Asia North Area Presidenct President: Choi Yoon Hwan (President Choi)
Dear Brothers and Sisters, In our Area Plan 2018, we state that “There are great prophetic promises in the Asia North Area yet to be fulfilled. We invite all to unite in love, high expectations, and clarity of vision. This will prepare us to receive these long-anticipated promises.” Our vision is to “Invite all to come unto Christ, become converted and feel joy in the gospel by seeking first the kingdom of God. ”As the Area Presidency, we feel very aligned with the vision of our living prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. He said in the last session of the April General Conference, “We invite all of God’s children on both sides of the veil to come unto their Savior, receive the blessings of the holy temple, have enduring joy, and qualify for eternal life.” In order to accomplish the vision, President Nelson announced the implementation of a higher and a holier approach to caring for others, called “ministering.” As the Area Presidency, we feel that if we all understand how these “high expectations,” “high love,” and “ministering” are related, it will help us accomplish our vision and fulfill the prophecies made by President Eyring for our area.
Asia North Area Presidency First Counselor: Kazuhiko Yamashita (Elder Yamashita)
In our area, the first temple built was our beloved Tokyo temple. And then, the Seoul Korea temple was constructed as the second temple in our area, and the Fukuoka temple as the third temple. When we have high expectations and high love and minister to others, we need to begin with the end in mind. This is an expression used by President Nelson during a New Mission Presidents’ seminar for missionary work. A good example to illustrate what this means is when missionaries see strangers on the streets, they should not see them as they are. Instead, missionaries should see them in white clothing, walking into the temple in the future. The same principle applies to members as we engage in ministering. We should have the eyes to see others--not who they are now--but who they can become in the future.
Asia North Area Presidency Second Counselor: Takashi Wada (Elder Wada）
This is the beautiful Sapporo Temple, the fourth temple in our area. What’s important about the temple isn’t the building itself but what happens inside. We should remember the admonition given by President Nelson that we should strive “to be endowed with power in the House of the Lord, sealed as families, faithful to covenants we made in a temple that qualify us for the greatest gift of God, that of eternal life.”
Elder Wada：
To help us remember the covenants we made in the temple, we created our area’s logo after the image of the Sapporo temple, with high expectations on the top of the temple, high love at the center of the temple, and ministering as the foundation of the temple. As we strive to keep on the covenant path, our Father in Heaven has given us high expectations and wants us to strive for exaltation. We will learn about this goal as we strive to become like the Savior and be filled with His pure love--charity. As we go to the temple with high love in our hearts and with a ministering attitude, we will have better understanding of the Lord’s expectations towards us.
Without high expectations, high love, and ministering, the temple becomes just a building. President Nelson said, “Construction of the temples may not change your life, but your time in the temple surely will.”
Let us explain how these three elements are related.
Elder Choi：
We can compare the temple to the image of a human body, because our body is a house of the Lord. Having high expectations is to have His thoughts in our mind because his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth. The only way to reach to His thoughts is through inspiration and revelation from the Holy Ghost. Jacob Chapter 4 verse 8 affirms this. “How unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of him; and it is impossible that man should find out all his ways. And no man knoweth of his ways save it be revealed unto him; wherefore, brethren, despise not the revelations of God.
Elder Yamashita：
We must have high love as we minister to others because the first and great commandment is to love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind. The second is like unto it. We must love our neighbors as ourselves. Our Savior gave us a new commandment to love one another as He has loved us. He taught us to strengthen our brothers and sisters when we are converted and to serve one another by love. As we love our neighbors, friends, and our family, we are showing our love for God because we are all precious children of our Father in Heaven.
Elder Wada：
Ministering is best described as helping hands. We give our helping hands to those who are in need. As the Savior served out of love for His Father and for each person, we can go out and use our hands a ministering - ministering)nd feet to minister. Ministering means to watch over always, and be with and strengthen others, and pray for them. You might think that we must prepare ourselves and become a holy person filled with inspiration and love BEFORE we can provide ministering. You don’t have to be perfect. Ministering doesn’t have to be something grand or heroic, as Sister Bingham, Relief Society General President, said. We can start with a small, simple act of kindness. In fact, we may have already done ministering in the past. You might have felt that you should give a phone call to someone and listen to him or her. That’s ministering. You might have written a note to thank someone. That’s ministering. Your smile is also ministering. Whatever you do, big or small, to help others feel joy and happiness, you are ministering. In Doctrine and Covenants Section 64 verse 33, it says, “…ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.”
President Choi：
Now, with the higher and holier approach to ministering, we don’t limit our efforts just among the members of the Church. Ministering can and should be done towards non-members, too. Members and missionaries can work together, side by side, to minister to both members and non-members, because our vision and the vision of our living prophet is to invite ALL to come unto Christ. When we put all these three elements, “high expectations, high love, and ministering” together, we will receive revelation upon revelation and find and feel the great joy in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I’m so thankful for all your great work and the ministry, especially at home, the work, and the Church. We put all together and unitedly, we delivered great miracles happen in our area, including our member missionary work. I know that our emphasis as the Area Presidency on the high expectations, high love and ministering will touch heart of our members in the area, and with all this emphasis, I’m sure all our members will receive great blessing from the Lord. Your just small tiny ministering effort will make a whole change in our lives, especially for our area effort. Your just small tiny ministering effort will make a whole change in our lives, especially for our area effort. I testify Heavenly Father loves us, and I want you to deliver His great love to all of you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.