Sister Sinclaire Hancock: Reflective, my gift to Him, progressing, MLC, daily accountability, beloved status, comfort, reassurance and confidence

On exchanges

Tainan 2nd ward is the best!
So impressed we have decorations :)

7 December 2015
Tainan

Happy December!

How is the Christmas season going?

I can picture our beautiful glass tree all set up in the living room. And I hear it's actually pretty cold in Palo Alto too!

I'm doing well here.

Reflective

It's Sister Wawro's last week of her mission, so that's pretty crazy and makes me very reflective on my time as a missionary too.

Sister Wawro's last week

I've been thinking a lot lately about what more I can do, and how I can keep changing as a person and becoming a better missionary with the time I have left.

My gift to Him

The Christmas season also causes deep pondering within me as well-- thinking about my relationship with the Savior, whether there's enough room in my heart for Him, what I can change this year as my gift to Him...

Progressing

I am doing well! I'm enjoying this area and we've been helping our investigators keep progressing. The progression has gotten a little slower with them now as they each have a couple things preventing them from getting baptized. But we're working with them and continuing to expand our teaching pool.

Another good week. Really, they're all good. I don't think there will ever be a bad one!

President Blickenstaff with this members of the Mission Leadership Council

MLC

We had MLC [Mission Leadership Council] on Tuesday and that was exciting! [Mission] President [Blickenstaff] released some changes to our mission's visions, goals, and plans as well as our mission standards.

Discussion on less active members

A big push lately has been focusing on less-active [LA] work and what we call "rescues." To fully rescue an LA means that they come to church 3 times within a 5 week period and accept a calling from the ward.

I'm glad President is focusing on this lately, because really we should have been working this hard all along on LAs.

But the issue is we only have so many hours in a day, so usually most of our effort goes into working with investigators.

Bringing a less-active member back into the ward strengthens the ward just as much as baptizing a new convert into it. Working with LAs is some of the most rewarding work that I've done on my mission.....

Sisters of the Mission Leadership Council (MLC): singing our mission song

Daily accountability

It's cool to see how much President listened to our ideas at last MLC and was willing to make big changes.

One of the changes he made that I really like is he added a plan in helping us achieve our goal: be accountable to yourself and the Lord daily.

MLC lunch

Accountability was not something I was very good at before my mission. I can't tell you that at the end of the day I would ask the Lord

"Did I do what I was supposed to do today?" in my prayer before going to sleep, or

"What more could I have done?", or

"Are you pleased with the efforts I'm making?"

President says when he served a mission, these weren't questions they thought about at all! They just went out and worked really hard. But as we all know, missionary work has changed a lot since then.

Mission Leadership Council - December 2015

Beloved status; comfort, reassurance, confidence

I'm especially grateful for this Christmas season that we have a special opportunity to reflect on our relationship with the Savior, to think about whether we have made sufficient room for Him in our hearts, and what we can change about ourselves this year as our "gift" to Him.

I second what Elder Christofferson said, and hope that during this Christmas season

"you might have some sense of the Lord's regard for your offering, some sense of how you stand in His eyes, some sense of the beloved status you occupy as His son or His daughter. And I pray that knowledge of that status may give you a great deal of comfort, reassurance, and confidence that you are approved in His eyes."

All my love!

Sister Hancock