Zone Conferences

This week, zone conferences were held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with three zones meeting each day.  Our days began early with car inspections in the parking lot, then we gathered in the chapel where we received instruction on methods to find, keeping motivated and the ordinance of baptism, our divine commission.  We then viewed a slide show of recent convert baptisms followed by instruction and role plays on resolving baptismal concerns.  Lunch was then served/prepared by local relief societies and awards given for clean apartments, car inspections and a celebration of birthdays.  Afternoon instruction included presentations on bicycle safety, apartment stewardship and health/exercise.  Beautiful musical numbers were then shared followed by great talks from missionaries on the topic of, "What the Atonement means to me."  Lastly we heard testimonies from departing missionaries.  It was wonderful to be together to learn and feel the Spirit of the Lord.  Please enjoy some pictures taken in the cultural hall during role plays and lunch.    

 

 

God Prepares Finding Opportunities

Dear Sisters and Elders – 
 

The Lord places many opportunities in front of us to find others to teach.  Are we recognizing and taking advantage of these opportunities? 

Sometimes we have a little extra time prior to an appointment or before we need to return home for the night.  At other times, we try to contact a referral that is not home or a person we are teaching does not show up for their appointment.  Each of these situations is a potential finding opportunity that God has prepared for you.

In Preach My Gospel we are encouraged to: “Pray for the spiritual sensitivity to recognize opportunities.  You will find that God will place in your path His children who are being prepared to receive the restored gospel” (p. 156). 

Many of you have developed the habit of recognizing and acting upon these finding opportunities.  Please find below just two examples that were shared with me in letters this past week:

“On one of the nights this past week, we had a teaching appointment scheduled at 8:00 PM, and it was about 7:47 PM.  I suggested to my companion that we just go over to our appointment a little early.  However, my companion felt that we should knock a few doors real quick.  So we did.  On the first door we knocked, a man answered and we shared a quick message about the Book of Mormon.  He accepted a return appointment!  Pretty awesome!  This would not have happened if we hadn’t used these extra minutes to find.”

“On Sunday after church, we decided to go walking outside to meet people while waiting for an appointment. It looked like it was going to rain, but we did it anyway. It started pouring rain. In the distance we saw, in a nearby park, a canopy with people huddled under trying to avoid the rain. We started running towards them.  When we reached them we asked if we could share their shelter from the storm. They agreed. They had been having a BBQ and were just waiting for the storm to pass. After getting to know them, we asked if we could share a message. Considering they had no choice but to listen, they agreed and we started on The Restoration. Although the storm was distracting, the Spirit was definitely there. In the end, they gave us their contact information and we set an appointment to visit them again.  I know that because we decided to go find, rather than hide from the rain and wait, the Lord led us to them.”

I invite each of us to pray for, recognize, and act upon potential finding opportunities.  As we do so, the Lord will “open our eyes” to the opportunities He has prepared for us.  Thank you for your faithful and sincere efforts to serve the Lord.

President Pingree