Visit from Elder Oaks, Elder Clayton, Elder Piper and their wives

We had another General Authority visit on February 16, 2016
This time it was Elder Oaks from  the Quorum of the Twelve and Elder Clayton from the First Quorum of the Seventy and Elder Paul Piper who is in the President of the 4th Quorum of Seventy here in Mexico City.  Elder Piper did not speak this time because he will speak to us in the coming weeks for Tuesday night devotional

It was a a big deal for our CCM to receive General Authorities.  The entry into the Auditorium was repained as well as the front of the adjoining buildings, the post office and the gymnasium.

You can definitely tell where they have painted and where they have not.  This campus is 50 years old.  I hope it has been painted sometime since it was built.  There were even painting during the day  before the general authorities arrived in the afternoon.  It all looks good now.  

The flower beds all have new spring flowers. (Just in time for visiting General Authorities to appreciate them.)  This is right outside the clinic doors.  They always seem to plant and replant on a regular basis.  The beds are beautiful. 

After the devotional with Elder Oaks and his wife and Elder Clayton and his wife speaking the visiting authorities formed a greeting line in front of the podium and all the members of the congregation who wanted to went down and shook hands with the authorities.  That was a lot of hand shaking. After the missionaries shook hands they stepped out outside and formed two lines outside the doors.  As more missionaries went through the passageway of missionaries became longer.  The missionaries sang songs in Spanish until it was time for the general authorities to leave the auditorium.  Then Elder Oaks and Elder Clayton left via the front exit instead of walking through their  human passage way.  It was very nice of Elder Oaks to step outside and thank them for the songs before they exited the front  doors.  I was glad that everything went well for the devotional.  I was asked to get the pianist and the chorister and to get songs for the prelude music.  Dennis was in charge of the choir number.  President Tenorio wanted them to sing the EFY Medley which they did very well.  

I was impressed with the remarks of Sister Oaks.  She has served a mission in Japan and said when she arrived at the MTC it was night time according to her clock and time schedule.  They put her in a class room and started teaching her Japanese.  She asked herself if she could really do this.  She gave some very encouraging words to the missionaries including:

--you have a Heavenly Father who knows each one of you and loves you and will help you.  

--She told the missionaries to stay focused and pray for help.  

--She told them to speak of Jesus Christ.

--She told them to read the B of M each day, then pray and then He will tell you what you should do.

 I appreciated Elder Oaks personal manner as he spoke with the missionaries.  He said:

--I don't love you because I know each one of you personally but I love you for what you have been called to do..

--He talked of miracles and said that seeing a change in people is a greater miracle than having their health restored or restoring sight to them.

--Being a full time missionary is the only time you can really concentrate on strengthening your testimony and sharing the gospel full time so take advantage of it.  He told the missionaries not to be concerned with what is going on at home.  Let others be concerned with that.  We are to concentrate on the mission and our responsibilities here.

--He told us to know who we are.  Don't try to do thing our way.  A mature missionary does things HIS way.  

--He told us to be in working order or in other words be healthy, get enough sleep, and water and exercise.  

--We are to be an instrument in the Lords hands.  He held up a pen as an example of an instrument and said the pen does not write what it wants to, it writes what we, the master wants it to.  

--Do HIS work, HIS way.  

--You are always on a mission even on p-day.

--The missionaries are to teach the importance of keeping commitments. If someone says they will read the B of M or go to church, be disappointed if they don't go or don't read.  Keeping commitments is important.  

--He taught that we should not assume too much,.  If you ask a person to pray about it you should not assume they know how to pray.  Teach them how to pray.  

--He told us that when people ask who we are we should tell them, "I am a follower of Christ.  I seek to keep His commandments-"  Then the discussion can follow when they are asked, "what commandments."

Sister Clayton advised the missionaries to do a little more that they normally would even if it is not their mess,  always help clean it up.  She talked about an experiment she did at her home with her  children.  She dumped out a box of rice krispies in the front entry hall and watched what her children did as they came home from school.  Stories make for good teaching tools.  The missionaries remember her points and also the objective lesson that Elder Oaks presented with his pen.

Elder Clayton:
--You are called to invite people to repent and be baptized
--Invite people to make changes in their lives
----do this by inviting them to make a specific change
----help them keep their commitment by following up with them
----There is spiritual power in keeping commitments.