Phone Pictures

Here are a few pictures I had on my phone. I forgot to post them earlier, so I am doing it now. This weekend I will post pictures from the last three zone conferences.

 I just liked this picture of everyone gathered around to learn.

 The before . . .

 The after . . . (bathroom break time)

 I love practices!!

 Lunch break!

This was fun!! Our senior couple had visitors!! Their son and daughter-in-law came to visit for a few days. The good news is that we are friends with them as well. It was so much fun to visit with friends from home!!

And adding a little Christmas cheer to the office!!

In Town. . .

We met with the three zones in town this week. Here are some of the pictures from the zone conferences. We had a really good time with all of them.

 Getting a little one on one time with the President . . .

 Two of these are new. It is always nice when they are still smiling two weeks after arriving in the country. :-)

So they obviously come in all shapes and sizes. 

 Have I mentioned before how much I love the sisters? :-)

 This elder gave the prayer in English and did an awesome job!

 Of course they also have to take pictures of each other.

 This probably won't happen too often, but the elder on the far right trained the elder next to him, and he trained the elder next to him, and he trained the elder next to him. Which in missionary lingo makes the first elder a great-grandfather--while still in the mission!

These are all new--and come from four different countries!

 The talking shoe. Good thing the owner goes home in a few weeks! Hopefully the shoe won't be going with him.

 Here are four birthday boys being sung to. Happy Birthday to them!

 Eagerly waiting for zone conference to start.

 I love it when the zone leaders color coordinate.

 Of course red, yellow and blue look good together as well. :-)

 Posing with "Grandpa C." He runs the office and is very much loved by all the missionaries.

 More of the awesome sisters.

 The sister on the right gave the prayer in English in this zone. She was our first sister to do so and did great!!

 Just a little picture craziness. . .

 More smiling new missionaries. Hold that smile, Elders!!  (I promised them that it does get better. But the first couple weeks are pretty tough--especially if you don't speak the language.)

 So funny thing . . . the elder on the left is the district leader. He told me that if you total the time all of the members in his district have in the country it equals less than a year. I told him obviously God has a lot of confidence in him and his district.

 Here are all the new ones for this zone.

That was a lot of pictures, but hopefully I got everyone at least once.

If you are wondering about Thanksgiving . . . we celebrated it with the two senior missionary couples who live in town. The majority of our missionaries are not from the United States so we didn't feel like disrupting the missionary work for just a few of them. However--at the zone conference on Friday I served pumpkin pie and pumpkin cookies! Everyone seemed to enjoy that.

And Another Zone

As I mentioned in another post, last week we held the zone conferences for the south side of the mission.  There have been some changes to missionary work in Mexico since our last zone conference and so most of this one was spent on giving the missionaries ideas how to implement the changes.

First of all--no missionary in Mexico is allowed to tract. This is not for safety as much as it is for fellowship. Many people were being baptized but not remaining active due to not having friends in the church. Therefore, as of November 1, with the exception of the occasional street contact when directed by the Spirit, all references are to come from active and less active members.

Second--all lessons MUST be taught in either the church building or in a house where a member is present. If no member is available, the lesson will be postponed.

Obviously this provides some challenges to missionary work, however, since tracting is actually the least effective way to work, we feel it will be a blessing to eliminate it.

In addition to explaining this emphasis and giving ideas on how to do it, we also had a man from Mexico City come and present on church safety regulations. That was very interesting and although we hope the information will never be needed, it is nice to know the missionaries are prepared.

Here are some pictures from our first zone conference:

Standing to recite "My Purpose" . . .

 Gathering around the President for up close and personal training.

 Lunch break! We don't have stake relief societies to help us here, and so I have done it all by myself. (We are working on changing that.) So no fancy table decorations--just get your food and eat it at your desk! They never seem to mind though. They are just grateful for the food.

 This is what we are serving this round. (I think food looks better in color:-) By the time we are done, my husband and I will have eaten lasagna 9 times. I think we will be good to not have it again for awhile. The chocolate cupcake was to celebrate President Wagner's birthday.

 Posing for pictures after the conference . . .

 Gotta say, my favorite missionary of the day is the one who picks up the broom and starts cleaning without being asked. Thank you Elder K!!

 Although we do love them all!
This week we stay in town for conferences with the three zones here and Thursday we have off to celebrate Thanksgiving with the senior couples in town. We are looking forward to that!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Another Zone . . .

Here are some pictures from one of the other zone conferences.

Lunch Break!!

 Singing to the birthday boys!

 Love the sisters!

 Whether is it mail from home or just supplies from Salt Lake, the missionaries love getting packages.

 The passing of the baton. Here are two new missionaries and two who will soon be going home. (--left to right--new, old, new, old)

 So, did I get any mail?

 We promise, we will get our apartment cleaned!!

 Los cuatro viejos! All four of these elders goes home in a few weeks. So sad!

 But luckily they are leaving some very good missionaries behind!