As we were leaving the theater, he turned around and asked us what we thought of the documentary. And then he said he was the missionary who baptized Dawn Armstrong (the woman in the last story–the story that moved me to tears both times). I asked him if he would share some of his story, and he graciously agreed. We thought it only fitting to share his post on the day the film debuts! He was a little nervous to write, since English is not his first language, but I think he did a great job. Thank you, Ron!

(Photo is shared with permission. Ron is in the center, with Dawn at his left and director/producer Blair Treu on his right.)

~by Ron Jensen

I am so thankful that God gave me the opportunity to serve a mission 20 years ago. I must admit that now Dawn is teaching me a few lessons of her own about life.

I will never forget her situation 20 years ago, as a struggling young teenage single mother who lost a child. As a missionary it is hard not to worry about your investigators. They become your friends and you want them to have all the success and happiness that life can offer. They are always in your thoughts and prayers. Will she stay active in the church? Will the members continue to fellowship her? Will she find a better life for her and Anthony? These things crossed my mind many times. We knew that she would face a mountain of challenges and all we could give her as missionaries was the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But it was all she needed and she ran with it. We trusted that Heavenly Father would guide her along the way.

After serving my full time mission I never stopped thinking about Dawn and Anthony and the many wonderful people I came in contact with as a missionary. You always wonder how far they have traveled in life and where. In Dawn’s case, I never imagined the road that she would end up taking and where that road would take her. She has an amazing courage to stay the course, regardless of how dark and lonely that road may have been at times. She now has an amazing testimony of Christ and his atonement.

She gave me an opportunity to witness what our Heavenly Father can do to someone’s life if they are willing to follow Christ’s examples. I realized now how limited I really am, I can only see but a few miles and comprehend so little.

Dawn found a wonderful husband named Craig Armstrong and they got married in the temple. They are blessed with seven children. They have a beautiful family and live a good life. Anthony also served an honorable full time mission. He made his special appointments and shared the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Africa. Now Dawn Armstrong is also given the opportunity to participate in missionary work and to attend some of God’s special appointments with his children. Dawn and Anthony Armstrong not only made it to the summit, they planted seeds along the way.

I know that God loves all his children. I know that he is mindful of all of us.

– – –

See a snippet of Dawn’s story here:

The post Thoughts from the missionary who baptized Dawn Armstrong #meetthemormons appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

I love what one sister missionary said about her service as a missionary and as a trainer and leader.

“It’s helping us be the leaders we need to be in the church in the future….It’s helping us be the mothers we need to be in the future. We’re going to be able to take everything we learned here, how to work with others, how to help them, how to strengthen and inspire them. Finding the one isn’t just something we’re doing now. We’re called to be missionaries and leaders the rest of our lives.”

As noted in the article, the role of Mormon women in councils is something that has been taught by our leaders for years. The missionary leadership opportunities for sisters is facilitating some of that participation on councils.

“Priesthood leaders cannot afford to overlook the experience, wisdom, sensitivity and insight women bring to such deliberations,” Elder M. Russell Ballard wrote in his book, “Counseling with Our Councils,” which first was published in 1997. “And women who do not work to contribute all they can in the council setting sell themselves short.”

One of the things that makes leadership in the “Mormon church” unique is that the council system is central to the process. Elder Ballard teaches:

“God, the Master Organizer, has inspired a creation of a system of committees and councils. If understood and put to proper use, this system will decrease the burden on all individual leaders and will extend the reach and the impact of their ministry through the combined help of others.”

Elder Ballard shares an example of some training he did after giving a General Conference (yay #ldsconf!) talk on counseling with our councils. He had a ward council come up and talk about a problem, and the bishop immediately took charge. Elder Ballard invited the bishop to try again, this time asking for input from everyone on the council, especially encourag[ing] him to ask the sisters for their ideas. When the bishop opened the meeting to council members and invited them to counsel together, the effect was like opening the floodgates of heaven. A reservoir of insight and inspiration suddenly began to flow between council members ….”

This notion of the council system is critical to understanding Mormon church leadership and structure. It mirrors what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12.

14 For the body is not one member, but many.

15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?

18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?

20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.

I have seen the power of the council system at work. I truly believe, as Elder Ballard taught, that it is divine. I also believe we still have a ways to go to tap into the power of this divine process. It’s great to see young adults experiencing that power. As the Mormon woman missionary above noted, those experiences will help prepare them for life and service in their families, in the Church, and in other spheres of influence where they may be guided to serve.

The post Mormon women on a mission and the council system appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

This is a powerful video created by Charlotte Rose — an English convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Charlotte was living a life of endless partying, without direction or understanding of her purpose in life. She reached a point where the hollowness of such a life left her wanting wanted to end her life.

Hear how observing a Mormon colleague, attending Mormon church meetings, and reading the Book of Mormon changed her life. Hear how she was able to distinguish truth and sort through the many voices around her (and online) to understand what God’s voice felt like.

Charlotte has been called to serve as a full-time missionary, but I think her mission has already begun through this video.

God is real. He answers prayers. His voice can be heard and recognized. And when His guidance is followed, the fruits are real. The Book of Mormon is a God-given gift to help us find and hear His truth. (One of my favorite parts of her story was her mom’s response when Charlotte was considering throwing the Book of Mormon away after reading things online that confused her.)

I also can not hold back tears when I see young people opening their mission calls.

God bless you, Charlotte. Thank you for your faith and for taking the time to share it.

The post The English Rose — a Mormon woman’s conversion story appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

~by Michelle

My parents recently surprised me with a little party that celebrated a milestone mark since returning from my mission to South America. (We also gathered to watch a BYU football game, if you can’t tell by the shirt I’m wearing.)

Not only were there fun and authentic Argentine items in the bag, but my parents had also purchased a favorite treat from my mission (alfajores) and included one of my favorite Argentine foods on the dinner menu (empanadas).

They also had saved a priceless heirloom ring that my grandfather had purchased for my grandmother when picking my dad up from his mission. (My grandfather and father and parents all served missions in Argentina.)

It brought some tender feelings to remember my mission. But as someone says in the video below, once you serve in a country as a missionary, that country becomes part of you. Those experiences become part of you. I still think about the people I met while on my mission, and I’ve even had the blessing of being able to connect with a few of them over the years.

I never planned to serve a mission, but when I took that decision to not serve to the Lord, He made it clear that it was the right thing for me to go on a mission. My mom had had a similar impression around the same time.

And not that this will always happen, but in a roundabout way, it’s through people I met on my mission that I eventually met my husband. God does work in mysterious ways.

Why do Mormon missionaries leave home and family and school and the dating scene for 18-24 months to serve around the world? They do it ultimately because of love — love for the Savior and our Heavenly Father, and love for Heavenly Father’s children. We serve because we have a desire for others to know of the plan of salvation and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We do it because the Spirit of God moves us to serve.

To learn a little more about Mormon missionary service, see the following video, which describes a little about Mormon missionaries, how they receive their assignments, and how missionaries feel about what they do. There are also perspectives from couples missionaries.

I am so grateful I had the opportunity and blessing of serving a mission. I’m grateful to my parents, who financially made that surprise decision possible. I’m grateful for the recent celebration that invited me to reflect again on my mission and the people and country I grew to love.

The post Reflecting on my Mormon mission appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

“‘The Book of Mormon, the revealed word of God in the Chinese language, the second most popular language in the world, the language of a billion and a half people, was translated by a humble man whom the Lord had picked and prepared, who was introduced to the gospel by a pair of missionaries just trying to do their work as they understood it.’”

Read an inspiring story from a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who served as a missionary in Taiwan in the 1950s. By following a strong prompting that led them to a man who lived in an alleyway, Elder Vernon Poulter was led to a man who would join the Church and have a significant impact on the work in Taiwan, particularly through his translation work, but also through his other church service.

The post A Mormon pioneer in Taiwan appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

The post LDS Missionary Pioneers in Liberia and Sierra Leone appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Last night at the Church’s training for new mission presidents, we were told that we have over 70,000 missionaries serving worldwide. This number is expected to increase over the next several months.

Last fall, President Thomas S. Monson announced that the minimum age for young adult missionaries was changing – from 19 to 18 for young men and from 21 to 19 for young women. Since that announcement, the missionary force has increased in unprecedented ways. Fifty-eight new missions were formed as a result, and the mission presidents for those missions, as well as for over 100 other missions, will begin their service in the next few weeks.

Why do “Mormons” (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) care about missionary work so much? President Thomas S. Monson has said:

“Missionary work is an identifying feature of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Always has it been; ever shall it be. As the Prophet Joseph Smith declared, “After all that has been said, the greatest and most importantly duty is to preach the Gospel.”

We were reminded of this again last night in Elder L. Tom Perry’s address.

We’ve talked here recently about priesthood and priesthood keys. The restoration of the priesthood explains some of why missionary work matters so much to us as Mormons. Just as the Savior commanded His authorized, early apostles to take the gospel to all the world, so has He given that commandment to latter-day servants. That charge extends to all of us as members of the Church; we consider it part of our covenant responsibility and commission (the word used by Elder Russell M. Nelson last night) to at least give people the opportunity to hear the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you feel now is a time when you would like to hear more about the message of the restored gospel, you can chat anytime with a missionary at http://mormon.org/chat. (If you live in the U.S. or Canada, you can also speak with a missionary over the phone. Please call: 1-888-537-6600.

You can also request a personal visit in your home.

If you are in the mode of just wanting to read and study on your own, you can read more about our beliefs at Mormon.org. You can request a free copy of The Book of Mormon. Or you can read The Book of Mormon online.

And now, there will be missionaries available at local Mormon church buildings to give you a tour and talk more about our beliefs, if that is something you are interested in. You may also find a visitor’s center close to you at a Mormon temple or historical site.

In short, if you have questions, ask the missionaries! You can also submit any questions you have here, or email us at ‘mormonwomen’ at ‘gmail’ d/ ‘com’.

The post 70,000+ Mormon Missionaries at the Ready to Answer Your Questions appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Shelby Orr, a soon-to-be missionary, and her family, exhibit a great deal of faith as they move forward with her mission call in spite of the decimation that affected their family after the Moore, Oklahoma tornado.

Mission calls often don’t come at convenient times; they are a sacrifice. And they are a family sacrifice. We pray for this family and so many others affected by tragedy such as this one in Oklahoma. And we pray for the missionaries and their families all over the world who are sacrificing so that the gospel message can be shared with more people around the world.

The post Mormon missionary and family in Oklahoma show great faith appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

One of the missionaries (a sister missionary from the Philippines) shares her conversion story as well.

The post Day in the Life of a Mormon Missionary appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

New Mission Prep Website
By Alex

Late last year (2012) my wife and I felt a peculiar desire/prompting to actualize an idea we had in the back of our minds for about four years. What we created is called PreparetoServe.com

While Prepare to Serve has several text resources, it offers a few new resources, including thousands of YouTube travel/mission prep videos and interactive interviews with returned missionaries and converts.

Over the next 2-3 years we hope to put up more than 30,000 travel/mission prep videos and 1,000 interactive video interviews. Our overall goal for the website is to serve the community, so if you have a suggestion on how to improve the website or a request feel free to email us at alexbalinski@gmail.com. We want to serve you in any way we can!

Future plans for PreparetoServe.com

This summer we plan on having 5-10 BYU students help us build the website doing things like indexing YouTube videos, writing mission prep articles, conducting video interviews and organizing local service projects.

Some resources we hope to eventually include on the website include:
-A list of LDS missionary blogs, indexed by mission.
-Cultural articles about each country and U.S. State.
-4-8 Interactive video interviews with RMs and converts from each state and country.
-A forum where Latter-day Saints can get answers to any questions they have relating to missionary work or foreign places.
-A collection of mission pictures, browseable by mission and area.
-At least 100-300 clean, educational YouTube videos about each country and state.
Some tips for using the website

While we strive to make the website user-friendly, there are a few things you might want to know to have the best user experience:
-Browsing videos is best on a desktop or laptop computer (some mobile browsers don’t support YouTube playlist navigation).
-Each thumbnail on the right, in the video player represents a group of videos, also called a YouTube playlist.
-In order to browse within each embedded YouTube playlist, you can click the grey bar at the bottom of the video, or the playlist icon (after a video begins).

I appreciate this opportunity to introduce the Prepare to Serve project to you! If there’s anything I can do for you, feel free to let me know. Thanks!

The post New Missionary Prep Website appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.