Missionary Preparation Seminar: Missionary Preparation Seminar Chapter 2 Personal Worthiness Honolulu Hawaii West Stake, September 2010 Doctrines and Principles to Understand: Doctrines and Principles to Understand Personal worthiness is necessary to accomplish missionary work. Personal worthiness allows prospective missionaries to obtain temple blessings. Repentance is a cleansing process that allows us to become worthy. Doctrines and Principles to Understand: Doctrines and Principles to Understand Personal worthiness is necessary to accomplish missionary work. PowerPoint Presentation: When asked what potential missionaries should focus on being or becoming, Elder Richard G. Scott answered : “Worthy--- so that the Spirit can guide them” “They need to stay as far away from the boundaries from sin as they can. That gives them the greatest happiness as they’re preparing. It assures them the greatest capacity to be led by the Spirit and to be the examples they need to be in the mission field. Almost any young person can recite the “R’s” of repentance… What they really need… to understand is the gravity with which the Lord views some transgressions and not commit them” Questions to Ponder: Questions to Ponder What does it mean to be worthy to serve a mission? Why is being worthy so important to missionary work? PowerPoint Presentation: “I wish we could teach the youth how to avoid the need for major repentance. Prevention is better than redemption .” “ We need to teach them to have a spirit of love for the Lord and His commandments . If they have that, we don’t need to establish barriers where we tell them, ‘If you go over that, you cannot serve’” -Elder Charles Didier Questions to Ponder: Questions to Ponder What does the phrase “prevention is better than redemption” mean to a young person preparing for a mission? What does Elder Didier teach should be our motivation to avoid committing sin? Why do you think having the “spirit of love for the Lord and His commandments” would help keep you worthy to serve a mission? Questions to Ponder: Questions to Ponder How does putting off repentance damage missionary efforts? How can the Lord’s missionary work be “done by ordinary people who work in an extraordinary way”? Why must they be worthy to accomplish this? PowerPoint Presentation: “There is an ever growing plague of pornography swirling about us. They are designed to titillate and stimulate the baser instincts. Many a man… has come to realize the booby trap jungle trail began with the reading or viewing pornographic material. ” -President Gordon B. Hinckley Avoiding Spiritual Plagues PowerPoint Presentation: What are some plagues or traps that can be dangerous to a person’s spirituality? In what ways are pornography, sharing unclean stories, and breaking the Word of Wisdom like a trap? What does it mean to keep one’s self unspotted from the world? (James 1:27) Avoiding Spiritual Plagues PowerPoint Presentation: All it takes is just ONE lie to fall into a booby trap: O nce will not hurt. N o one will know. E verybody’s doing it. Avoiding Spiritual Plagues Doctrines and Principles to Understand: Doctrines and Principles to Understand Personal worthiness is necessary to accomplish missionary work. Personal worthiness allows prospective missionaries to obtain temple blessings. PowerPoint Presentation: Temple work can be an anchor in daily life, a source of guidance, protection, security, peace, and revelation. Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin Blessings of the Temple What are other blessings of the temple? PowerPoint Presentation: “The apostles-- or any minister or missionaries in any age-- are not fully qualified to go forth, preach the gospel, and build up the kingdom, unless they have the gift of the Holy Ghost and also are endowed with power from on high, meaning [they] have received certain knowledge, powers and special blessings normally given only in the Lord’s temple.” Elder Bruce R. McConkie PowerPoint Presentation: “It is so important for you to understand that going to the temple for your own endowment… [is] an integral part of your mission preparation…[You should] understand the significance of those temple covenants [and] the inexplicable link between your endowment and your missionary success. Indeed, the very word endowment conveys the essence of that vital link. An endowment is a gift.” Elder Jeffery R. Holland PowerPoint Presentation: “You cannot do this work alone. We have to have heaven’s help, we have to have the gifts of God. This work is so serious and the adversary’s opposition to it so great that we need every divine power to enhance our efforts and move the Church steadily forward.” Elder Jeffery R. Holland The Temple Recommend: The Temple Recommend Live worthy by keeping the commandments. Interview with your bishop and stake president. They will give a card called a Temple Recommend. Doctrines and Principles to Understand: Doctrines and Principles to Understand Personal worthiness is necessary to accomplish missionary work. Personal worthiness allows prospective missionaries to obtain temple blessings. Repentance is a cleansing process that allows us to become worthy. PowerPoint Presentation: Alma told his son “what joy and what marvelous light” he experienced after the cleansing power of repentance Alma 36:20 We can become worthy through repentance (especially if we are not now worthy Repentance is a positive aspect of the gospel of Jesus Christ Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we call can repent PowerPoint Presentation: Hearken and hear, O ye inhabitants of the earth. Listen, ye elders of my church together, and hear the voice of the Lord; for he calleth upon all men, and he commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Doctrine & Covenants 133:16 Everyone preparing for a mission needs to repent-- not just those who have committed major transgression As future missionaries, what is the significance of the following scripture: PowerPoint Presentation: Confession. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). Essential to forgiveness is a willingness to disclose fully to our Heavenly Father all that we have done. We must kneel before Him in humble prayer, acknowledging our sins. We confess our shame and guilt, and then plead for help. Serious transgressions, such as violations of the law of chastity, may jeopardize a person's membership in the Church. Therefore, such sins need to be confessed to both the Lord and His priesthood representatives in the Church. This is done under the care of a bishop or branch president and possibly a stake or mission president, who serve as watchmen and judges in the Church. While only the Lord can forgive sins, these priesthood leaders play a critical role in the process of repentance. They will keep confessions confidential and help throughout the process of repentance. “Repentance”, True to the Faith PowerPoint Presentation: The Savior’s Atonement provides hope to those who feel they cannot be forgiven. “Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.” Doctrine & Covenants 58:42 PowerPoint Presentation: When we truly repent, the pain of remembering our sins can be removed. We need not feel the pain forever. “And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.” Alma 36:19 PowerPoint Presentation: On repentance, Elder Boyd K. Packer said: “God be praised for the cleansing, purifying, forgiving power of the Atonement brought by the Lord Jesus of whom I bear witness” PowerPoint Presentation: Repentance is like a bar of soap… it should be used Soap FREQUENTLY ! ! ! PowerPoint Presentation: “A mission is not a place for sinners to repent, but for calling sinners to repentance. Missionaries are not be sent on missions to gain a testimony, but to bear their testimonies” What does this statement mean to you? Elder Glenn L. Pace said: PowerPoint Presentation: What might be some of the questions on this missionary’s mind prior to seeing the mission president? What answers would you suggest to the missionary’s questions? Questions to Ponder: Questions to Ponder What does it mean to be worthy to serve a mission? Why is being worthy so important to missionary work? See that ye are not baptized unworthily; see that ye partake not of the sacrament of Christ unworthily; but see that ye do all things in worthiness, and do it in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and if ye do this, and endure to the end, ye will in nowise be cast out. (Mormon 9:29) Assignments: Assignments Memorize Doctrine & Covenants 58:42-43 and 121: 45-46 Examine your worthiness for serving a mission. If there are areas of concern determine what needs to be done and then follow through them. Write in your study journal about: Why those who have sincere faith in Jesus Christ will repent of their sins, be baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Why would this relationship be important for missionaries to understand in their personal lives? Why must they be able to clearly teach this truth?