 missionaries 5 will be the First Missionary, 20 will be the Second, 70 will be the Third Missionary and 5 will be the Fourth Missionary. You can all be the Fourth Missionary. Decide now to be the Fourth Missionary.

The Fourth Missionary lives the law of consecration. There are those who give of their means, their time and talents, and then there are others who give themselves. Sacrifice, it seems to me, is the first - consecration, less common, is the second.

Sacrifice implies doing one thing at the expense of another thing that has equal, or maybe greater, appeal. One bites the bullet and sacrifices his time and talents, his girlfriend, concerts, friends, cars, education, tv, movies, music, and even gum for two years.

The Fourth Missionary understands that, as King Benjamin taught, the Lord is never in our debt. He knows that God always blesses us many times more than the measure of what we give. Jesus said, a hundred times more. "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life." (Matt. 19:29).

For the missionary who understands the benefit of this bargain, there is nothing of equal or greater appeal than to do the Lord's will. Everything pales by comparison. There is for him, therefore, really no sacrifice, no choice, only free will, intelligent giving, only consecration. One who consecrates, gives himself. In addition to giving his time, means and abilities, he gives himself, his heart, his mind, his will. He gives himself.

The Fourth Missionary is the only one who can lose himself in the work, because he forgets his own concerns, he lets go of what he wants. When he lets go he then is free to think of others. He is the only one who does not count the cost. He doesn't itemize and total all that he has left behind to serve a mission. He does not count the cost. He forgets about it. He forgets himself. He loses himself.

The Fourth Missionary does not so aspire to become a "great" missionary; rather he aspires to be a "servant". He knows that "greatness" implies his performance in relation to others. He knows that the critical measure is his conduct in relation to his own abilities and in comparison to his past performance. While he fully understands and does not resent the need for statistics, numbers and measurements, he is not motivated by the praise or recognition of men. He is motivated by his desire to give himself and all that he is and has, to the Lord and to his work, however, that may compare with others. He knows that Jesus taught his disciples who at times
aspired to the honors of men, that "whosoever will be great among you...shall be servant of all."

Unlike the Third Missionary, the Fourth Missionary profits immeasurably from his mission. Unlike the Third, the good that the Fourth Missionary does benefits him greatly.

Unlike the Third, he is changed.”

 

 

Yes, I work and pray every day that I might be The Fourth Missionary…

Apparently there have been a lot of sisters getting sick lately. SO on Monday night President Gillette announced that for this week only, we would have “all day” pday's! Yay!  Normally in the Temple Square Mission we work all morning and have the rest of the day off when it’s our pday.  So this will be a nice long restful day!

Everything else is going well. The Square is still the same as it has been for the last 10 months. The temple is open again! So many weddings this week; busy Square!

LOVE

Sister Jarvie

     

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Sister Lauren Jarvie

sisterlaurenjarvie.blogspot.com

UT- SLC Temple Square

50 N. West Temple St. Rm. BSVC

Salt Lake City, UT 84150