General Conference for Missionaries

First things first.  We are grandparents again.  Our daughter and son in law, Andrea and Mike live in Virginia, and they are now the happy and darling parents of 4.  Our sweet little Viola Claire Bergeson was born today, 10-18-18, and she weighed 8 lbs 10 oz.  We think all of those 8's bode well and foretell a lot of good luck for her. She is so darling.  She is named after my grandma, and Andrea's great grandma Vi, which is pretty special.  I'm not going to lie, these are the days that make it hard to be away. It was a really hard day for me, this is the first of her children's births that I haven't been at, but it was also the easiest delivery for her.  I told her she was probably grateful I was here, not there.  Mission blessings are real.  My arms are aching to hold this newest little bundle from heaven, FaceTime is good, but it just doesn't cut it when there is a new baby on the other end.  But it's better than nothing and we are extremely grateful she is here and mother and baby are doing great.  

Now, on to the mission. The title of this blog has dual meanings.  The first is as it relates to the most recent General Conference that we were able to participate in the first weekend of October.  General Conference is like Christmas for missionaries.  It is like going to Disneyland when you are a kid.  It is definitely two of the most looked forward to weekends of the year.  It has always been like that for us, but as missionaries it is really just like gravy.  Speaking of gravy, We had Elders Ricedorff, Thompson, Dunyon and Dobson over for a breakfast of biscuits and gravy before the Saturday morning session, and then they watched that session with us.  

We were all excited about the new changes announced by President Nelson about the Home Centered, Gospel Supported program.  How grateful we were for each and every message and for the confirmation that we are indeed led by a living prophet.  I loved the messages that were so focused on Christ, on the fact that we may face challenges but as we are centered on Christ, all will be well.  And of course, my ears perk up every time the Gathering of Israel, one of my favorite topics, is mentioned.  As we talked, I felt like if I had to sum up conference in a word or two I would say it was a conference to focus on  're-centering' ourselves.  I loved everything about conference weekend, except for the fact that it is usually a big gathering time for our family, and we weren't able to gather this time around.  Grateful for missionary sons who filled in, and for the opportunity to gather through our family text group.  The texts were flying as changes were announced!

The only thing I didn't like about conference weekend was that one of our Elders, Elder Brown had to go to the hospital on Saturday afternoon and had to stay there through Monday.  We felt bad that he and the elders who stayed with him couldn't get conference.  Thankfully, it was a short stay and all is well. 

The second aspect of the title of this blog, General Conference for Missionaries, made us laugh really hard.  The week after General Conference we had three days of Zone Conferences.  At the end of one of the Zone Conferences I was talking to a companionship and one of the sisters had only been here for three weeks.  I asked her how she liked her first Zone Conference and if it was what she had thought it would be like.  She answered that she didn't know what to expect but she loved it.  Her companion then said "I tried to prepare her but I didn't really know how to describe what Zone Conference is, so I just told her it's like General Conference for missionaries".  I laughed pretty hard about that one. That is an incredibly high bar that she set, and we can't even come close to reaching that one.  I'm sure she was sorely disappointed when she realized that Zone Conference was NOTHING like General Conference.  

We do love Zone Conference weeks though.  It is a blessing for us to be able to see each of our missionaries in the course of three days.  Scott started out by having a discussion of what their takeaways were from General Conference and talked about several concerns that have been on his mind lately.  I was next with a training I titled "The Faith to Fulfill Prophecy"  We talked about the prophecies of The Scattering and Gathering of Israel.  I have always loved talking and teaching about that. And I really love that it is such a huge focus of President Nelson.  I can never remember a prophet in my lifetime who talked so much about The Gathering of Israel.  

I love this quote of his that I shared

Every prophet commencing with Adam has seen our day. And every prophet has talked about our day, when Israel would be gathered and the world would be prepared for the Second Coming of the Savior. Think of it! Of all the people who have ever lived on planet earth, we are the ones who get to participate in this final, great gathering event.

These surely are the latter days, and the Lord is hastening His work to gather Israel. That gathering is the most important thing taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in importance, nothing else compares in majesty.

We felt it was important to try to help our missionaries understand the prophecies that have been given and fulfilled by prophets since Adam's day, and what they are actually a part of. They are the culmination of 1000s of years of prophecy and what a blessing to be part of the Latter Day Gathering.  

Two more President Nelson quotes because I just love them so much I have to share them here.  I told them this would be President Nelson's locker room pump up talk!

Thanks to the Restoration, we get to participate in this promise that prophets have known for some 4,000 years! To me, that is the most exciting thing! They have talked about it, and we get to play in the game. We are the participants; we get to score the goals. 

And I told them that every missionary should memorize this quote by our prophet!

Missionaries need to gain this heavenly perspective. They need to know about the Abrahamic covenant and understand their responsibility in helping to bring about the promised gathering of Israel.  If our missionaries can feel, deep in the marrow of their bones, their connections to this covenant—if they can truly comprehend their true identity and purpose—they will be powerful and tireless servants of the Lord. 

This is our talented Sister Wilding, and this is the last Zone Conference for her before she leaves us next week.  

This is what I drew as I explained the history of the Scattering and Gathering of Israel

This is what Sister Wilding turned it into with her mad computer skills.  I don't know what we are going to do without her. 

After I finished  we heard departing testimonies of those who are going home, and then we had a breakout with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders teaching about How to use the Book of Mormon to answer the Questions of the Soul.  After lunch, The Assistants taught about Master Planning, and then Scott finished off talking about The Doctrine of Christ and our purpose in Teaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts.  Not exactly General Conference, but we do our best to try to give them some encouragement and help in this work they do day in and day out.  

Zone Conference Day 1: October 9 in Lodi which included the Lodi, Stockton and Manteca Zones.

Manteca Zone

Stockton Zone

Lodi Zone

 These are the wonderful ladies who prepared and served us lunch and below are the missionaries thanking them.

Birthday Elders and Sisters

Sister Simpson and I had the same vibes and were twinning that day

Zone Conference Day 2: October 10 in East Sacramento, including the East Sac, Sacramento, Cordova and Elk Grove Zones

East Sacramento Zone

Rancho Cordova Zone

Sacramento Zone

Elk Grove Zone

Elder and Sister Goodwin also set up a flu shot clinic before Zone Conference and so all of the missionaries could get their flu shots. These Zones were so large that they had to come back and finish at lunch.  One neat story, one of the techs just said he would wait. At the East Sacramento Building there is a large Family History Center and so he went in there and came out amazed at all he found out about his family tree.  It was a neat missionary opportunity, while we were talking about looking for missionary opportunities

Happy Birthday to these Elders and Sisters

Getting mail after Zone Conference is always a fun event.

Zone Conference Day 3: October 11 in North Sacramento, Rio Tierra Building including North Sac, Folsom, Carmichael and El Dorado Zones

North Sacramento Zone

Carmichael Zone

El Dorado Zone

Folsom Zone

Happy Birthday to these Elders and Sisters (and a few others who missed the picture)

Scott had to do some interviews after each Zone Conference so we didn't get home most of the nights until after 6 p.m.  On Wednesday I didn't snap a picture, but two of his friends from his old working days were in town and we were able to meet them for dinner.  By the end of the week, we are pretty spent.  On Friday we didn't have anything scheduled on our calendar so we decided to go on a little road trip of the Southern and Eastern part of the mission that we had never seen.  It was a long way away, but we were glad to go and see areas we hadn't seen before and it gave us a better perspective of the way we need to do missionary work in some of those more remote areas of the mission.  We ended up at the very far corner of the mission at a State Park Called Big Trees.  We only had about an hour to explore but it was a fun little pit stop. And it was beautiful.

The picture with Scott in it is a giant tree trunk.  I was standing on one side taking the picture and he was on the other side.  Also, we got a kick out of this sign in front of this GIANT tree stating that is was a fragile area.  It didn't seem like fragile was a good word for this huge tree. 

We made it back just in time to go to a lovely dinner at Bonnie Coop's home.  She is the wife of one of Scott's mom's cousins, and she lives in Sacramento.  She is the most lovely hostess and has the most beautiful home.  It was fun to spend an evening with her and some of her friends.  

Saturday we had a busy day with several baptisms in the morning and afternoon.  I only got a picture at one of them.  

The man in the middle, with the hat, is Jeff and his baptism was so special for all of his family and for these sweet sisters who taught him. 

Saturday evening we had dinner at our home with our mission presidency.  We are so excited for President Bitnoff and Jeni who have been called into the new Sacramento Temple Presidency and will begin their service there on November 1.  We are happy for them, but sad for us. President Bitnoff has been an incredible counselor to Scott and such a great asset to all of the missionaries.  I don't think a week went by that he wasn't out working with a companionship.  We are going to miss him. And on a personal note, they have become dear friends of ours.  We are just grateful we will still see them in the temple and they don't live that far away from us.  We had a really fun night with the Bitnoffs and the Mosers.  Thankfully we still get to keep President Moser.

                                    President Moser, Scott and President Bitnoff

Lisa Moser, me and Jeni Bitnoff

Sunday was a busy day.  We had to speak in the Elk Grove Stake Conference, Scott had a meeting with a Stake President on our way home. We got home, ate a little lunch and headed out for a fireside we were speaking at in Tracy.  It is quite a drive down there.  We went to speak in a Spanish fireside the missionaries there had put together.  I was so proud of Elder Guadarama, Elder Nilson, Hermana Nielsen and Hermana Melendez who took the initiative to put this fireside together for the members to get more excited about and involved in missionary work.  It was a great night, and every time we speak in a Spanish unit it makes me grateful for where we are and that I don't need to use a translator everywhere I go.  Although Hermana Melendez did a fabulous job.  I'm also always a little amazed at what we do that is out of our comfort zone.  I was part of a quartet singing Nearer My God to Thee in Spanish.  The Hermanas asked me if I would be willing to sing the song, I was thinking in a choir or something.  I got there and they handed me the music and I found out it was a quartet.  That is out of my comfort zone for sure.  I'm not a great singer, and I don't know Spanish, but no one there seemed to care! Another fun experience. 

This week is full of transfer preparations. We have 18 new missionaries coming in on Monday, which means lots and lots of preparations.  It is always a fun week anticipating the arrival of new missionaries.  We are grateful for the blessing of working with all of them as we try our best to gather scattered Israel.