Sister Francis (from Pakistan) and Sister Mathangi
(from India) are companions and have turned into best friends!
This is a happy three-some! They all came in at the same time.
Elder Alvaro, Elder De Leon, & Elder Torculas. They are not
companions, but are all serving in Lopez Zone right now.
Sister Salon, Sister Sagaysay, Sister Escalona, Elder Culaban,
Elder Perez, Elder Nalesoni, Elder Delos Santos, Elder Palavi,
Elder Nerza, Elder Sheperdson, Elder Lucila,
Elder Blanco and Elder Quimsing.
Getting ready for the Group shot, Elder Clark and Elder Kleinlein
think they are getting to sit in the chairs! The others...
Elders De Leon, Torculas and Elder Delos Santos are trying to get in it!
I got invited in on this one! Front row...Elder Quimsing, Elder
Clark, Me, Elder Kleinlein and Elder Delos Santos.
Back row...Elder Blanco, Elder Sheperdson, Elder Palavi,
Elder De Leon, Elder Alvaro, Elder Nalesoni's beautiful smile,
and Elder Torculas.
This was our first day of Zone Conferences.
We had four Zones...San Pablo, Cabuyao, Santa Cruz and Siniloan.
We have the following couples in attendance that day,
the Howells (PEF), the Packers (office) and the Wagners (Lipa)
This is our second day of Zone Conference with Lucena Zone,
Lopez Zone and Marinduque. The couples with us are
Elder & Sister Douglas (Lucena) & Elder & Sister Packer (office)
This was our last day of Zone Conference with the Lipa, Bantangas
and Mindoro Zones. The couples with us are the
Campbells (Mindoro), the Packers (office) and the Wagners (Lipa)
Sister Grow is training Sister Snow. They get along so well. They
are definitely eye-single missionaries...It is just their nature. We
love their happiness countenances!
Sister Buton and Sister Agustin is another happy companionship!
Don't you love their smiles?!
Here posing is Elder Monzon, Elder Yost and Elder Knight.
Elders Yost & Monzon are companions doing great things in
their area! Elder Knight is friends with everyone...he has a
wonderful positive attitude!
This was such a good Zone Conference where so much learning has taken place and the Spirit was especially strong. As we walked into the Stake Centers each day, the missionaries were sitting with their companions, reading their scriptures. It really help set the tone. Each meeting was conducted by a Zone leader of one of the Zones attending that day. After the welcome we had an opening hymn chosen by the one conducting, an opening prayer and a recitation of "My Purpose". We then had a missionary give a talk. President had assigned a different missionary for each session to give a talk concerning companionship unity. The first day Elder Sembrano gave the talk, the second day was Elder Burton and the third day, Sister Pajarin. President told them to use John 17 as basis to their talk. They each did a great job! After the talk, we showed a mission slide show, which was a variety of slides from different missionaries involved in missionary activities. It's always fun to view the missionaries up on the big screen!
Sister Packer has been given the assignment to be the "Pie Queen" of the mission. At each Zone Conference she brings a pie and has all the missionaries stand up and she rattles off different questions of which they must answer to the affirmative, so they can remain standing. If their answer is "no", they have to sit down. For example: "If there are no dirty dishes in your apartment right now, you can remain standing" or..."If you follow the mission schedule and are up at 6:30 a.m. and to bed by 10:30 p.m., you can remain standing.." The last one standing at the end of her questions wins the yummy, homemade pie! They love it and it's good incentive too! After Sister Packer, Sister Wagner or Elder & Sister Douglas gave encouraging words concerning apartment maintenance. We then had "Words of Wisdom" from Sister Peterson. :-) My emphasis this conference had to do with the "precious & rare" attribute of Patience. I used four areas of emphasis that patience can produce in us. I got these four areas from a statement by President Uchtdorf. Patience...1. Refines our understanding (D&C 121:41, 45) 2. Focuses action--Patience is far more than simply waiting for something to happen--it means actively working towards worthwhile goal and not getting dicouraged when result don't appear instantly or without effort. (Mosiah 28:1-9, Alma 17:10-11, 26:27-31) 3. Deepens happiness--(Alma 26:35-37) 4. Offers hope for peace--(Mosiah 24:9-16) I talked about many examples of patience, such as...Christ, the perfect example, the apostle Paul, and Joseph Smith.
*Patience for us as missionaries, we need to: 1. Be patient with ourselves. Recognize our strengths & weaknesses. Make good use of every opportunity and do our best always. Do not let ourselves be unduly discouraged when we are doing our best. Be satisfied with our progress even though it may come slowly sometimes.2. Be patient in developing and strengthening our testimonies. (Alma 32:41-43) Pray, study, be diligent in our missionary duties and follow the counsel of our prophet and mission president. 3. Be patient with our companion. Don't expect perfection, find agreeable ways to work out differences, keep the mission schedule and be "one". 4. Patience with our Heavenly Father and His plan. "How incredibly foolish it is to be impatient with him..." Neil A. Maxwell said, "Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best--better than does God..." Quoting from Marvin J. Ashton, "We do not have to worry about the patience of God, because he is the personification of patience, not matter where we have been, what we have done, or what we, to this moment, have allowed ourselves to think of ourselves...God will not forsake us."
Next was the Assistants' to the President remarks. (Elder Roxas & Elder Cortez) They did a wonderful teaching the missionaries how to better employ the scriptures in teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Teaching is central to everything you do." (PMG pg. 175) They started out with D&C 68:1-8, concerning Orson Hyde's ordination and likened these verses to us. They read from Alma 12:1, 7 and asked, "Do you see what we are envisioning for us?...for this mission? "In a spirit of unity, expounding scriptures they were powerful teachers."(Helaman 5:10, 41) Theses are 3 ways to help those we teach to better understand the scriptures and how they apply to what we are teaching...1. Introduce the scripture 2. Read the passage aloud with them. 3. Apply or "liken" the scriptures to yourself and to the investigators. Make sure they understand the passage, then testify of the principle. As they taught, Elder Roxas expressed the importance of Sanctifying ourselves through the scriptures. In John 17:14-19 the Savior is praying for his apostles (but also for all who believed on their words) to keep them from evil, and "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.". Elder Roxas asked, "Is the act of preparing to use the scriptures an act of sanctification?" He turned us all to Preach My Gospel pg.182 to the Companion Study activity. We did this activity with our companions right then. It was good to practice those steps in using the scriptures in our teaching. We then broke away for lunch.
After lunch, President did his teaching. He first talked about numbers and the New Indicators and how we can see how good we are teaching and how many we are reaching. He talked about our Completed Families bulletin board in the Mission office and about sending letters with the pictures. His counsel was to "Stop the confusion"...keep record of lessons for new & returning members up to date and accurate. He hopes that the chart showing eye single obedience will go straight up, showing wonderful improvement. Great counsel is found in Jacob 4:10, D&C 56:14-15 & 1 Nephi 19:7 As you drift from obedience your are setting Him (Savior) "at naught and (hearkening) not to the voice of his counsels." Then, he expounded on what he calls the 2nd most important thing you can learn on you mission. That is, "How to recognize & understand the Spirit. (D&C 4:5) He asked, "How can we enter into the presence of God on our mission?" He read on a power point the story of a missionary who figured how to change himself to do just that. It was a 40 day experiment. President expounded on these three ways that with help us. 1. We must Qualify Moroni 8:26, D&C 50:13-24 2. We must Treasure up in our minds D&C 84:85 -Study (Personal & Companionship) -District Meeting -Zone Conference -Stake & General Conferences -Always D&C 100:5-8 ...Pause & listen to be directed. 3. Speak the thoughts given you! John 7:45-46, John 3:1-2. We then had the opportunity to hear testimonies of missionaries that were going home before the next Zone Conference. That is always a wonderful experience.
At this time, President had 2 or 3 different companionships come up and teach some of the hard things. Such as, Sabbath Day, Being Offended, or "I have God in my heart" ("I don't need anything else"). Each companionship was to be prepared, just in case they were chosen to come up and demonstrate. It was very enlightening. He then had 3 videos on hand that he would show. Christ in Ancient America, Pure & Simple Faith, (A wonderful story of a young girl who lives in the Philippines and how her simple faith blessed her and her family...Look it up on the internet) and Thomas S. Monson talking about "Finishers Wanted." He only had time for one or two of them at each session. Each made a beautiful ending to a wonderful conference.
