Letter from President Felix

All the missionaries will receive an email tomorrow in the newsletter.  Here is the letter that President Felix wrote to them:

Dear Missionaries,

It certainly has been a delight to visit with most of you now after having zone conference and interviews.  This transfer is rolling along too quickly.  We heard from those missionaries who are departing during the past couple of weeks and Sister Felix and I have been so impressed with their testimonies.  Oh how we’ll miss them.

Elder Kuepper shared his testimony in every one of the zone conferences.  Just this past week in MLC, we were impressed with the visual that Elder Kuepper painted as he talked about a young eaglet who was orphaned and was raised with a bunch of chickens.  This eaglet learned how to eat and fend for itself from the other chickens.  Not knowing anything different and despite his size and genetics, the eaglet would peck at the ground for its feed along with the chickens.  A visitor noticed the eagle amongst the chickens and thought that the eagle should be able to fly.  He picked up the eagle and tossed it in the air.  It flapped its wings and dropped to the ground.  The man then took the eagle up to the top of the barn and tossed it off, but the eagle just flapped its wings and clumsily came to the ground.  The man went away and studied how eagles learn to fly.

The man returned and asked the farmer if he could try one more time. The farmer realized that the eagle did not belong with the chickens and agreed.  The man found out that eagle’s nests are high on the edge of steep cliffs.  When the eagles are mature enough, the adult eagle coaxes the young eagle to the edge of the nest and gently pushes them into the canyon.  The only thing that can support their wings is the air.  So the man drove to a high point in a steep canyon where he gently pushed the young eagle over the edge.  The eagle, raised as a chicken, now looked up and opened his wings.  He began to soar and then to fly.  “For these eaglets, the thrill of soaring begins with the fear of falling”.

President Uchtdorf said in the most recent New Mission President’s Seminar, “Life as a missionary is about growing.  It is about having faith and hope, about acquiring knowledge and skills.  It is about enduring and trusting that God is always there and that He will bear each missionary up as on eagle’s wings.  You have to trust God.”

Sister Felix and I love all of you missionaries and we pray for you multiple times daily.  Please know that the challenges you might face with your area, a companion, homesickness, or whatever will help you grow and develop as a missionary and later as a responsible adult.  From President Uchtdorf again “Faith is a principle of power.  God works by power and His power is usually exercised in response to faith.”

Love and soar high,

President Dell C Felix