Zone Conference, Transfer Texts, and Moore!, July 26, 2014

This was a very busy week.  We made visits to members and less-active members and had a wonderful all-day zone conference with President Packard, Sister Packard, and the mission presidency counselors.  It was held in Lowell, Mass. about 40 minutes up the freeway from here.  We were truly fed by the Spirit. 

President and Sister Packard spoke on the State of the Mass. Boston Mission.  They gave us the 10 Commandments of when you get a Baptismal Date set and how to keep it by keeping these 10 Commandments.

Dale and the mission nurse gave good presentations on staying healthy.

We got to meet President Clay Christensen, author of "The Power of Everyday Missionaries."  We have read and referred his book to our ward council and others.  Everyone is reading it throughout the church and it is having a wonderful impact.  Hannah even mentioned in a letter that we should read it!  We had already known about it for months, but it's cool that they are reading it in Brazil and probably all over the world.

He is a counselor in our mission presidency!  He shared some wonderful stories from his book.  It was so great getting to meet him.  Mike was especially thrilled!

We were taught how to teach with members present by the Assistants, Elder Wright and Elder Fabrizio.

President and Sister Haight gave a wonderful presentation on involving members and on inviting everyone!

Our mission presidency; President Christensen (counselor, his wife wasn't there), President and Sister Packard, and President and Sister Haight.

The Assistants to the President, Elder Wright and Elder Fabrizio

During lunch, which was served by the local Relief Society, Sister Packard led a fun game of mission jeopardy and we had a question and answer period for anyone to ask the presidency any questions they wanted.  It was a lot of fun and the questions all turned out to be more of a spiritual nature rather than asking them personal questions about themselves or their families.

After lunch the Sister Packard spoke on the Sacred nature of this mission--It's a sacred place and this is a sacred time.  She talked about the early history of the church here and the sacred time this is that we are part of the lowering of the missionary age and the hastening of the work!

President Packard gave a wonderful talk about pride and humility.  He referenced his remarks from President Ezra Taft Benson's 1989 talk on pride.  Pride holds us back and causes contention.  We need to give our hearts to God and feel love for others through feeling the Spirit by being humble.  Humble people are happy people!

There were three musical numbers throughout the day.  One of them was by our sisters, Sister Scott, Sister Roy, and another sister, Sister Shields.  They sang "Be Still My Soul" and Elder Moore accompanied them.  It was beautiful.  I was proud of all of them!

It was an incredible day!  We started the conference at 8:30 and we finished just after 6:00 pm.  There were a lot of hungry missionaries afterwards and everyone decided to go to the local Five Guys.  There were a lot of us and it was a busy place.  The staff was so good and fast and friendly.  We sang, "As I Have Loved You" for them and they were touched by it.  I gave them about 7 pass along cards and it was a fun way to end the day.

Thursday was our day at the temple.  It was a wonderful day and we loved being there with Nancy and Dale. 

Friday, was our weekly District Meeting.  We rode the T with the sisters and our stop for the meeting is Harvard Square.  We seem to be in Harvard Square a lot.  It's a crazy, busy place, but it's so cool to be there!  It was transfer text day for the mission, meaning that the President sends out a texts to the whole mission with who's being transferred and where.  Everyone was so excited and there were some awesome changes made.  Everyone seemed very happy!

We had an extra special treat this week!  We got to meet Valerie and Brett Robinson and their four kids, Luke, Isaac, Audrey and Eliza for dinner on Friday night.  We took the subway to East Boston and met them at the Italian Pizzeria Express (featured on Diner's Drive-ins and Dives).  They treated us to dinner, they said it was there turn to feed the missionaries!  It was so fun being with them.  We loved it so much!  After dinner, we took a walk to a park on the harbor just a couple of blocks from the restaurant.  It was so beautiful!

It was a great week!  We ended it by going to the Temple this morning to help out with some youth baptisms.  Just as we were leaving the Temple, we saw a couple of missionaries and went over to meet them and one of them was Elder Stones, our very dear friends from Longmont, Larry and Margaret Stones' nephew. It was so much fun meeting him.  What a great missionary he is.  He is one of Nancy and Dale's Zone Leaders.  He's awesome.

We also made a visit to a new friend in the hospital and then met for a planning meeting with our sisters.  We were so lucky that they came with dinner!  Sister Roy had made a delicious crockpot full of chicken salsa.  It was delicious.  We are so grateful for Sister Roy and Sister Scott.  They have made us feel so needed and loved!  We love them so much.  They are like daughters to us already!