May 22, 2016

Our week began with our normal weekly meeting and then exploded into craziness!  We had Zone conferences in Canandaigua, Batavia, and Westfall (West Rochester).  Each day began at 8:30 with car checks and then the meetings began.  We each had about 20—25 minutes after lunch and Elder Merrill talked about intersection safety and I talked about the Family and the Temple.  We have a new pamphlet from the church for lesson 5 and this pamphlet is really great.  I thought about how to introduce the pamphlet to them and got the idea of copying all the pictures from the pamphlet and having them explain each one for 1.5 -2 minutes and see how close they came to what the pamphlet said.  It was amazing!  They came up with such great explanations for why the family is important and what the temple can do for us.  It was especially great when one of the elders got up to explain what happens in the sealing room of the temple.  He explained that as a child he was taken to one of the temples and to a sealing room just like the one on the picture and was sealed to his adopted parents and other brothers and sisters.  He said that it was so wonderful to be wanted and loved by a good family.  He is an Indian and the family is white.  He loves them so much!  Each day there were stories about families that were really touching.

Sister Francis gave a talk that I really liked and I took a few notes.  I am going to try to condense her talk into a few suggestions for a good life with an attached scripture references:

1. Be obedient.  Don’t do dumb things!  Jacob 6:12
2. Study and learn continuously, lean on the scriptures.  D&C 130: 18-19
3. Believe in yourself, we are all God’s children.  Proverbs 23:7
4. Be worthy, be strong, keep your testimony and be worthy of a Temple recommend.  D&C 38:30
5. Learn to love work, work brings success!  Galatians 6:7
6. Serve others, forget yourself.  Be positive!
7. Be grateful, recognize His hand.
8. Have faith!  Alma 32:21
9. Pray often, talk with the Lord!  Alma 37:37
10. Love one another!  John 13:34  Be open to new ideas, have patience.
11. See miracles—look closely for tender mercies!  Anyone can find dirt, find gold!
12. Follow the Savior, learn, talk, show!  He Lives!  2 Nephi 25:26

It’s hard to believe that this is our last Zone conference.  President Francis had us bare our testimonies in Batavia (which is our Zone).  We still have 8 weeks left, but we will be done with conferences next Thursday.  We are going to Buffalo twice next week and Palmyra once for 3 more conferences. One of the sister missionaries bore her testimony and it was sad because she said that she is from Thailand and some of her friends are serving there and they have several baptisms each week.  She hasn’t had one and will be leaving June 21.  I think that she has learned a lot!  We are planting seeds here, but there isn’t much fruit yet.  The people are so warm and welcoming, but they are so complacent and happy with what they have.  If they only knew what more they could learn and know.  Saying Goodbye to missionaries we have worked with is hard!

Sister Merrill, Elder Peters, Elder Stokes, Elder Merrill

Elder Housghton, Elder & Sister Merrill (grandson of Jerry Browning)

Took Elder Gibby (from Meridian) and his companion Elder Gubler to dinner after Zone Conference

We celebrated Elder Merrill’s birthday yesterday.  We went to a few yard sales (they were a bust) and then had a nice lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse.  It has nice meals, and is much quieter than Texas Roadhouse.  We had a great day and he received many calls and birthday wishes.  Thank you!  

We had a funny thing happen in church.  The counselor conducting announced that the intermediate hymn would be “Now let us Retire” (not Now Let us Rejoice)  I looked at Dennis and said, “did he say let us retire?”  He giggled and said, ‘yes’.  The high council man visiting our ward got up and made a few wise cracks about all of us retiring; either from work or going to sleep.  Our sweet counselor didn’t flinch one bit.  He is very hard of hearing and doesn’t hear what is being said.  Anyway, it was a funny!

After church we drove out to Albion (on the edge of the earth) and made a home teaching visit.  We stopped at the Mt. Albion cemetery and took some pictures.  It is huge and so beautiful.  I’m sure the pictures won’t do it justice, but it is very lovely!

We are very proud of Sara and Brad!  They won Best of State (Utah) for Vacation Rentals for their Paradise Village in St. George.  It has turned out to be so beautiful and such a nice place for a vacation!  They were honored last Wednesday night at the Salt Palace.  Good job!

This is what 67 looks like!