Gary Stewart, one of Tom's counsellors, joined us for zone leader council--what a treat. It was a cold, but beautiful day.
We enjoyed holding our Zone Leaders Council on Tuesday of this week. This chance to bring in the leaders of the mission and train them in their duties and in doctrine is so fulfilling. As I mentioned a couple of transfers ago, we switched to holding ZLC in our home. Although our home is a little tight on space, I like being with them here. It also cuts down on time wasted going from our house for breakfast to the church for training giving us more time for teaching and discussion. This week we reserved a bit more time for open discussion items and most of them actively participated in ideas to improve the mission and keep the momentum going forward. We talked about the need to have sustainable progress and not just “one-time” spurts that flame out too quickly. We compared our efforts to running a marathon versus a sprint and our need to keep building upon what we accomplish one month over to the next. I would have loved to have this kind of training while I was a ZL 30 plus years ago. I am keenly aware that there is a lot of investment in time and money to have everyone travel in for this meeting, so we try and make sure that there is meaningful content when they get here.
This week has a few days that are scheduled “catch-up” times to answer e-mails, catch up on reading letters, and various other correspondence. This is also the one week in the transfer process that we are pretty good at getting in a real P-Day and enjoy a bit of a break. This week we went to Portland on Thursday to see the play "Wicked." We went with the Portland mission president and his wife, Pres. & Sister Dyches. We always enjoy our time with them. We had received permission to go out of our mission from Elder Clayton. We ran into a lot of people who recognized us – or more accurately spoken – recognized our name tags. We also sat right in front of people from our ward here in Eugene. We enjoyed the outing and company immensely. We had seen the play twice before in NYC and it brought back pleasant memoires of those trips as well.
On Friday of this week I was a bit anxious to be out among the missionaries again, so I went to a couple of Zone District Meetings (ZDM) that are held at the beginning of transfers and where the ZLs bring information they have received at ZLC to the missionaries. They typically have a zone wide tract in the area and gather for lunch too. In the morning I headed up to Corvallis and stopped to purchase some donuts for everyone. I attended the training portion of that ZDM and then drove back to Eugene and caught the end of their tracting time when they were gathering for lunch and also brought in donuts for that zone. I have attended ZDM before, but most of the missionaries hadn’t been aware of it, or they were less impressed because I hadn’t brought donuts previously. So I learned that donuts are the trick. I really enjoyed seeing so many missionaries at a time I don’t normally get to see them and feel of their spirit and happiness.
I had a funny experience when I was purchasing doughnuts at Safeway. When I went to check out there were two clerks talking at the checkout line. One read my name tag and I heard him say “Jesus Christ” out loud in a reverent way. He told his friend he should go to church and follow Jesus. I told them I was a missionary for the church, etc. and started a conversation that didn’t go real far. The clerk who had been told by his friend that he should go to church said that he was Catholic and that his grandmother was a nun. I thought to myself, "How is that possible?"( nuns don’t have children and therefore would not have any grandchildren). What I did say was, "Your grandmother was a nun?" but he didn’t understand my underlying question and told me that she was definitely a nun. I just smiled and wished them a good day.
This Sunday we have no stake conferences to go to so we will get to go to our own ward and partake of the sacrament. I am really looking forward to that and have a keen awareness of what I am missing when I don’t partake of the sacrament each week. Next week we are back on the road to speak at another conference that I am sure we will enjoy, but for this week I am grateful for a slower pace.
I look forward to seeing the missionaries this next week and pray the spirit will be with Sister Macdonald and me so that we can teach and lift them throughout the interview process.
This week has a few days that are scheduled “catch-up” times to answer e-mails, catch up on reading letters, and various other correspondence. This is also the one week in the transfer process that we are pretty good at getting in a real P-Day and enjoy a bit of a break. This week we went to Portland on Thursday to see the play "Wicked." We went with the Portland mission president and his wife, Pres. & Sister Dyches. We always enjoy our time with them. We had received permission to go out of our mission from Elder Clayton. We ran into a lot of people who recognized us – or more accurately spoken – recognized our name tags. We also sat right in front of people from our ward here in Eugene. We enjoyed the outing and company immensely. We had seen the play twice before in NYC and it brought back pleasant memoires of those trips as well.
On Friday of this week I was a bit anxious to be out among the missionaries again, so I went to a couple of Zone District Meetings (ZDM) that are held at the beginning of transfers and where the ZLs bring information they have received at ZLC to the missionaries. They typically have a zone wide tract in the area and gather for lunch too. In the morning I headed up to Corvallis and stopped to purchase some donuts for everyone. I attended the training portion of that ZDM and then drove back to Eugene and caught the end of their tracting time when they were gathering for lunch and also brought in donuts for that zone. I have attended ZDM before, but most of the missionaries hadn’t been aware of it, or they were less impressed because I hadn’t brought donuts previously. So I learned that donuts are the trick. I really enjoyed seeing so many missionaries at a time I don’t normally get to see them and feel of their spirit and happiness.
I had a funny experience when I was purchasing doughnuts at Safeway. When I went to check out there were two clerks talking at the checkout line. One read my name tag and I heard him say “Jesus Christ” out loud in a reverent way. He told his friend he should go to church and follow Jesus. I told them I was a missionary for the church, etc. and started a conversation that didn’t go real far. The clerk who had been told by his friend that he should go to church said that he was Catholic and that his grandmother was a nun. I thought to myself, "How is that possible?"( nuns don’t have children and therefore would not have any grandchildren). What I did say was, "Your grandmother was a nun?" but he didn’t understand my underlying question and told me that she was definitely a nun. I just smiled and wished them a good day.
This Sunday we have no stake conferences to go to so we will get to go to our own ward and partake of the sacrament. I am really looking forward to that and have a keen awareness of what I am missing when I don’t partake of the sacrament each week. Next week we are back on the road to speak at another conference that I am sure we will enjoy, but for this week I am grateful for a slower pace.
I look forward to seeing the missionaries this next week and pray the spirit will be with Sister Macdonald and me so that we can teach and lift them throughout the interview process.
0 comments:
Post a Comment