Letter to the Misionaries President Alba 10-21-13

Mission Letter 10/21

 

My dear missionaries,

 

I want to express my love and gratitude to each of you for your goodness and the desires you have to become fully engaged in the work of salvation – the salvation of Heavenly Father’s children.

 

In the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 112 verse 10, the Lord makes this promise to those who humble themselves before Him:

 

“Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.”

 

Can you imagine your hand in that of the Savior?  I can’t think of any greater joy that could come to each of us that would compare to our hand in the hand of the Savior.  Yet, it is true and He does not make a promise that He will not fulfill if we keep our part.  He asks that we humble ourselves before Him.  To give our will to Him so that He can then stretch His hand and lead me and give answers to my prayers. 

 

Also in D&C 59:20 the Lord teaches us how we often offend Him:

 

“And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindles, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.”

 

We are to recognize God and His hand in all things otherwise we are an ungrateful servant and He will be offended by the things we fail to do.  Note also that not only are we to confess His hand in all things but also we need to obey His commandments.

 

I have always found such great peace and comfort in the Kenneth Cope song entitled “His Hands”.  It very sweetly and lovingly reminds me of what I could do with my hands – especially when my hand is in the hand of the Savior.

 

His Hands, by Kenneth Cope

 

His hands

tools of creation

stronger than nations

power without end

and yet through them we find our truest friend

His hands

sermons of kindness

healing men's blindness

halting years of pain

children waiting to be held again

 

His hands would serve his whole life though

showing man what hands might do

giving, ever giving, endlessly

each day was filled with selflessness

and I'll not rest until I make up my hands what they could be

'til these hands become like those from Galilee

 

His hands

lifting a leper

warming a beggar

calling back the dead

breaking bread, five thousand fed

His hands

hushing contention

pointing to heaven

ever free of sin

then bidding man to follow him

 

His hands would serve his whole life though

showing man what hands might do

giving, ever giving, endlessly

each day was filled with selflessness

and I'll not rest until I make up my hands what they could be

'til these hands become like those from Galilee

 

His hands

clasped in agony

as He lay pleading, bleeding in the garden

while just moments away

other hands betray Him

out of greed, shameful greed

and then His hands

are trembling

straining to carry the beam that they'd be nailed to

as He stumbles through the streets

heading towards the hill on which He’d die

He would die

they take His hands, His mighty hands, those gentle hands

and then they pierce them, they pierce them

He lets them, because of love

from birth to death was selflessness

and clearly now I see him with His hands

calling to me

and though I'm not yet as I would be

He has shown me how I could be

I will make my hands like those from Galilee

 

I invite all of us to make our hands like those of Galilee.  Let us help our Heavenly Father create a beautiful masterpiece as we invite and guide His children back to Him.  Let us serve all with love and care, let us use our hands to heal, to lift, to lovingly apply the balm that will help them find peace of soul and mind.

 

Let us make our hands like those from Galilee.

 

Love,

 

President Alba