Thursday, June 27, 2013

What Will Missionaries Do in 20 Years: Farewell Mission President's Letter to Czech/Slavak Mission Parents

Dear Parents

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your wonderful children.  It has been a privilege for Sister Irwin and I to come to know your son/daughter as a disciple of Christ.  We have felt an instant love for them as soon as we learned of their call, but that love has grown and grown as we have shared experiences of this great work and come to know each other better.  We know that our missionaries arrived in good shape but we also know that if we did not send them home better than they arrived then we would have failed.  Three years ago it was made clear to us by the members of the Quorum of the Twelve that the way they would judge our success as a Mission President and Wife would not be by the number of baptisms we have or whether we create a Stake but rather by what our missionaries would be doing in twenty years time.  That is a wonderful illustration of how important our missionaries are to our leaders.  Our goal, therefore, has been to try to help each missionary grow.  We have tried to help them to not only establish the gospel in these great lands but also to establish the gospel in their own hearts.  We are anxious that they return to you – not having gone through a mission but rather having had the mission gone through them.  

For the rest of our lives we will have an interest in your missionary.  We love them dearly and we will miss them.

President and Sister McConkie will be a great asset to the work of this mission and they will bless the lives of the missionaries.  We know the McConkies and we love them and we know that the missionaries will love them too.

Thank you once again – we are full of admiration for you in all that you have done to have provided us with the best missionaries in the world.

Sincerely – David and Lyn Irwin

1 comment:

  1. Missionary Photos Wanted for New LDS BOOK!
    Author Mike Winder is working with Deseret Book-owned Covenant Communications on a missionary photo book that will contain inspiring quotes, scriptures, and thoughts to help inspire young people to serve a mission.
    He is looking for amazing missionary photos from around the world. Do you have any favorite pics that evoke emotion (inspiring, humorous, etc.)? Do you have any photos with your companion in front of temples or iconic images (Big Ben, Golden Gate Bridge, Asian pagodas, etc.)? Do you have any showing missionaries in action (service projects, teaching, tracting, baptizing, etc.)? How about funny missionary pics, ones with the Book of Mormon, with food, with kids, or with animals?
    If so, please email a few of your favorite ones to mike@mikewinder.com by July 31. Images must be at least 1MB in size to be published (low resolution images would be too blurry in print).

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