Week 7

February 26, 2017

Dear Family,

The first part of this week was about the best of my mission so far.  The last half of the week has been disappointing.  Isn’t that the way life goes.  After a great spiritual high – a low can set in.  Let me tell you about the good stuff of this week.  It was our Zone Conference time.  Tuesday, we had the first zone conference.  It was held in my own Stake Center at 8:45 a.m. We were to read to ourselves for the first 15 minutes Chapter 4 in Preach My Gospel.  We opened the meeting by singing “The Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning”.  How I love to hear those predominately male voices singing in a way to call down the powers of heaven. It was powerful!! The President led a discussion on how we can recognize promptings of the spirit and act on them.  He had two stories from his own life. One involved his being impressed to pull into a rest area on his way home from Phoenix.  His wife asked him why they were stopped and he didn’t know.  It wasn’t until they were about to turn onto their own road that he could see the police investigating a wreck down the street.  A car full of drunks had been speeding down the road and lost control of their car and wrecked.  President realized if they had come to that intersection earlier they would have been t-boned by the drunks and he would have not survived.  

The other story is too long to relate here, but involved the calling of a new bishop and the healing of the new bishop’s wife. He also shared stories of missionaries in our mission who were impressed to go to unlikely places where they were able to find people who wanted to hear about the gospel.

All of us that work in the office were able to encourage the missionaries to do a better job of answering the phone politely, filling out baptism reports, cleaning their apartments and their cars, and filling out accident reports.

Next, the assistants gave good training on using the Book of Mormon effectively in answering concerns of investigators.  They led role playing using the Book of Mormon in their door approach.  They also demonstrated telling the story of the Book of Mormon in 20 minutes or less using the illustrations in the front of the book. They had each companionship teach each other with the illustrations.  There is a good challenge for some of you for a family home evening.

Missionaries were called on to give their 5 minute talks that all are supposed to have ready.  They did amazing jobs.  Sister Hancock showed a video on table manners after which we all ate our lunches a little self-consciously.

After lunch the President talked on our goal of 3 baptisms per ward.  He explained the importance of coordinating with the Ward mission leaders. He had demonstrations of how busy bishops are and how they need help from all Ward Council members to identify possible investigators.

Sister Hancock inspired us with her talk entitled “In the strength of the Lord.”  Growth comes by struggle

1. Prepare heart and mind

2 Learn by study and by faith

3. Turn our God given gifts and talents into service

4. Live with honor.

Wednesday was a wonderful repeat of Tuesday.  We met in another Stake Center not too far from where I live but this zone also included missionaries serving from Blackfoot.  This time the opening hymn was “Call to Serve” it brought to my mind the time in the fall of 2015 that while singing this song, I tearfully asked the Lord if I was too old to serve. The reassurance that I received on that occasion is the reason I am here, so happy to be serving.

I was looking forward to Friday’s conference that was to be held in Montpelier.  Thursday, we woke up to another winter wonderland of snow.  The President said that he didn’t want the office staff to risk driving up in the mountains.  He was going to just take the assistants.  I am wondering if he and the assistants were able to go because Friday the snow hammered us all day. Friday morning when I tried to leave for the office my tires spun on the ice coat under all the new snow.  I have a steep slope to drive out of my carport.  I park in backwards so I can pull forward up the incline to get out.  My new snow tires have made it easy in the past to pull right out, but Friday’s underlying ice made it impossible.  I was snowed-in all Friday.  Fortunately, the storm cleared on Saturday and we had blue skies and sunshine.  I was able to shop and get ready for my Sunday School class this morning.  I was going to be super prepared this time!!

Jennifer Finlinson stop by on her way home from James’ Dance competition.  She went by my house to pick up some things I wanted-- Dad’s portrait from my bedroom, my favorite recipe book and my quilting ruler, so I could draw bricks on my tower I was making for my Primary lesson on King Benjamin.

When I got to church I learned that the YM and YW would be teaching Primary, so that all teachers could go to the teacher training class.  So now I have experienced teaching with no preparation and preparing with no teaching!!  Another disappointment!!  Oh well.

I hope all of you have survived the storms of the past week: record snow in Cache valley, record rain in CA.  I think of you all often and pray for your happiness and success. I am so grateful to be here serving the Lord in his important work.

Love and hugs to all,

Grammie