Blessing from President Wilde

 Courtney – Set apart as a MISSIONARY  July 7, 2024 by President Scott Wilde.

Courtney Jan Stringham, by the authority of the Melchizedek priesthood, which we hold, and in the name of Jesus Christ, we set you apart today as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with specific assignment to the Washington Vancouver Mission.
                        These people that you are called to, Sister Stringham, will be your brothers and sisters from another time. You will sense a kinship as you teach and invite your friends to receive the gospel, to accept commitments, and eventually to accept covenants. They will feel of your spirit. When you teach, your spirit will unite with theirs. They will sense in you a power and authority which we pronounce upon you today. Authority to teach and preach the true and everlasting gospel, the power that comes through righteous living to represent Jesus in all that you do. We bless you with the rights and responsibilities and gifts, even spiritual gifts, associated with this calling. Sister Stringham, you come to this earth with many spiritual gifts that you have been the recipient of because of your righteous - profoundly righteous - living in the premortal world. Those gifts will be accessed and utilized on a regular basis as a missionary. You will have the opportunity to keep your covenants, your temple covenants, to their fullest. All of those covenants will be lived on a 24/7 basis for 18 months. We bless you to experience joy as a result. Much of the joy one experiences as a missionary is in part due to the setting apart and mantel you receive, that authority to teach and preach, but much of it is due to the fact that you will be keeping your covenants fully and extensively for that period of time. We bless you to be able to open your mouth and invite everyone. Be quick to bear witness. Turn to the Scriptures and testify of truth and invite with power. Follow up with those invitations. Let those good friends of yours that you teach know that your heart is devastated when they do not follow through with their commitment. Let them know that that this will bring them the happiness that you've experienced in your family for many, many years now.
                        Sister Stringham, we bless you to be a joy to those companions that you serve with. They will quickly find in you an eternal friend. We bless you to be able to be a strength to your mission leaders, both your President and his wife, that they will see in you one that they can trust. They will love you immediately, but they will learn to trust you quickly. You will be used in leadership capacity, Sister Stringham. Know that you're to go to your knees and petition Father in Heaven for help in time of need. He will bless you. He will sustain you and support you when you lead those that you are called to lead, and they will respect you and desire to be the kind of missionary that you are. We bless you with safety.  Everywhere you go, you will have protection. The Holy Ghost will guide you and direct you. Be attentive to that, to those gentle promptings. Learn to follow those nudging's because your entire life will be an opportunity to receive revelation and to act on revelation. A mission is a wonderful place to practice that.
                        Sister Stringham, you are filled with light. Your countenance is a countenance that bears a witness of Christ in the very way that you present yourself. May you be that light to all who come in contact with you. May you find this to be one of the most enjoyable experiences of your life. Call home often, weekly, as directed by handbook, and be quick to share with them names and details and invite their prayers and involve the family in this incredible work that you'll be a part of. We bless you with these things. Go forward with hope and courage and strength, physical and spiritual strength. Enjoy all that you're called to do and quickly, in an unusually quick period of time, you are going to find yourself comfortable in sharing the gospel and teaching truth. Then it is your privilege at that point to help others rise to the level that they are called to teach and to serve and be that foreordained, called and set apart power and authority missionary that God foreordained you to be. Now is the time as you go forward, go forward with that with that excitement that you brought into this world and may the Lord bless you. We so pronounce these blessings upon your head, in the name of Jesus Christ. AMEN