Accountability

In Chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel we learn about the importance of accountability:

“Accountability does not come only at the end of your mission. It is a principle that influences how you begin, how you think and feel about the responsibility the Lord has given you, how you approach your work, and how well you endure. The attitude you have toward your mission experience is a reflection of your love toward your Heavenly Father and His Son and your respect for the priesthood. Accept full responsibility for your efforts. Never blame others for difficult circumstances or lack of progress.” PmG p 151

The following formula illustrates the importance of taking responsibility for all that we do:

E+R=O
(Event + Response = Outcome)

Sometimes when we do not achieve the outcome we want, we may blame the event or circumstance. This will never change the event or circumstance. For example, if our response to lack of success in proselyting is “well that is just the way this area is” will have no effect on changing the area. The key is changing the response to the event in order to change the outcome. So 2 + 3 = 5. If 5 is not what we want, the 2 of the event is a given. We then must focus in on changing our response to some other number, say 4 or 5 in order to get a different result. In other words, how we respond to the event or circumstances determines to what level we accept responsibility for our results. Our response is something that we have control over and truly shows the desires of our hearts. How we respond to opposition has everything to do with our success as missionaries.

“As you pray personally and in your companionship, seek inspiration on what you should do each day. As you follow your plans, pray and ask the Lord for guidance. Have a prayer in your heart throughout the day that the Spirit will help you know where to go, what to do, and what to say. Ask yourself, “What more can I do?” In your prayer at the end of the day, give an accounting of your work” PmG p 151

Let us remember what President Henry B. Eyering offers as counsel in times of adversity in his talk in the April 2009 General Conference:

My purpose today is to assure you that our Heavenly Father and the Savior live and that They love all humanity. The very opportunity for us to face adversity and affliction is part of the evidence of Their infinite love. God gave us the gift of living in mortality so that we could be prepared to receive the greatest of all the gifts of God, which is eternal life. Then our spirits will be changed. We will become able to want what God wants, to think as He thinks, and thus be prepared for the trust of an endless posterity to teach and to lead through tests to be raised up to qualify to live forever in eternal life.

It is clear that for us to have that gift and to be given that trust, we must be transformed through making righteous choices where that is hard to do. We are prepared for so great a trust by passing through trying and testing experiences in mortality. That education can come only as we are subject to trials while serving God and others for Him.

In this education we experience misery and happiness, sickness and health, the sadness from sin and the joy of forgiveness. That forgiveness can come only through the infinite Atonement of the Savior, which He worked out through pain we could not bear and which we can only faintly comprehend.

It will comfort us when we must wait in distress for the Savior’s promised relief that He knows, from experience, how to heal and help us. The Book of Mormon gives us the certain assurance of His power to comfort. And faith in that power will give us patience as we pray and work and wait for help. He could have known how to succor us simply by revelation, but He chose to learn by His own personal experience. Here is the account from Alma:

“And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

“And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Our prayer is that you will have the strength to continue to press forward in the face of adversity. You are never alone because you are truly chosen representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ and He truly loves His missionaries.

With much admiration and love for each one of you,
Presidente May