Official announcement that full-time missionaries will text message ward council members regularly

8 July 2017

Bishops and Branch Presidents…

Will you please copy / paste the message below and send to all members of your ward/branch council or simply forward this email to them?

Please confirm when done.

Thank you,

President Lewis

TO: All Ward and Branch Council members in the Mount Hood Stake

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Thank you so much for your continuing efforts to fulfill our Stake's Covenant Path plan—where ward leaders participate in ministering visits with the full-time missionaries on a regular basis. Attached is a 2-page document describing our Stake’s Covenant Path plan.

In our stake’s ongoing efforts to work closely with the full-time missionaries—for members and missionaries to become one, as directed by President Monson--we have asked the full-time missionaries in our stake to take our Covenant Path efforts to another level.

The full-time missionaries will now text all ward council members and ward missionaries each day—or at least once every other day—a brief message highlighting missionary progress in the ward. You will not be expected to respond to the text, but they will usually extend an invitation to us.

An example might be:

“We are teaching the Jones family tonight. Will you pray for them and us?”

Other times, they may request a response. Such as:

“Our appointments for tonight fell through. Is there someone you feel could be blessed by a visit from the missionaries this evening?”

We hope all of us will receive a text like this each Saturday:

“We’re excited our new investigators, Tom and May Brown, have committed to attend sacrament meeting tomorrow. Will you help us welcome them?”

Brothers and sisters, we hope you will not find these messages an annoyance, but an opportunity for all of us to become even more engaged in the ward or branch missionary efforts. Can you see the miracles that will come forth when we regularly join together in prayer on behalf of missionaries, members and investigators? Thankfully, technology in communication makes this possible. 

We welcome your feedback via your Ward or Branch Mission Leader as this unfolds.

Thank you again for your leadership and your willingness to participate in the Lord’s awe-inspiring Work of Salvation.

With heart-felt gratitude for your service,

The Stake Presidency