Week 48 Choose to Be Chosen

June 8, 2020

Knoxville, Tennessee

Elder Baker

Nimefurahi kukutana nawe?

We had another baptism here in Knox!!! There are literally so many miracles here in the mission. Juma overcame all odds this week paid the dowry, and got in the water! He is going to get the priesthood and baptize his sister, Dorotea and his wife when he goes back to Texas! We also have 12 people on date in our area...the Lord is raining blessings on us with firehose right now. We had 34 baptisms last month and we are on track for even more this month!

We are going to be getting even more missionaries this week and next week as well. All these new missionaries, reassigned and incoming are coming into the best place on earth. I am so grateful to still be here in the mission field, and to be where and who I am today. I have changed so much these last few weeks and the change is that we are eternally chosen! Something that Sister Pickett always says is "Choose to be Chosen!!!" How true that is. We are a peculiar people, as the scriptures say. We were meant to stand out and to be a light to the world.

My thoughts are turned to a talk by Elder Bednar called "Tender Mercies of the Lord" in 2005. He says:

“Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
“Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men” (D&C 121:34–35)

I believe the implication of these verses is quite straightforward. God does not have a list of favorites to which we must hope our names will someday be added. He does not limit “the chosen” to a restricted few. Rather, it is our hearts and our aspirations and our obedience which definitively determine whether we are counted as one of God’s chosen people."

I love you all and thank you for being who you are! Never forget that we choose to be chosen of the Lord. See ya next week!