Zone Conference Week

At each zone conference Scott and I are there an hour and a half before it begins so Scott can start the car inspections and minor maintenance. Each missionary comes with their car washed and cleaned inside in hopes to win the Golden Hubcap. Elder Strinfellow added a few other criteria which included their paper work turned in (gas receipts) and to have their forms properly filled out before the inspection. (A true accountant!) The area in that zone that wins the award gets to sign their names on the "golden hubcap" and also gets a $20 gift card to Subway! In the meantime I'm putting each set of missionaries' supplies across the stage for them to take back to their areas. When we're finished we just get to sit down and listen. This is College Station and Spring Zones, they are the farthest from the mission office, about 2 hours away. We got up really early to be there before 8:30 AM!


At each zone conference during the lunch hour we celebrate birthdays. On this day it was President Hansen's birthday as well as Sister Kikuchi's sometime during the next few months. They used to have Zone Conferences every 6 weeks but it has been changed just recently to have them quarterly so our next one won't be until the week before Thanksgiving.


The drive to College Station on Thursday was so beautiful. I wish I had taken a picture of the rolling hills and all of the trees but I'll have to do that in November when we go again. About half way there we pass a long a lake with many fingers that houses and businesses are built around. Many of the houses have boat docks in their back yards. On our way home that evening we stopped to have some dinner and to take a few pictures.

Here's a picture of President and Sister Hansen with Elder and Sister Kikuchi. All three days of the Zone Conference were a spiritual feast for me personally as well as for all of the missionaries. Elder Kikuchi taught the new Simplified Curriculum that the Church is teaching now in the MTC to all of the misisonaries. He is a master teacher and a humble servant of God who teaches with so much power, the Spirit was so strong each day. Even though he taught the same thing to each set of missionaries each day, it was different every day as well. On the first day he was teaching how to teach the Joseph Smith experience in the Sacred Grove and Scott and I got to be "the investigators" and he taught by the "show them" don't just "tell them" method and he got down eye level and looked me straight in the eye and sincerely shared the 1st vision, slowly and powerfully! WOW! It was an experience that I won't ever forget. What a blessing to be out here serving a mission.