This week we had a Zone Conference
with President C.! It was the best! Easily one of my top 5 meetings we've had
on my mission so far. But more about that latter.
I got a letter from Kaylene again too, which brightened the week. :)
We do have daylight savings and it killed us too! We had a meeting at 7:30 and
we ended up waking up at 7 by accident (which felt like 6), and had to get
ready in like 10 minutes. It was wild! But we made it.
We've seen lots of people who were sick this week and got to give like 6 blessings!
That's great that grandma likes her new place. Good food makes everything better!
Speaking of good food, here in Rock
Hill, one of the members is super generous and owns some restaurants that he
lets the missionaries eat at free once a week. Their chicken is the most tender
chicken I've ever had! I love southern food sooo much!
Yeah Spencer!!! Congrats on the Eagle! Atta boy! :)
Haha, the picture of Baggs is too funny! Last p-day we went to Winthrop
University (in Rock Hill), and played ping pong with a recent convert named K.!
It was a party and a half. It was a big open area with a high ceiling, and it
was pretty much the prime ping pong location you could hope for.
Haha, so back to the inspiring Zone Conference, it went from 9-3 on Thursday,
and President and Sister C., as well as the Assistants were there with our
Zone. I'll focus on just a couple of highlights:
It started off with some really good talks from the Zone Leaders. Elder
M. told
a story of he and a companion biked 12 miles to get to an area (that
didn't
usually show much success) because they were prompted to. They ended up
talking
to a man in his car who happened to be a former investigator, and who
wanted to be baptized. Then Elder M. said this quote which was sweet.
"There is always
a price for a success. But if you don't pay the price for success you
pay the
price for failure." Then Elder B. quoted the poem "The Masters
Hands" and talked about how we are God's hands. Following those talks, I
got to sing with some other missionaries in a special musical number.
Following the music, President C. gave a training on the spiritual gift of
being "quick to observe" as found in Mormon 1:2. It was a great great
great training! He talked about when giving a blessing, it's being "quick
to observe" if you take the time to put on a shirt and tie. At church, it
is being "quick to observe" to wear a white shirt, not a colored one.
He quoted Elder Holland saying "Anytime I see a returned missionary return
home and grow a beard, I have to be held back from going up to him, putting my
fingers on his neck, and shaking him!" Then President said "Only
Jeffery R Holland could say that with a feeling of charity." ;) he talked
about how being "quick to observe" is jumping in to serve, not just
offering to help. It was a great training and he committed us all to pray for
the gift of being "quick to observe".
President talked all about the commandments and the doctrine behind them.
Essentially it was the "what we should know" version of lesson 4 in Preach
My Gospel, not the "what an investigator should know". He got very
specific about what we should and should not do, especially when it came to the
Word of Wisdom, Law of Tithing, and the Law of Chastity. After he talked about
the Law of Chastity, he included the part of "if you are guilty of these
things, you need to set up an interview to make sure you are clean. If you went
to your Bishop or Stake Presidency, and talked to them with total honesty,
without the desire to hold anything back, and happened to forget some minor
details that have happened to come to memory latter, you need to let those go
and trust in the Savior's atonement. Once you've repented, you need to
completely let the very attitude and desire go. True repentance is not just a
change in behavior, but a change in character."
Rock Hill is good. The work here so
far has been a bit slow for Elder A. and I, but we're hoping to change that. We
did get to paint the front of a house this week! It's for a member named M. and
her husband M. They are super great people. The front of their house was a
bright blue so we painted it white so that the Zoning Police wouldn't fine
them, as they had been threatening to do. It was fun, and really good for them,
but we weren't able to teach as much because of it. So we're going to teach
more this week!
I love yall and I love this
gospel!!
Love Elder Branch :)
(Zac sent these pictures a few weeks later of them painting M & M's house.)
