TO ALL OUR FAMILY GATHERED AT BASS LAKE THIS YEAR...

For 36 years we have visited Bass Lake without fail - even if for only one day - we have been there every year.  So this year we will not be there as the family gathers.  One evening of the week we have a missionary themed campfire program where we hear reports from family members about missionaries serving in the field, as well as hear from recently returned missionaries.  Since we couldn't be there this year, Lindsay wrote a letter to be shared at this year's campfire....as follows....

We will miss you and our wonderful extended family at Bass Lake this year. I know, I know - where is my commitment to the family anymore!


1. Our experience at the mission president's seminar was truly remarkable. President Eyring and President Uchtdorft and 11 of The Council of the 12 Apostles spoke.
The spirit confirmed that these are truly men called of God and leading this Church under the immediate direction of Jesus Christ – no doubt about it!  Our testimonies were strengthened and we continually felt the spirit not only confirming the truth but giving us guidance and direction in preparation for our missionary leadership responsibilities.  A wonderful and sweet experience!

2. The blessings and challenges of being a mission president are very real - as you know I have, throughout my life, known both significant responsibilities and hard work - I have shunned neither!  This calling, however, to do it well and in the Lord' way, is testing my personal, professional and spiritual capabilities in a remarkable way that is requiring me to grow on a daily basis - and to depend upon the Lord's inspiration and guidance.

3. The sweetest experiences that mom and I have had have consistently been in the homes of the investigators as we have, with our missionaries, taught the gospel and testified of its truthfulness. Many of our investigators come from relatively humble circumstances and it is remarkable to feel the Lord' genuine and unmistakable love for these good and inquiring people.  As I have told our missionaries, while I love speaking about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ I love doing the actual missionary work, in the field, even more!!  For example, just last Sunday while waiting for a meeting at one of our chapels I had a 20-25 minute conversation with a young father about how the gospel could improve his marriage, family life and increase his experience of peace and purpose in his daily walk. It was a great discussion and I am praying that he will become a sincere investigator. We have invited he and his family to our home for dinner. We hope he will accept. In brief, it is been remarkable to feel God's love for his children as we have met with so many of them since our arrival here in Mexico City just one month ago.

4. Mom is doing a wonderful work. She gets along beautifully, as you would expect, with all of our elders and sister missionaries. She also has gone out on individual team ups with sister missionaries on four occasions now - and each time has shared her testimony in Spanish during his visits. In addition when she joins me in visits with the Elders she also shares brief but sincere and powerful testimony with our investigators. She's a gem!

5. On Wednesday morning of this past week mom and I were asked to speak at the Mexico City version of EFY. 650 youth were in attendance and we spoke to all of them in two sessions of approximately 325 youth in each session.  Mom spoke from prepared notes in Spanish in each session for approximately 8 to 10 minutes.  She spoke of our family, how we met and our love for each other and the Gospel. Twice mom had these wonderful young people in stitches as she shared how he met me as her Sunday school teacher and about our first date going to the theater to see Romeo and Juliet! She not only spoke very well in Spanish but conveyed very real love, concern, humanity, and spirituality in the way that she expressed herself. She had poise and confidence in spite of her still being in the learning mode relative to the Spanish language.  She is simply remarkable. I could not be more blessed to have her as my companion.

6. Mexico is a very large and bustling urban setting. Driving is a remarkable experience and I am pleased to say that I am becoming somewhat proficient at knowing how to manage it all!!  I cannot say that it is at all fun but I am certainly getting it down - I mean, what are my options! I am the only driver in the entire mission - and I must be out and about with missionaries, our members and Stake and ward leaders. In that regard, I have had the pleasure of having all seven of our stake presidents in her home or out to dinner to get to know them and have now begun our missionary work together within their Stakes and wards. They are good, faithful and very supportive leaders. I appreciate them very much. I am completely resolved that this work must go forward  in a spirit of unity.

7. Leading our missionaries is both a rich blessing and sometimes a challenge. I have already had the opportunity to manage a range of health, interpersonal, spiritual and social challenges that one might expect when managing a whole mission of young missionaries.  In making this observation I want to be clear that the very large majority of our missionaries are dedicated, hard-working and testimony-laden Elders and Sisters. We love them all very much - they are our stewardship which the Lord has placed in our hands.  We are working hard to help them see and fulfill their wonderful God-given potential.

7. While I could certainly go on about a wide range of other topics, I will leave it at that.   I would like to conclude, however, by sharing my testimony that I have a deep, abiding personal testimony, one born of the Spirit and proven in life's experience that the gospel is both true and very powerful to change our lives for the better!  We truly have a loving Heavenly Father and, in Jesus Christ, a loving Savior on whom we can depend for love, guidance and direction in our lives. It is completely true that if we will turn our lives over to our Heavenly Father and follow his son Jesus Christ that we will be so much more productive and so much more happy than possible by following any other path - I know this - I have seen in my life and in the lives of so many others who diligently strive to follow the gospel path.

Well, I better leave it at that or I will turn this into a 40 minute dissertation – and I know by long experience that no one wants to hear that at a Bass Lake fireside!!

We love you all so much! We pray for you very often. We miss you!  We pray the Lord's blessings upon you and ask that you remember us in your prayers.

The calling that we are now asked to fill is continually wonderful, challenging and humbling at the same time. As a former mission president once told me - on three occasions in the same conversation - being a mission president is an impossible job!  And then I immediately remembered the scriptural assurance that with God all things are possible!  I am so thankful!

With love for each of you,

Lindsay and Lesa