We were able to have zone conferences on November 29 and 30. I absolutely love zone conferences. It is such a wonderful time to be with all of the missionaries, to feel of their spirit and to hopefully fill their spiritual buckets so they can go out and continue the work of finding and gathering the House of Israel.
The theme of this conference was taken from our Mission President Seminar in October when Elder Kearon spoke at length about Becoming the Message.
I introduced the theme by telling the story of Naomi Randall and how she came to write the song I Am A Child of God. The story behind the song is that she was asked to write a song for a big worldwide primary meeting. She prayed for guidance and she woke up during the middle of the night with the words running through her mind. She wrote them down and sent them to be approved the next day. At the time, President Kimball was an apostle and the words were given to him for approval. He said that he loved them but asked her to change one word, The original words were “teach me all that I must know, and he asked her to change it to teach me all that I must do.”
We talked about the difference between To Know, which is to recognize and understand truth, and To Do, which is Apply the truth: Once we recognize and understand the truth, it doesn’t do us any good unless we DO some things differently, change our behavior.
I told about how one of the Area 70's at our Seminar said he thought now was the time to change the song again, instead of Teach me all that I must DO, to Teach me all that I must BE. To Be: Become the truth: To change our very nature and disposition.
We then talked a lot about Helaman 3:35 where it talks about what the people did to become purified and sanctified "which sanctification came because of their yielding their hearts to God." These missionaries have such great insight into what it means to yield their hearts to God, what sacrifices they can offer that will help them become sanctified, and in essence to Become the Message. They continue to inspire me with their insights and wisdom and their desire to Become.
Elder Murphy and Elder Yorgasen, our wonderful assistants, gave a training on Sacrifice. We like to replace the word sacrifice with offering, sacrifice seems hard and an offering is something freely given. They had everyone write down, on a sticky note, one thing they had sacrificed to be here and had everyone put their sticky note on a white board. Then they had everyone write down a blessing they had received because of their offering and put that on the white board. It was neat to see the board covered with colored sticky notes. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.
Scott gave a great training on specifics of how we can actually do that. I set the stage, or created the vision and he talked about the execution of the vision. I think we make a pretty good team and it was fun to work on this together. Our hope is always that the missionaries will go away inspired and encouraged, not overwhelmed or discouraged about where they are. We always emphasize that it is not where on the path that you are that is important. The important thing is that you are on the path, and moving forward, wherever on the path that might be. Some may still be in the 'To Know' phase, and that is important and critical. Some are in the 'To Do' phase and some may be moving into the 'To Be' phase, which is where we all want to be eventually. As Elder Holland said, Be ye therefore perfect... EVENTUALLY.
We have a very talented photographer in our mission boundaries that is incredibly generous in sharing his time and talents with the missionaries. We wanted to create a visual that would symbolize the theme, Become The Message, and so we recruited Brother Twomey to help us. The following is the picture he came up with. Look closely at the details, it is amazing how he captured everything we talked about in one photograph. We are so grateful for his willingness to share his talents with us.
As I showed them this picture I read D&C 88:67-68. "And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things. Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him, for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will."
Day 1: November 29, 2017
Folsom Zone
El Dorado Zone
Carmichael Zone
North Sacramento Zone
Day 2: November 30, 2017
Rancho Cordova Zone
Elk Grove Family
Sacramento Zone
East Sacramento Zone
As soon as the last zone conference was over, we met with our Assistants to plan MLC, which was the following Tuesday. Then I came home and made a few batches of cookies because we started interviews on Friday, and I have made it a habit to take cookies to all of our interviews. My ambition may have overshadowed my judgement in the beginning, but what I started, I need to continue. Ha Ha.
I haven't taken many pictures this week, but we had MLC at our home on Tuesday, we had to speak at the BYU Management Alumni Group Luncheon on Wednesday, and we have had interviews with three of our eight zones. We have our Two Week New Missionary Meeting and more interviews tomorrow. We also have our missionaries helping out at The Folsom Live Nativity that the Folsom Stake puts on at the Temple this weekend. We tried to get there tonight but had some unexpected things come up. I can't wait to go tomorrow, I hear it is amazing and draws 1000's of people. It is a great missionary tool and I am so grateful for the people in the Folsom Stake who put so much work into it, as a gift of testimony to the community. The Sacramento Stake also does a Nativity/Creche exhibit at their Stake Center this week that is another great missionary tool. I'm excited to go to both this weekend.
We have been trying to #lighttheworld and are also grateful for the wonderful initiative it is that helps our missionaries in contacting and just in helping others out. They have gotten very creative and have been doing wonderful things with it. On the 'Honor Your Father and Mother' day, we had many texts and phone calls from our missionaries thanking us for being their mom and dad out here. How grateful we are to have the privilege of standing in proxy for their wonderful parents and for having the opportunity to increase our family size by the 100's. This is one of the pictures we got from some sisters. It made our day.
We were also blessed to welcome two new Senior Sisters into the Mission today. Sister Lewis and Sister Romney will be working in the North Sacramento Zone. The missionaries and the members are going to LOVE them. They are going to be terrific and it was fun to meet them and welcome them to the mission today.
The work continues to move forward and we are grateful to be part of it in our little corner of the vineyard. We love our missionaries, we love the gospel and we love our Savior Jesus Christ and are blessed to be able to testify of Him daily.
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