"Thrust in the sickle; the harvest is the Lord's!"

With that statement, President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, emphasized the importance of missionaries being "so in tune with the guidance of the Holy Spirit that every one of them can speak in the name of God as they witness and testify of the Savior, and will be where they need to be."He addressed new mission presidents and their wives at the Seminar for New Mission Presidents June 23 at the Missionary Training Center. (The address of President Gordon B. Hinckley is on this page. President Thomas S. Monson's address was in Church News on June 24.)

President Faust paid tribute to Elder David B. Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve, chairman of the Missionary Executive Council, who is now 88 years of age, and who has "great experience, great judgment and great inspiration."

He also paid tribute to the new mission leaders. "I want to express appreciation for your lives, for your quality, for your devotion and for your willingness to serve." President Faust told those mission leaders who are temporarily separated by their service from their children and grandchildren, that they will enjoy "great compensatory blessings which flow to our families in consequence of our devotion to service."

President Faust recalled a saying of President Gordon B. Hinckley's that mission presidents will be judged by what happens to their missionaries 20 years after their missions. President Faust outlined four subjects "that I would like my sons and grandsons to learn from their mission presidents." These subjects are:

1. To acquire a testimony of who the Savior is, and an understanding of the blessings that have come to mankind through the Savior's atonement.

2. To be honest in all relationships.

3. To have courage to teach eternal principles.

4. To be obedient.

Testimony

"I would hope my son's mission president would teach from the scriptures," said President Faust. "Missionaries, like the men who are seated on this stand, are especial witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have great responsibility to testify. How can they testify if they do not have their own witness?

"The value of testimony is profound. I used to make my living in the courtroom and the testimony can never be impeached. It is ours; it cannot be contravened. It can be challenged, of course, but there is not any way it can be disproved, because it is something that is unique and special to our minds and souls."

He recalled his first mission to Brazil 56 years ago, when missionaries did not have translated versions of the Book of Mormon, or Doctrine and Covenants or Pearl of Great Price.

"We had only the Bible and our own witnesses and our own testimonies," he said. "That was hard. But amazingly enough, there were a few - a very, very few - who because of our witness and our testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration, joined the Church."

Honesty in relationships

President Faust said, "I would like my son to learn from his mission president to be honest in all his relationships." He quoted the late President N. Eldon Tanner of the First Presidency, who said, "Loyalty to a principle is greater than loyalty to a person."

"They must be honest with the Lord whose servants they are," President Faust said of missionaries. "This is the overriding principle of everything. They must be honest with their parents who love and support them at great sacrifice. They need to be honest with their mission president who represents the Lord and the Church. They need to be honest with their companions." However, he said, their loyalty to the Lord and the Church and mission president overrides their loyalty to their companions.

Missionaries must be honest with their investigators and not just focus on baptizing them, but strive to direct them on their eternal journey toward eternal life and the temple.

He suggested that missionaries explain the principle of tithing. "Before baptism, the missionary needs to get a tithing form and sit down and show the prospective convert how to fill it out, as he explains the principles. Challenge them to become tithe payers," he said. "After all, tithing isn't a law of money - it is a law of faith."

He emphasized that missionaries need to be honest with the Lord in teaching, and bring in entire families, especially fathers.

"We violate eternal principles when we divide families," he said.

He asked mission presidents to teach missionaries to be frugal and learn to sacrifice.

"On my first mission, my parents were keeping two of us out, and I tried to save money. I did not buy shaving soap; I used hand soap to shave. I didn't own a camera of any kind during my mission."

Goal setting should be an honest process with missionaries themselves setting their goals. However, mission presidents, zone leaders or stake mission presidents may inspire missionaries.

Courage

"I would like my son to learn from his mission president to have courage in teaching eternal principles," said President Faust. "We are trying to build up Zion and establish the kingdom of God. Missionaries need to have courage to not be afraid of man.

"You've learned in this seminar that you are to concentrate on teaching fathers and families. There must be a priesthood infrastructure for the Church to have proper priesthood leadership.

"You may be surprised that I suggest that one way to teach courage to our missionaries is to have them read their little white handbook weekly and have them know the contents."

Courage also means following rules, he said. The Church has 165 years of experience in doing missionary work, "since Samuel Smith first went out with a handful of copies of the Book of Mormon. You want to be inspired and creative within the guidelines that have been long established for the successful missionary work of the Church."

Obedience

President Faust said that the best missionaries are not always the smartest missionaries, but they are the most obedient.

Obedience means accepting the direction of leaders. It means having clean and presentable living quarters and following health guidelines.

He said mission presidents nurture obedience by loving their missionaries. He spoke of a recent trip to Brazil. "We happened to have a couple of missionaries on the plane when we arrived and when they got off, their mission president said: `I love you. I trust you. I support you, I pray for you. You will never be alone,' " President Faust said, quoting the mission president.

" `All of the General Authorities pray for you. All of the temple patrons pray for you. All of your family and friends pray for you. Indeed, much of the whole Church prays for you.' "

President Faust concluded with a poignant account of his experience as a missionary. He quoted the late President Henry D. Moyle of the First Presidency, who said:

" `Thrust in the sickle; the harvest is the Lord's.' "

"I've had the experience of my lifetime - 60 years of seeing the gospel prosper on two continents, South America and Africa."

He said that as a missionary in Brazil in 1939, "it seemed like the work was not smiling on the Latin people. It seemed to be smiling on the Europeans. It was so hard. One year, all 75 missionaries in the Brazilian Mission baptized only three people."

He said he was laboring in the city of Curitiba, in the state of Parana, Brazil, and was a new missionary with Elder Wm. Grant Bangerter (now an emeritus General Authority). "There was not one single member in the whole state of Parana," he said. The pair tracted up a street and then Elder Bangerter told his young companion, "This is your house."

"I prayed," said President Faust. Then, demonstrating as he spoke, he explained that in Brazil in those days, the missionaries clapped their hands to get attention. "A woman stuck her head out of the window and asked in Portuguese, `What do you want?'

"I didn't even understand that," he recalled. "I looked at my companion for deliverance, but he had his head down in the tracting book. I prayed some more. Then the woman asked, "Would you like to come in?'

"That was the first house I ever tracted. We didn't teach that family and we didn't baptize them, but they eventually became the first family to join the Church in the city of Curitiba, Parana."

He said that half a century later he visited the city and met with one of the family members. "They were in tears, I was in tears. One of their grandchildren, now a lady with gray hair, took my hands. As the tears fell down on my hands, she rubbed them as if it were salve."

He said that he and his wife, Ruth, recently attended a regional conference in Curitiba. At the conference were between 5,000 and 6,000 members gathered in two meetinghouses.

"I was an eyewitness to His majesty in the coming of the gospel of Jesus Christ," President Faust said. "We have organized 130 stakes in Brazil. When I was a young man, I presided over the Sao Paulo District, which then had 175 members of the Church. There are now half a million members in Brazil. We are approaching 400 stakes in South America.

"There is no way to explain what has happened. Not just in South America, but all over the world. The Lord Jesus Christ is directing the work in His own way, smiling upon different peoples of the earth in His own time."

" `Thrust in the sickle; the harvest is the Lord's!' '