We started the month with Zone Conferences. We have some friends in our ward, Steve and Susan Parkinson, who were Mission Presidents several years ago and they are so dear to us. I was talking to them after church the Sunday before Zone Conferences and we all agreed that Zone Conferences are the best. Then Susan said 'the reason why zone conferences are so powerful is that you have an entire room full of people who work for Jesus 24/7, and there is power in that.' I loved that explanation of why I love being with so many of our missionaries all in the same place at the same time; all coming to learn more of Jesus and how to be better disciples and more effective missionaries for Him. I told our missionaries that and told them that Jesus is a really great person to work for. We can all work for Him, but this is a unique opportunity to work for Him full time, 24/7.
I'm think I have become accustomed to having these experiences. We are used to being around missionaries and feeling the spirit they carry. But whenever we have people who aren't missionaries come to zone conferences, or the sweet members who feed us lunches, they are always so touched by the spirit that is there. I never want to take that for granted.
We began our first zone conference of the year on January 7 at the Seasons Building in the Sacramento Stake. Scott opened with some announcements and opening remarks, then I did a training on the Christlike Attribute we are studying this transfer; knowledge. I talked about how in order for knowledge to bring us closer to Christ we need to move it from our head to our hearts, and seek for knowledge for understanding, not just knowledge for facts or for knowledge sake. We then had two breakout sessions. We split the zones into two groups and they each spent 20 minutes in each of the breakout sessions. We had zone leaders and sister training leaders teach on how to effectively use Family History and how to access the documents on the missionary portal and how to use them to help in their missionary work. The assistants trained on The path to getting people to church and did some fun role plays with that. President Hymas trained on helping people commit to baptism and how to resolve concerns. I had a lot of missionaries during interviews tell me how helpful those 'how to' trainings were for them. We also had departing testimonies from the missionaries going home this transfer, and at each zone conference President called on 4 missionaries to give the talks they prepared on knowledge.
What I was most excited about was the end of my training. I'll explain. When President Nelson invited us to prepare for next April's general conference by immersing ourselves in the glorious light of the restoration we immediately started thinking about how we could help our missionaries do this. I need to back track a bit. In 2015 one of my goals was to memorize The Living Christ. It took me most of the year to do it, but I mainly read and studied it during the Sacrament each week in Sacrament meeting. On Christmas Eve of that year, our two youngest sons were both on their missions and I really wanted to feel something extra sacred that year and come closer to Christ, as they were doing. So, for Christmas Eve we gathered our family and at the end of our spiritual message we all stood and recited The Living Christ. I was able to do it without using any notes and it was an incredibly powerful moment for me. I felt that the words had become my own, that they were now in my heart. Ever since we got here I have wanted to have our missionaries memorize it but it has never felt it was the right time.
As I was thinking about what we could do, the spirit told me that now is the time to memorize The Living Christ. The Living Christ has everything to do with the restoration. Because of the restoration of His gospel we know that He is The Living Christ.
And so, as a mission we are taking President Nelson's counsel to prepare to make this conference not just memorable, but unforgettable. We are going to also help our members prepare. For three Sundays before general conference we will be holding special firesides for our members. We will be talking about some different aspects of the blessings of the restoration, we will have special musical numbers and we will end the fireside with all of our missionaries standing and reciting The Living Christ. I am praying each of our missionaries, along with our members will have an experience that will help solidify The Living Christ in each of our hearts.
The Living Christ has 11 paragraphs and we have 10 weeks to memorize it. So in order to do this, I promised them that if they will spend 10 minutes every day, and pray for the spirit to help us , we will be able to receive His help and we will be able to have a powerful spiritual experience. I put together some flip charts with one paragraph per card to give to each of them to help them with their memorization. I got really good at collating and punching holes, and President helped put the rings that hold them all together in the holes I punched. It was a process but it was a good one to do together.
It has been so fun to see our missionaries carrying around the cards, and to talk about how they are memorizing it. I got the best call the other day from Hermana Hall and Sister Wallace. They had gone to get their nails done for P day and were talking to the people doing their nails about their name tags, and what they do as missionaries. As they were talking a lady that was getting her nails done next to them joined in the conversation. At one point Hermana Hall asked them all the question 'Who is Jesus Christ to you?' They were a little taken back by that question and after they thought for a bit, the lady next to them said "I want to turn that question around and ask it of you. Who is Jesus Christ to you?" Hermana Hall said she took a second to think about her answer and the words from The Living Christ came into her mind and she started telling them Who Jesus Christ was to her, using the words of the apostles and prophets. She told them that He was the great Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Messiah of the New, and then went on to use the Living Christ to answer their questions. They were both so excited and she thanked me for giving them the opportunity to memorize this great document. It is getting from their heads into the hearts. Our goal is to help them become lifelong converted disciples of Jesus Christ and it is our prayer that having the words to this great document will be in each of our hearts forever.
Zone Conference Day 1: Tuesday, January 7. East Sacramento, Cordova, Sacramento and Elk Grove at the Seasons Building. This day Elder Erb and Elder Passey taught the breakout on the mission portal documents, and Sisters Speas, Knaphus and Johnson taught the breakout on Family History. They did a great job.
East Sacramento Zone
Cordova Zone
Sacramento Zone
Elk Grove Zone
Sisters Picture
Elders Picture
Same pink bag
Different birthday gift inside the bag
Carmichael Zone
Folsom Zone
El Dorado Zone
North Sacramento Zone
Sisters Picture
Elders Picture
During the middle of this Zone Conference we had to say goodbye to Sister Deng and Sister Shu who we had to send back to Temple Square. We have loved having them in our mission and we were so sad to have to send them back.
It's hard to say goodbye to companions
Midway through the day, Elder and Sister Bartlett took our temple square sisters to the airport to go back to Salt Lake, and at the same time picked up two more for us to love. We were thrilled to receive Sister Steinmetz and Hermana Garcia from Temple Square. They will be with us for the next 3 months.
Hermana Garcia with her companions Hermana Johnson and Hermana Speas
After this zone conference President had to stay and do some interviews and so I caught a ride home with the Folsom and El Dorado sisters who were heading my way. I had to get them some dinner for their troubles.
Sister Wallace, Hermana Styers, Hermana Johnson and Hermana Hall
Zone Conference Day 3: Thursday January 9; Lodi, Stockton and Manteca Zones at the Lodi Stake Center. Sister Hamilton and Sister Hall taught on the mission portal documents and Elder Jensen and Elder Sasser taught on Family History.
Lodi Zone
Stockton Zone
Manteca Zone
Sisters Pictures
Elders Pictures
Sister Rawlings had told President in a letter that her life had been changed when she found Sriracha Sauce and so she brought him a bottle to give to him at zone conference.
After zone conferences we did 34 interviews the rest of that week, and the next week we did 78 interviews. It was a lot of talking, and when we did El Dorado interviews, I started walking, but after about 4 interviews I realized the sunshine was a little deceiving and it was too cold to walk. President tried doing his first interview outside, but that didn't last long either.
We were able to go to a few baptisms that Saturday. We were thrilled to go to the baptism of our friend Penny, we got there late because we had been at another baptism before hers, but it was awesome because her husband, our friend Tim, who was baptized about a month ago got to baptize her. It is so wonderful to see the gospel change lives, and to welcome such wonderful people into the church to change our lives. They are going to be such a blessing to the church.
I know I sound like a broken record, but I will continue to say that I hate to say goodbye. But we had to say goodbye to Elder and Sister Niven who finished their mission last week. We were able to have a dinner for them and a nice evening with all of the senior missionaries. Elder and Sister Niven have been remarkable. They have jumped in with both feet and their whole hearts and have been angels to so many people here. They will be sorely missed.
We love our senior missionaries, they are so inspiring. They willingly leave a lot behind to come and serve and we couldn't do it without them.
As sad as we are to see Elder and Sister Niven go, we are equally thrilled to welcome Elder and Sister Johnson to take their place. This is their second mission so there is very little learning curve for them. They are jumping right in and will be such a blessing to so many. We are so happy to have them here in Sacramento.
We got to keep Hermana Morales, one of our Temple Square Sisters, for a few extra weeks. She was to finish her mission just 2 weeks after she would have gotten back to Temple Square and she wanted to finish here and we wanted her to finish here and so because she was so close to finishing anyway, we got to keep her. But we had to say goodbye to her this week. We sent her back to Mexico. It was so sweet to see some members from the branch where she has been serving show up to give her a loving send off.
And with that, it was time to work on the transfer board once again. I can't believe it has come around so quickly again. We are also so sad we will be sending Elder Brown, one of our wonderful assistants home this transfer and so the revolving door continues. We are thrilled to have Elder Balser now serving as an assistant with Elder Barr. They each bring so much wisdom and knowledge with them. I have seen the Lord preparing Elder Balser for this assignment for the past little while. It is amazing to see how he prepares those he is ready to call.
Elder Brown's last dinner after working the transfer board. It was a doozy this time with only 8 going home and 22 coming in. We had a little magic to work. Thankfully, we don't rely on magic, but the spirit. It all worked out, it always does, but it was a long day and we were all definitely ready to break our fast!
The day after we do the transfer board is the day I do a lot of cooking. My ambition may have obscured my judgement when I decided to make frosted swig cookies for our interviews this coming transfer, due to it being Valentine's month! It took me a little longer than I had anticipated to make and frost 200 cookies, but our missionaries are definitely worth the effort! And they are all tucked away in the freezer and ready for the interview cycle to begin again in a week or two.
I took a break from baking yesterday to run and grab dinner with some darling sisters. Sister MacQueen and Sister Burgener asked me to go to lunch on with them on a P Day but we couldn't match up our schedules so it was dinner last night instead. And we invited Hermana Lewis and Hermana Williams, who they live with along as well. We had a really fun time just having some girl chat before it was back to work for all of us.
And finally, we stopped to grab something to eat one evening on our way home and this sign was hanging over the counter at Jack's Urban Eats. I had to snap a picture because I feel like we are living the dream. We are California Dreamin.
