Elder & Sister Lindsay with President A. Brent Belliston
At the conclusion of our district meeting yesterday, Sister Lindsay and I had our final missionary interviews with our mission president, A. Brent Belliston, and then we said goodbye. He and his wife will honorably complete their mission and drive home to Meridian, Idaho on Friday.
President Belliston and his wife, Diane, have had a tremendous impact on the lives of hundreds of young elders and sisters as well as the senior sisters and couples who have been full time missionaries in The Maryland Baltimore Mission during the Belliston's three-year stewardship here. His emphasis on having all missionaries be "exactly obedient" to Church standards of conduct has allowed President Belliston to develop self-discipline and a work ethic that has positively changed people's perspective about their own lives and self-worth.
We haven't met a single elder or sister since we arrived in Baltimore last September who doesn't hold President Belliston in the highest regard, because we collectively know that he loves us and would never ask any missionary to do anything that he wouldn't require of himself. One of the mission president's special talents is his amazing spiritual gift of being able to memorize and recite entire passages of scripture and quotations from Church leaders and others.
Through his personal example, the mission president has been able to encourage these young men and women to also learn many scriptures themselves, so they can become more effective teachers in sharing the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with others. Mastering the scriptures has strengthened the testimonies of the missionaries and given them greater self-esteem as laborers in the vineyard of the Lord. All of this has helped bring almost 1,000 new converts into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the past 36 months.
But now, the time has come for President and Sister Belliston to relinquish their responsibilities to a new mission president and his wife who will quietly assume the leadership role of this mission in a couple of days.
President Belliston has carefully instructed the missionaries to remain focused on the work of the Lord as the leadership transition occurs and to show the same loyalty and respect to President Richards (the incoming mission president) and his family as they have for him and his wife in the past. Because the missionaries are exactly obedient, it is understood that this is exactly what they will do without question or hesitation.
The old order changeth,
yielding place to new,
yielding place to new,
And God fulfills himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
- Alfred Lord Tennyson
President Belliston has carefully instructed the missionaries to remain focused on the work of the Lord as the leadership transition occurs and to show the same loyalty and respect to President Richards (the incoming mission president) and his family as they have for him and his wife in the past. Because the missionaries are exactly obedient, it is understood that this is exactly what they will do without question or hesitation.
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