September 19, 2010 - President Bishop's Letter

Dear Elders and Sisters,


We are looking forward to our meetings with you this week. We are excited to have Elder and Sister Pratt of the Asia Area Presidency with us on the Mission Tour. They have lived faithful lives entirely dedicated to church service. I am sure they can teach us many things.

We recently reviewed the goals and plans of the Asia Area Presidency. I was very interested to hear what these inspired general authorities felt was most important and where their goals were. In brief, they want to establish the church. Their areas of emphasis are as follows:

· Increase convert baptisms even though the number of missionaries in Asia are declining.

· Increase attendance at sacrament meeting.

· Rescue, reactivate less active members.

· Increase temple attendance.

· Increase active Melchizedek Priesthood holders.

This is a summary of those things I outlined in the long letter I sent to each of you last week, though I did not mention the part about priesthood holders. I know that the Area Presidency members are inspired from the Lord. When I saw how closely aligned my feelings and written expectations are with their goals, I felt that we are all receiving inspiration from the Lord to guide this mission.

The Area Presidency also asked that we encourage all members and investigators to enjoy a conference weekend. Some think conference is a time to watch a session or two but do not watch all 4 or 5 sessions. We hope you will stress to all members and investigators that this is when we hear the council of the living prophet. It does us no good to have living prophets and apostles if we ignore them. There is great power in meeting with the saints. We should read and study the messages when they are published. But watching them with other members is an especially powerful experience. All priesthood holders should be able to feel a part of the great body of priesthood. We should join together with the millions of members around the world to raise our arms and our hearts to sustain our leaders.

Please encourage all to plan now to spend the second weekend in October, Saturday and Sunday, watching conference. Especially encourage all brethren ages 12 and older to attend general priesthood on Saturday evening. Testimonies will be strengthened, commitment to the kingdom will be increased, revelation will be received, lives will be blessed, and the church will be established in greater degree. Discuss in your weekly planning sessions how you are going to get people to conference.

It is great to be serving with you. I we will have spiritual feasts this week.

Faithfully, your brother

President Clark Bishop