In Vallarta!

Our third zone conference of this round was held in Vallarta. As in Puerto Vallarta. We always love going there. It is fun to see the ocean as we drive into the city, and we always get a kick out of the big cruise ships coming in and out all the time.

Even more importantly, however, for some strange reason, the temperatures in Vallarta right now are about 10 degrees cooler than in Guadalajara, so we are especially enjoying it.

But most of all we love meeting with the missionaries.

This zone conference began with President Wagner going over the "Area Plan of Salvation". This includes the missionaries teaching four groups of people--members, less active members, recent converts and investigators. The primary purpose of the lessons is to save souls. The secondary purpose is to find more people to teach.

President Wagner then went over the purpose of the Book of Mormon and its importance as a missionary tool. He was followed by the zone leaders teaching Fundamental Lesson #4--The Book of Mormon (sensing a theme?:-)

I then taught how the Book of Mormon bears testimony of the Savior. Our practice included reading the scriptures that testify of Christ found in lesson 2, Chapter 3, and discussing how they testify of the Savior and in what other lesson (besides lesson 2) could we use that scripture.

Then came THE TEST. This was our second time to give a test to the missionaries. This one was based on Chapter 3 and Chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel, and most of the missionaries are doing really well.

Afterward came language study--focusing this time on learning English. I love watching the missionaries all stand and sing Scripture Power in English!!

 Which was followed by Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, (Thank you Sister Call in Mexico City for that idea!)

 One more song . . . Happy Birthday to all those who celebrated birthdays between February and the end of May!!  They received M&M's because they are Marvelous Missionaries.

 And of course there was the closing song . . .

 And a zone picture.

 One more with enthusiasm!!

 And a few more for good measure. . . . The District. . . . Four are American but the other two speak English as well. However they promised me they have all their meetings in Spanish.

 The sister on the left is headed home soon. We will miss her. The one on the right is a recent convert. In fact, one of the missionaries who baptized her lives here in Guadalajara.

 All in the family. The elder on the left trained the elder next to him, and is training the elder wearing the red tie. The elder with the blue tie is training the elder with the yellow tie. So basically what you see here --in mission vernacular--- is a Elder C with two of his sons and a grandson.

 Reimbursements!! I think the words I hear the most (After, "Sister Wagner I am sick to my stomach") is, "Is this reimbursable?" The missionaries live on a very tight budget so if something is reimbursable, they are sure to turn in the receipt. Here they are filling out the reimbursement forms.

 And here . . .

 One of our new missionaries--(on the left) He comes from the Dominican Republic. Both of his parents are members and both served missions.

And the food. All missionaries get pretty excited to eat, but this zone seemed particularly enthused about it. I took this picture about 1 minute after the food was announced. 

And that ended week one of zone conferences. Next up . . . week two.