Parent Letter: Personal Mission Statements

Missionary Name: Sister Flora Bruno
Mission: Provo MTC
Date Submitted: March 16, 2009


Dear Flora,

I didn't get to email you yesterday so I am sending you a Dear Elder letter. I had a nice weekend. I left for the retreat Friday late afternoon and got there around 5:30. We signed in. We were told that the gate would close at 10pm but we figured we could go out to eat and be back long before that time. You guessed it. Sitting at Cracker Barrel about 15 miles from the campground we realized it was 9:50. So we sat and talked for another hour or so, then headed back. Parking the car outside the gate, we first tried opening it by jumping up and down on the hidden trip wire. This, of course, did not work, since all of us are so very, very thin. lol. In the cloudy darkness, we walked the 2 miles to the cabins without a flashlight. Although I just realized that I DID have a flashlight in my glove box. Oops. Oh well, we made it with no mishaps. The weather was just a bit cold for me in my shorts and platform flipflops.

I would have easily paid three times the money I did for this retreat. One of the women, Marilyn, presented a workshop on personal mission statements which was part therapy and it was extremely transformational. We worked closely with each other on some of our issues and we all learned a lot. Despite the fact that I find it very difficult to write a personal mission statement, I did manage to come up with one in the end, after we had each filled up half a notebook with our thoughts. We enjoyed working with a set of 100 Value cards developed by the Bahai that puts the YW values to shame. We were so into this workshop that it went on and 0n and ON throughout Saturday. I am going to buy the Value cards she had. They were really cool.

That evening, Claire led a presentation on The Chosen, which we had all read ahead of time. It is by Chaim Potok, have you read it? It is about 2 Jewish boys and their struggles with their religion. We talked about religion and coming of age. It was very interesting.

At 2 am we thought about doing yoga, but put it off until next year's meeting! It was supposed to be part of our program, but we just didn't get to it.

Sunday we held a worship service led by Yours Truly, which included thoughts and singing by everyone, and was patterned on the workshop given by RLDS Apostle Susan Skoor at the last Sunstone, on the different styles of spirituality.

Anyway, it was a fun time for me, even though the whole weekend we had cold weather and rain. We didn't ever get to go canoeing on the lake, which I was looking forward to. But everything was really fantastic.

Have you ever written a personal mission statement?

Love you,
Mom

Mission President's Letter: Discouragement of Parents Picking Up their Missionary

10642
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4F, 24, Lane 183, Chin Hua Street,
Ta An District, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

March 18, 2009

Dear Mr. and Mrs. F. A. B.,

We extend our warm greetings from Taiwan and express our pleasure in working with Sister B. in this great part of the Lord's vineyard.

From time to time it becomes necessary to clarify policy on certain matters of concern as we have received a new mission president's handbook. It has become necessary to clarify that "Missionaries should travel directly home from their missions...The Church discourages parents from picking up their missionary." (Mission Presidents' Handbook, pg. 67) We encourage all family members of every missionary to be considerate of this policy.

Should you decide otherwise it would be important for you to know the following:

1. Your plans must be based on the release date of the missionary. You should not request a change of release date to accommodate travel plans or commitments.
2. You need to inform the Church Travel Office at least three months in advance if you choose to come pick up your missionary.
3. You are expected to make your own arrangements, including travel, lodging, and meals. The Mission Office and the Area Office Staff or local members will not be able to accommodate anyone making such arrangements.
4. You are expected to make your own travel itineraries or sightseeing activities rather than asking your son or daughter to arrange travel itineraries and sightseeing activities as this greatly distracts from the spirit of proselyting. Please allow Sister Bruno to keep her promise to devote all her "time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs" (Missionary Handbook pg. 4)

Missionaries are encouraged to serve with all their heart, might, mind and strength until the last day of their mission. "[They] are accountable to the Lord and to their leaders of the Church for how well [they] honor their promise." In addition missionaries are not released until they have been interviewed personally by their home stake president.

We send this letter to request that you support this policy which we know will help your missionary feel they have served faithfully giving all glory and honor to God. They will have completed their mission with honor as they endure valiantly to the end of this sacred time they have had to spend in service to the Lord, His church and His children here in the Taiwan Taipei Mission.

With warmest regards,

President Norman S. Nielson

Friend Letter: Lord Knows What We Go Through

Sister Bruno!

Sorry this letter is a little late. I'm going to try and write you every week but this week has just gotten away from me. I have three tests, but I've told you. Life here is pretty good. I can't remember if I told you that I've changed my major to Human Development. but if I haven't I just did. I'll be taking classes over the spring and summer to speed up my graduation so that I can hopefully do an internship next spring and then be done. I want to do therapy for autistic kids. There are only four weeks left of this semester and that excites me greatly because I'm ready for it to be over with! I guess I shouldn't wish it away. This semester hasn't been all bad, in fact quite the contrary, there have been some of the happiest times in my life. It's just these last few weeks having been so bueno. So that's as far as school. My parents want me to fly home to TN for a few days in between the winter and spring but I don't know if I'll do that because flying there would mean spending ALL day in the airport, and I only have four days between school. I'm kind of thinking I don't want to spend two of those in the airport stressing myself out a ton when I can just stay here and relax. . . .

Thanks again for those scriptures you sent me, they have helped a lot. The good think about these last few weeks is that they've helped me draw closer to the Lord. I'm reading the Book of Mormon right now and I'm in 3rd Nephi. And it was talking about how the Lord has suffered everything and knows what we're going through. It just reminded you of what you said in your last letter that Christ didn't just suffer for sin. I've also started reading the New Testament because I realized the other day that I've been a complete Hobo my entire life and have never read the Bible. I've decided to rememdy that so I'm going to try the New Testament first because I've heard the OT is difficult to get through, especially for amateurs like me. :) And then on tope of that in my BOM Class we were reading a quote the other day I think it was by President Hunter and he basicly said that Modern Scripture, so like conference talks and stuff like that, should be "the walk and talk of our everyday lives" so I've started reading one conference talk everyday too. If you add it all together I think I do at least 45 minutes of gospel study a day, but I feel good about that. And that is still probably not even a pittance of what you do. So in general that has raised my spirits and I'm not so mopey.

So how are you? I know I asked that a lot but it could be because I'm genuinely interested. In your last letter you said that you like it when people take the time to tell you how they're actually feeling, well we do too?! By the way, What's up with you sending pictures to Matty and not to me? Boo! I mean I got the one of you and your district but he got a bunch from you in your last letter to him, can we say unfair?! haha j/k

Felicia

Sibling Letter: Introducing Yourself on Mission

Hi Flora,

We have some good news.. I am having a baby!!! I am two months prego :) anyways I will tell mom and dad today so you are the first to know... good job on your talk that's good that you can do that. In Korea you would have to stand and introduce yourself in sacrament meeting in every area you moved to. I hated it haha. So you should practice introducing yourself like that cuz you will have to do it alot. Anyhow this is your St. Patrick's Day present...Have a good day!

Genevieve Bruno-Larsen

MTC Devotional: Supporting Companions

L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Barbara Perry

MTC Provo

17 March 2009

Barbara Perry

As you sing the Spirit is able to touch others.

The Lord will bless you for your service.

L. Tom Perry

Vitality, spirit and enthusiasm...the earth needs it more than ever before.

When Uncle Sam developed a cold the whole earth got pneumonia.

Preach two by two.

You do not go on a mission alone, you go two by two.

Support each other. The Lord established a pattern.

Learn to deal with and live with your companion.

Promise you will have happy relationship.

Alma 4 judged people, delivered seat so he could spur people up, pull down pride and craftiness.

D&C 6 keys of gifts

Companion study is so valuable. Seek to obtain my word.

Message of First Vision touched their souls.

Ch. 3 Uniform truth.

1. Restoration
2. Plan of Salvation
3. Study

Take time to study with companion, never miss a day, make it a vital part of your mission.

Study with your companion. Together you will understand more than you could by self.

Realize the importance of leadership.

Be willing to teach and learn from your companion.

Need to protect one another from harms and dangers.

You are on a mission now. Don't try to hide things companion is doing wrong from mission president.

John 1 who loves his brother

Learn how to serve each other. Try to do little things for your companionship.

Build unity...if you are not one you are not mine.

Avoid contention. Never allow contention to enter in.

Never be alone. Never hug a child.

Go to bed and wake up with companion at same time.

Hope you have companionships that bless your lives.

Doesn't matter the size or the shape, it's what's inside your companion.

Missionary Email: Kamikazi Birds

Monday, March 16, 2009 7:57 PM

Yeah I didn't email in the morning because our Branch Presidents wife gave us Chinese names to do this week, so we wanted to do initiatories and a session...so usually when I email I was at the temple. I don't have as long to email because I have to go to dinner here in a few minutes.

This week wasn't too interesting, like most weeks. But there were a few things worthy of mentioning. Well, only one really that I can think of but after that we'll see what comes out...

This week we had tragedy strike, 4 times that I was there to witness. Our elders claim that there were a couple more times than that, but I don't know because I wasn't there! But yeah, 4 times birds flew into our classroom window...and died. All during Song Laoshi's shifts. Coincidence? Maybe, but it makes it an interesting coincidence. But it is quite a sight to watch this black thing SMACK into the window, then this POOF of feathers flies up and occasionally a feather or two gets stuck. Our Elders think it is the funniest thing in the world and they can't stop laughing. I think it is sad, but I laugh too. My companion by far thinks its more sad than I do though, because she doesn't laugh when it happens, she pouts a little. While the rest of us crack up at the randomness of it.

In our branch we are told to prepare a 5 minute talk every week in Chinese, just in case we get called. I was thinking I had pretty good odds to never talk, because there were only 6 people out of the 33 in our transfer that would ever have to talk because there will be fast Sunday, then general conference our last two weeks here at the MTC. Last week a sister talked, so I thought the sisters would have a break this week from speaking, but no dice. They called on me. Good thing I didn't totally cop out of making one. As the weeks have progressed I've written shorter and shorter talks, and this week my talk was pretty short, but it was good because it had all the general points I needed in Chinese, I shared a scripture, spoke about it, said the general points I had prepared, then testified for 2 minutes. It was funny though because the older transfer translates for the newer transfer...and there were a couple sentences that nobody could translate...so as I paused to allow translation it was completely silent. Can't blame them, I wouldn't have known what "cleave unto charity" was in Chinese if I hadn't studied Moroni 7 in Chinese that day. And the speaker from our branch presidency quoted stuff I said twice after I spoke, so I felt my talk was pretty good...and now i don't have to worry about whether or not to prepare one my last non fast/testimony fast Sunday here because I 100 percent am not going to get called on anymore. Woo. But yeah it was a good experience to get up in front of everyone and practice my tones and stuff.

At our TA on Saturday, we did pretty good. My companion taught the Atonement pretty powerfully. My teacher was observing at that point and even mentioned as much, and it was a great way to transition into talking about how if you pray and find out that the church is true, it is necessary to receive baptism. I love transitioning into that...every lesson since we had a meeting that they talked about how missionaries were starting to think that service and other things in missionary work were good and if baptism wasn't taking place it was okay...but our teacher informed us that a missionaries sole purpose is to bring others to Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, BAPTISM, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Baptizing people is an incredibly important thing to do as a missionary and they tell us there is no better thing to do for a person than to bring them to Christ through baptism by water and fire, and never to think that service and other things were substitutes, even though they are important. So yeah, ever since that fireside, I make sure to at least mention the importance of getting baptism when they find the answer about the truth of the church in the affirmative every time that it is appropriate in any way when we teach.

This week I read all the scriptures I could find about Rachel in the Bible. There was a relief society where we talked about Ruth and Esther, and I wanted to write down the different tribes of Israel, so I thought I should study Rachel. She was an interesting lady. I never know who to feel bad for...her? her sister? their maids? It's kind of a weird situation. I'm not sure I quite understand. But that is sad that in the scriptures there are so many siblings who are enemies...Rachel and Leah...Nephi/Sam and Laman/Lemuel...Cain and Abel. If you think about it...some of the worst curses/destruction came from people who were at bad odds with siblings. My zone leader says they should just fight it out and get over it because he just read half that paragraph...

AH ONE MINUTE LEFT, i better send this or I'll lose it all! bye

Fu jiemei

Uh...Yeah can't think of anything else interesting that happened this week and I only have 3 minutes left. Happy St. Patricks day tomorrow, don't forget to wear green!

Parent Letter: Went on Retreat

Missionary Name: Sister Flora Bruno
Mission: Provo MTC
Date Submitted: March 16


Dear Flora,

I didn't get to email you yesterday so I am sending you a Dear Elder letter. I had a nice weekend. I left for the retreat Friday late afternoon and got there around 5:30. We signed in. We were told that the gate would close at 10pm but we figured we could go out to eat and be back long before that time. You guessed it. Sitting at Cracker Barrel about 15 miles from the campground we realized it was 9:50. So we sat and talked for another hour or so, then headed back. Parking the car outside the gate, we first tried opening it by jumping up and down on the hidden trip wire. This, of course, did not work, since all of us are so very, very thin. lol. In the cloudy darkness, we walked the 2 miles to the cabins without a flashlight. Although I just realized that I DID have a flashlight in my glove box. Oops. Oh well, we made it with no mishaps. The weather was just a bit cold for me in my shorts and platform flipflops.

I would have easily paid three times the money I did for this retreat. One of the women, Marilyn, presented a workshop on personal mission statements which was part therapy and it was extremely transformational. We worked closely with each other on some of our issues and we all learned a lot. Despite the fact that I find it very difficult to write a personal mission statement, I did manage to come up with one in the end, after we had each filled up half a notebook with our thoughts. We enjoyed working with a set of 100 Value cards developed by the Bahai that puts the YW values to shame. We were so into this workshop that it went on and 0n and ON throughout Saturday. I am going to buy the Value cards she had. They were really cool.

That evening, Claire led a presentation on The Chosen, which we had all read ahead of time. It is by Chaim Potok, have you read it? It is about 2 Jewish boys and their struggles with their religion. We talked about religion and coming of age. It was very interesting.

At 2 am we thought about doing yoga, but put it off until next year's meeting! It was supposed to be part of our program, but we just didn't get to it.

Sunday we held a worship service led by Yours Truly, which included thoughts and singing by everyone, and was patterned on the workshop given by RLDS Apostle Susan Skoor at the last Sunstone, on the different styles of spirituality.

Anyway, it was a fun time for me, even though the whole weekend we had cold weather and rain. We didn't ever get to go canoeing on the lake, which I was looking forward to. But everything was really fantastic.

Have you ever written a personal mission statement?

Love you,
Mom

MTC Zone Meeting: Bad Teaching Practices

MTC Provo

16 March 2009

Bad teaching as companion when you don't alternate briefly. Didn't yield to one another. Hindered guidance of the Spirit.

Maintain eye contact.

Didn't pray for companion as teaching.

Go over companion unity in companionship study.

Elder Ballard says to set realistic goals if you want to have a good mission. Elder Uchtdorf says goals are key indicators help missionary stay focused on highest priority projects.

MTC Instruction: Chinese Culture

filial piety do everything my parents say no matter what. Authoritative parenting.

Zuxian=ancestors

chongbai=to worship

xaojing fumu=honor parents

In order to honor parents have to teach them. Focus on each person's needs.

Respect their traditions.

Not your being rejected but Jesus. Be sad, but not discouraged.

Whatever your rejection, remember there is worse and He will take care of you.

Won't hurt you but you might be marred.

Some things really really hard, but we are God's battle axe.

God is always watching.

MTC Sacrament: Learning to Sing and Getting Along with Companions

Dick Beeson (Executive Secretary to MTC President) and Gaye Beeson

MTC Provo

15 March 2009

Gaye Beeson

By continued effort you can learn to sing.

You may rob yourselves of a power by not learning to sing.

D&C 76:12

2 Nephi 4:16-35

Psalms 143:1

Memorize a couple of favorite hyms.

D&C 33:10

Invite others to come and repent and be baptized.

Moroni 10:5 I know my Father lives

Ephesians 6:11

1 Timothy 4:7 enlist in the army

We will be more strong with a good song.

Dick Beeson

Anything we do as companions that brings us together is of the Lord. Anything that keeps us apart is of Satan.

Don't mock or make fun of companions.

Alma 5:30-31

Most arguments are doubtful disputations.

Don't give companion the silent treatment.

Your companions are just as important as any investigators.

Romans 14:10

Never talk negatively about companion, be faithful to companion.

You are really learning how to get married.

D&C 88:133

Stop whining.

Best thing you can do for companion is to deny yourselves of ungodliness.

Pray in faith for your companion with real intent to do something.

Hebrews 12:1-2

MTC Sacrament: Restoration

Margaret Swensen Lifferth

MTC Provo

15 March 2009

Why did we have a Restoration?

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob promised their posterity would have the gospel.

What have you always known to be a strength? What did your patriarchal blessing tell us?

Prophets before all knew their people would apostatize. Lord comforted them with latter-days.

How do we arm ourselves with power of God?

Power and Authority of Calling

Prayer hermana begged God to humble her because she felt she was losing herself. She realized she was not losing herself but you have to smooth out rough edges.

Be patient in long-suffering and afflictions.