Please call me at 9:00 PM MY TIME on Christmas Day. I think that's 8AM for you on Dec. 25. The First Presidency sends out a letter to all Mission Presidents saying that phone calls home are 30-40 minutes. I was hoping to talk for a bit longer, but I think it's important to follow the rule.
This was a crazy week, and I'm probably only going to talk about one thing because that's honestly all I can remember.
We had our Christmas Zone Conference this week and I was so excited. I wasn't expecting anything crazy to happen, but boy I was wrong. President got up and told us that there was a meeting with all the Mission Presidents in the Philippines that he went to. There, they unveiled the new missionary plan for the Philippines. The Area Presidency had approached Elder Cook about the problem of growth and retention in the Philippines. In the last 50 years there's been 645,000 baptisms in the Philippines. The average Sacrament Meeting Attendance is 114,000. That's 531,000 inactive. Elder Cook helped create a plan which was then approved by the First Presidency. There has been tremendous "growth" in the Philippines, but no "real growth". So for now on for the entire Philippines the focus is on reactivation and baptizing part member families. The Mission President has told us not to go door to door. Yes, that was not a typo.
This is quite a shift! Teaching less inactive, not going door to door. We have additional key Indicators to report. Everyone is kinda scrambling here because now we have to change our approach and focus in our area. There's also a new rule that when baptizing children ages 16 and under, their parents need to be active for three full months before they can be baptized. Our goal is to baptize complete families. Usually for missionaries back in the states after someone's baptized there's a handoff to the ward, but that's a new change too. We're going to be with the recent converts guiding them until we can get them to the Temple. Our new kind of motto is "Dressed in White Twice". The branches and wards need our help with this. President Peterson compared it to like the tree in Jacob 5.. We need to strengthen the roots in order for the tree to be healthy and grow even more.
In the Zone Conference as the Mission President explained this new focus, I just felt the sweetest spirit, that this is the right direction. This is exactly why we have apostles and prophets. I know that in complete reality, the Savior is at the head of this work. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Sorry that's relatively short, I ran out of time. I'm excited for this week! Merry Christmas to all!
Love,
Elder Yost
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