We focused half of the meeting on the Sabbath Day and how we can help ourselves and investigators better understand and keep the Sabbath Day Holy. We were given direction from the church leaders to do so, and it was a wonderful experience hearing everyone share their insights. We hope they each came away with a greater commitment to keep the Sabbath Day Holy and many ideas of positive things they can do to build their faith on the Sabbath. We learned that the way we spend our Sabbath day is an indication of how we feel about our Savior.
We counseled together about a variety of issues, and felt that the ideas and suggestions given by the members of the council were extremely valuable.
We established a new Manila Mission Music Policy. After a year of trying different alternatives, we finally realized that we need to make it clear and simple for missionaries to know whether or not it is approved music. For the missionary families' benefit, we're including the new policy here so you can support them.
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Dearest Elders and Sisters,
Music is one of the most
powerful tools you can use to invite the Spirit. It can just as easily cause the Spirit to leave. That is why our leaders encourage us to
carefully consider which music we listen to. Because it is especially vital to
have the companionship of the Spirit as you strive to represent the Lord as His
full-time missionary, we have put together a list of approved music that you
may listen to during your mission. There
is a lot of wonderful music that we could not include on the approved list because
it is not possible to go through everything.
However, we testify and promise that as you obediently only listen to
music from this approved mission list, your spiritual sensitivity will increase
and your closeness to the Lord will grow.
The white Missionary Handbook
counsels us to :
“Listen only to music that is consistent with the
sacred spirit of your calling.”
“Music should:
invite the Spirit
help
you focus on the work
and
direct your thoughts and feelings to the Savior.”
“Do not listen to music that: pulls your thoughts away from your work
merely
entertains
has
romantic lyrics or overtones
or
dulls your spiritual sensitivity by its tempo, beat, loudness, lyrics
or
intensity.”
“Listening to music must never interfere with your
personal preparation or proselyting.”
We are confident that as you follow
these guidelines and listen only to the list of mission-approved music, you and
our whole mission will reap great blessings.
PLEASE, exercise your faith to obey this counsel. We love you and promise great spiritual
blessings will result.
President and Sister Ostler
New Mission Music Guidelines
Philippines Manila Mission
September 1, 2015
Beginning immediately, the
only approved music for listening to in the Philippines Manila Mission will be
the following: (please erase any
previous music lists) (We want to be
100% obedient and 100% legal.)
1.
Go to lds.org.
2.
Click on
Scriptures and Study
3.
Click on Music
4.
Click on Books
and Collections
You may download and
listen to the following collections:
Hymnal (Music Only,
Music and Vocals)
Children’s Songbook
(Music Only, Music and Vocals)
General Conference
Music
Music for Men
Music for Women
Seminary
Music- Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, D&C
You
may also download any of the music from “The Sacred Music Library” of the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir found at mormontabernaclechoir.org.
PLEASE
NOTE: Because of the varying kind of
music available on lds.org/youth, which includes EFY music, none of these
songs are approved. Some are
appropriate for missionaries and some are not, but because of the time it takes
away from missionary work to determine appropriateness, we have decided to let
you listen to it once you return home if you desire. We would love for each of you to be able to
listen to your favorite songs, and we have spent significant time and effort to
allow this, but have realized that our focus needs to be on missionary work,
not on expanding the number of songs missionaries can listen to. It will be a sacrifice for some of you, but
the Lord will bless you abundantly as you follow the rules cheerfully.
For
those interested in performing musical numbers in church or missionary
meetings, the lds.org website has a treasure trove of musical numbers. There is Music for choirs, instruments, men,
women, youth, music from the Ensign, Liahona and New Era as well as seminary
music and solos to sing. Most of the
music can be legally downloaded and printed at no additional cost besides you
just printing it.
The
prophet, Joseph Smith taught his people correct principles and let them govern
themselves. Our prayer is that as you
follow these principles and mission rules, your sensitivity to the spirit and appreciation for
the blessings good music brings will increase so that when you return home, you
will only choose to surround yourself with music that will uplift, encourage
and inspire you to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We were blessed to have a trio of sisters start our meeting with a beautiful song. They invited such a good spirit. We are blessed to have them.
This was Elder Northrup's last time handing out rent checks. He's been taking care of the mission finances since Elder Theeler left. We will sure miss him and Sister Northrup!
