"Faithful and True"

It has been said that the most important word in the scriptures could be “remember.”  That was the purpose of Captain Moroni’s Title of Liberty; to give a visual image to remind and inspire his army of the cause that united them: “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.” 

For our mission, I wanted something tangible to help our missionaries remember why we are here and inspire them to stay focused on the greater cause.  Many missions use phrases like Return with Honor, Choose the Right, The Armor of God, etc., but I was looking for something unique to our mission.  

In a Sunday School class this spring, a few months before our mission, someone commented that the words “obedient” and “faithful” are essentially interchangeable.  Pondering on that, it struck me that obedient focuses on what we should do (obey commandments or rules), while faithful (full of faith) addresses why we obey.  If we are filled with faith in Jesus Christ, we love and want to follow Him, and keeping His commandments becomes a natural result of that faith, rather than a burden to be endured.  We then moved into priesthood opening exercises, where we sang “True to the Faith”, and the chorus line “faithful and true we will ever stand,” struck a chord with me.  That is the spirit I wanted in our mission.  I wanted our missionaries to be faithful to the Lord and His true gospel.  In my mind, faithful and true work together like the iron rod in the vision of the Tree of Life.  The iron rod is true because it is the pathway leading to the Tree of Life, representing the eternal joy, manifest through the love of God.  However, to reach the tree, we must each be faithful, clinging steadfastly to the rod.  Michelle designed our mission logo, with the Faithful and True emblem and we were excited, but not sure how we were going to tie it in to anything specific with our mission. 

In my early mission days in Brazil, we had a unique mission song (in Portuguese) that I still fondly remember, over 40 years later.  So, I starting thinking about a Liberia Mission song based on Faithful and True.  That phrase is used in both the hymn True to the Faith (254), as well as Up, Awake Ye Defenders of Zion (248), which has the refrain “and we’ll always be faithful and true” in the chorus.  I liked the upbeat tempo in the latter hymn, using themes the Missionary Department encouraged us to stress (The Missionary Handbook, Preach My Gospel and our missionary purpose – Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.  So, I noodled (aka pondered) on developing our own lyrics for the song for a couple of months, but made zero progress and was ready to abandon the effort. 

Then, in mid-June, just a week before leaving for the MTC, I took one more shot, and to my delight and surprise, everything clicked and in less than a day I had four verses of lyrics that seemed to flow reasonably well and communicated the different messages I had been pondering.  Over the couple of days I got some input from my wife and daughters to finesse a couple of words and the meter, and on the morning before we entered the MTC, my brother-in-law helped me blend the new lyrics with the original sheet music for a printed copy.

We arrived in Liberia on Friday evening June 30, with instructions go out during our first week and meet with all the missionaries to let them get to know us, help them understand that we love them and communicate our commitment to the priorities we had just received from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve in our training the week before.  The assistants had set up five two-hour zone meetings, on Tuesday through Thursday and we decided that Michelle would introduce us and our family and I would take the balance of the time communicating priorities.  

On Monday, I sat down in the office and tried to figure out how to communicate my vision to our missionaries.  As I scanned over the completed song, it occurred to me that there was a unique, progressive theme in each verse.  It also occurred to me that to communicate the key messages in the lyrics, I should tie them to a doctrinal source, either from the scriptures or the Missionary Handbook.  I came up with the following in about two hours:

Verse/Theme and Lyrics (adapted from Hymn 248)	Doctrinal Points
1.       We are faithful and true to our callings We’ve been called by the Lord to Liberia.  He called us to gather His sheep; We will search out the contrite and humble And bring them safely into His keep. Remember each wand’ring soul is priceless Christ’s atonement extends to them, too. When the challenges seem overwhelming, Stand firm and be faithful and true!	Missionary Handbook, p. 3, 1st paragraph, 1st sentence (non-italicized) Luke 15:4-7 D&C 18:10-11 Alma 26: 27
2.       We follow the example of our Faithful and True Savior We will follow the rules of the mission, For we know they will shield us from harm. Like the armor of God, they protect us; We obey and earn strength from His arm! We will strive to be worthy of His spirit In our thoughts, in our words and what we do. By His spirit, we’ll preach the Lord’s gospel For we know He is Faithful and True.	Missionary Handbook, page 3, last paragraph and page 4 Ephesians 6:13-17 Mosiah 4:30 D&C 50:13-14, 42:14 Revelations 19:11
3.       We invite others to be faithful and true We invite all to come to the Savior Through His gospel, which has been restored Planting seeds in the hearts of His children We invite them to feast on His word. And this seed, planted in the fertile soil, And through covenants made and renewed, Shall bear fruit everlasting to His people, And they’ll stand ever faithful and true.	Missionary Handbook p. 3, 1st paragraph, 2nd sentence Alma 32:28, 33:23 Alma 26: 5-6
4.       We will remain faithful and true throughout our lives We’ll be true to the faith of our fathers, We will labor with all our heart and might In this land, well-prepared for the gospel, We’re enlisted to fight the good fight! And like Helaman’s warriors, we’ll not falter, We are strong though our numbers may be few. And then when we return to our homelands We will always stay faithful and true.	D&C 4 Alma 53:20-21 2 Timothy 4:6-7 Alma 17: 2-3 Preach My Gospel, Chapter 6

Starting the next morning, we did our five zone meetings, where Michelle introduced us and covered some key insights we received in the Mission President Seminar, including the need to follow the guidance of the spirit in our work. I then described my own experience with the spirit in striving to know what I should share in this meeting to help us each remember our purpose in Liberia.  Then, as a group we reviewed and discussed each of the listed scriptures, tied them to the lyrics and to their own mission experiences and finished with a rousing rendition of our new mission song.  

As expected, in our discussions each set of missionaries came up with some wonderful insights that I had not considered, which deepened my understanding of our missionary role and deepened my appreciation and love for them as servants of the Lord. 

It was a truly wonderful experience and a witness to me that the Lord is watching over and helping us carry out our assignment here.

Arrivals and Departures

On Friday, June 30, President and Sister Clark arrived at Roberts International Airport in Monrovia, Liberia, welcomed by President and Sister Carlson, who have served here wonderfully for the past two years.

The Carlsons arrived here at the end of June 2015, just as the country's borders were re-opened following the Ebola crisis.  They have done an outstanding pioneering job, working with the local staff to get apartments readied with all the supporting infrastructure for missionaries, who began arriving during the 4th quarter of 2015.  With these young missionaries, they have cultivated a wonderful spirit across the mission, which has now grown to include over 90 young missionaries and four dedicated senior couples.  The mission is not only fully functional and extremely well-run, but Liberia is now one of the fastest growing missions in the Church.

Additionally, over the past six months, under the Carlson's leadership, 12 of the 31 congregations here have been organized into stakes, meaning that local members are now administering all aspects of Church operations.

In addition, they left us under the care of Elders Gyansah and Olaoluwa, two extremely competent Assistants to help us navigate both the byzantine roads across Monrovia and its suburbs, and the myriad of challenges that come with running a mission, particularly one in this part of the world.

We greatly appreciate the Carlson's selfless labors, and are honored to begin to build on the shoulders of the spiritual giants who proceeded us, and to work alongside the wonderful and committed missionaries laboring here.

We are excited and very grateful to be here!