"No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." (HC, 4:540.)
~Joseph Smith3 NEPHI 22:17
17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall revile against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
When combining verse 17 and the quote from Joseph Smith, a great promise is made, "No weapon shall prosper [against the church]" and the church "...will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished."
Since the announcement of changes to the missionary program an insane number of applicants are receiving their mission calls and swamping the training centers. Is the church prepared, absolutely! The rate of converts per missionary per year is 5 and with the increase in missionaries there will certainly be an increase in converts as the church goes "...forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent!
Just two weeks since LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson announced that young men could go on full-time missions at age 18 (down from 19) and young women could go at 19 (down from 21), the Utah-based faith has seen applications skyrocket from an average of 700 a week to 4,000 a week.
"Slightly more than half of the applicants are women," LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said Monday in a news release.
That represents a massive shift. Typically, women make up fewer than a fifth of the LDS missionary force, which currently stands at more than 58,000 worldwide.
At a news conference after the historic change, Holland said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was gearing up immediately to accommodate a larger missionary force — reducing by a third the time missionaries spend in training centers and hiring additional staff to manage the budding proselytizers’ language skills.
"The Lord is hastening this work," Holland said, "and he needs more and more willing missionaries."
By Peggy Fletcher Stack | The Salt Lake TribunePretty awesome wouldn't you say...
First Published Oct 22 2012 08:25 pm • Last Updated Oct 24 2012 09:19 am
~Kipling
No comments:
Post a Comment