In hastening the work news...
The Church has announced 58 new missions, effective July 1, 2013. It is definitely an exciting time to be a missionary!
However, with all growing comes growing pains and with the announcement also comes the news that the Great California San Fernando Mission is being split. San Fernando and Ventura will be re-drawn to become San Fernando, Ventura and Bakersfield. Which doesn't sound too traumatic until you realize that not only are we losing stakes (zones) but also the missionaries serving there.
But the caravan moves on and we are so excited to see the evidence that the Lord wants more missionaries in this area of California to invite His children to come unto Christ.
The following is the letter Ken sent to all of the missionaries on Monday.
Dear
Sisters and Elders of the Great California San Fernando Mission,
In
late December 1832 and early January 1833, a revelation was given through the
Prophet Joseph Smith at Kirtland, Ohio. This
revelation was given after high priests at a conference prayed “separately and
vocally to the Lord to reveal his will unto us concerning the upbuilding of
Zion.” We have that revelation recorded
today in D&C 88. Two verses of this
great revelation, which Joseph Smith called the “‘olive leaf’ … plucked from
the Tree of Paradise, the Lord’s message of peace to us,” have great meaning to
me today. You have heard me speak of
this great prophesy being fulfilled today throughout the world, and specifically,
in our Great California San Fernando mission:
“Behold,
and lo, I will take care of your flocks, and will raise up elders and send unto
them. Behold, I will hasten my work in
its time.” (D&C 88:72-73)
Last
week, the Church announced that some of the 347 existing missions will be
divided to form an additional 58 missions, bringing total number of missions
throughout the world to 405. What a
great hastening of the work this will be, especially in the areas where the new
missions have been created.
Among
the 58 new missions, three were announced in California – Bakersfield, Irvine,
and Rancho Cucamonga. The creation of
the Bakersfield mission is evidence of the great hastening of the work that the
Lord is preparing for our mission.
The
new California Bakersfield mission will be created from the California Ventura
and the Great California San Fernando missions.
Specifically, the three Bakersfield stakes (Bakersfield, Bakersfield
East and Bakersfield South) will be combined with the four northern stakes from
our mission (Palmdale, Lancaster, Lancaster East and Ridgecrest) to form the
new Bakersfield mission.
The
Great California San Fernando Mission will reorganized to include the six
remaining stakes – Canoga Park, Granada Hills, North Hollywood, San Fernando,
Santa Clarita and Valencia. I will send
out an e-mail to your myldsmail accounts with a map of the current and new
mission boundaries.
I
have felt a great hastening of the work in this area with President Monson’s
announcement of the lower age for missionary service. However, now with the creation of a new
mission, even more missionaries will be sent to this area! The hastening will be accelerating at an even
greater pace! The Lord is certainly
raising up elders and sending them to us!
For
some of you, this may be the first that you have heard of our mission being
divided and a new mission being created and I am sure you have some questions
about what will happen. Let me address
the highlights.
The
new Bakersfield mission will go into effect July 1, 2013. All the missionaries that will be serving in
the Palmdale, Lancaster, East Lancaster and Ridgecrest zones on July 1st
will be reassigned to serve in the new Bakersfield mission at that time.
I
know that this may cause a bit of anxiety for some of you, especially around
transfer times, but I want you to know that I will continue to seek inspiration
and revelation from the Lord regarding transfers. Just as we Find by the Spirit in this great
mission, I assure you that transfers are also done by the Spirit of revelation
and prophesy. I will continue to fast
and go to the temple as I finalize the transfers every six weeks. I commit to you that I will be obedient and
will follow the Lord’s will as I make changes to assignments so you can know
with certainty that they are the Lord’s will for you.
This
is the Lord’s work and he is involved in the very details. I have witnessed too many miracles in my life
to believe otherwise. We may not have
known that a new mission would be created in Bakersfield when we received our
calls, but the Lord did. He knew that
some of you would serve in both the San Fernando and the Bakersfield
missions. As a matter of fact, the Lord
specifically called some of you to San Fernando so you would be able to serve
in both missions.
How
humbling it is to me to see such a prophesy fulfilled so completely in our
day. The Lord is truly hastening his
work in a marvelous manner. I want you
to know that I know that this is the Lord’s work. He is in the very details. This is His Church and Kingdom on the Earth
and nothing will stop this work from progressing. I know this Church is true. I really do.
With
much love and the tender feelings of a parent,
President
and Sister Hall
