the BIG Announcement

Every Wednesday morning I have what Tawny and I refer to as my “death mtg”. It begins at 6:15 en la MAÑANA. That means in the pitch black, freezing cold, droopy-eyed, morning. I dread it every Tuesday night, but I actually always love it by the time I leave Wed. morning. This week especially.

I showed up at the MTC bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (not) and my incredible training coordinator, Chris, asked us if we had enjoyed conference (duh) and had heard the big announcement (duh). Someone blurted out, “Yeah! Baby missionaries!” Chris looked at all of us a little sternly and said, “If you think the big announcement at conference was just about 18 & 19 year old missionaries, you watched conference from a worm’s eye view.” Ouch. He was referring to a previous training about a BIRD’S EYE VIEW (aka seeing as God sees)  vs. a worm’s eye view.

With that retort  we all became a little bashful, but we were definitely listening. He said that to explain, he needed to give us a little history lesson. This is what I want to share with you. Dad, I think you’ll especially find this fascinating. So let’s go back a decade.

The History of Missionary work in this millennium

2002 “Raise the bar”

Not sure who coined that phrase, but that’s what we always say when referring to the change in missionary work that Pres. Hinckley announced that year. Chris argued the point that the bar has always been in the same place, but that YM (and women) were now accountable to live at that higher standard if they wanted to put on the Lord’s name.

Now -- what is the BIGGEST change in missionary work that we’ve seen since then? Yes, you all know it .

2004 Preach My Gospel

How many years are there between the bar being raised and PMG being introduced? Two. How long are full-time missions? Two. The mission field had to be cleansed. The missionaries who had PMG were all missionaries who came out expected to live a higher standard. They had to be more clean and pure and prepared, ready to receive this God-given gift.

2005 PMG missionaries started coming HOME

Chris told us that he was surprised when he learned what the greatest benefit of PMG has been according to an apostle: Its IMPACT on FUTURE GENERATIONS. Returned missionaries who had PMG  are prepared to be better parents, leaders, and even MTC teachers. The true doctrine is, well, it should be, ingrained in their hearts. CONVERSION happened.

For 5 years we learned how to use PMG before the next big advance in missionary work happened.

2010 the 8 FUNDAMENTALS of how to teach the doctrine in PMG was sent to the mission field for piloting.

I was one of the lucky ones who was trained using the fundamentals in SD. For those of you unfamiliar with what they are, here’s a list:

-         - The Doctrine of Christ

-        -  The role of the Holy Ghost in conversion

-         - Revelation through the Book of Mormon

-        -  Revelation through Prayer

-        -  Revelation through church attendance

-         - How to Begin Teaching

-          -Teach People, Not lessons

-          -We invite, they commit, we follow-up

2011 the fundamentals became the MTC curriculum

2012 Missionaries who had PMG + fundamentals hit HOME & the MTC

October conference 2012 Pres. Monson announces:

• Ø  Elders: 18yr. old option
• Ø  Sisters: 19yr. old option
• Ø  MTC time reduced by 1/3
• Ø  New Youth Curriculum “COME FOLLOW ME” (which is based on PMG) will prepare “babies” to be full-time representatives of Jesus Christ

Returned missionaries who experienced the fundamentals and taught with PMG are now home, teaching at the MTC, in YM/YW presidencies, getting married, becoming parents, participating in ward councils, etc.

Brothers & Sisters, what’s the BIG announcement from conference?

A: The LORD IS HASTENING HIS WORK and He has been preparing us for YEARS.

Get ready.