August Mission Council

Each month we meet with the mission council. The council is made up of President Wagner and myself, the assistants, the 18 zone leaders and the 4 sister leader trainers. Also helping out is our daughter Kathryn who is serving a church service mission in Guadalajara.

This month we focused on Fundamental Lesson #3 "Revelation Through Prayer", Diligence (one of the attributes of Christ from Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel) finding techniques and teaching the Plan of Salvation with power and clarity. We also help the Latin missionaries learn English by always having one of them say a prayer in English and singing the opening song in English--with someone teaching a few of the hard words before we sing the song. (Thank you Elder Howarth)

Here are some pictures from this month's council. I am so sad that 7 of these elders will be returning home in just a few weeks. They, along with the rest of their generation, have been amazing missionaries and will be very much missed.

And here are some pictures from the day. Practice, practice, practice.

Apparently matching ties is the new cool thing. And it is even better if the ties are blue.:-)

What do you do when both bathrooms are full and you need to wash your hands? (Because we always wash our hands before eating meals!) Use the laundry room, of course!!

My favorite missionary (of the day:-) is the one who grabs the broom first and starts cleaning! Thank you Elder L!

Actually, as you can see in the back of the picture, they were all great helpers. As soon as lunch is over they all pitch in, clean off the tables, shake out the table cloths, put the furniture back, store the chairs under the stairs and sweep the floor. Elder Snyder and Elder Grantham even offered to wash the dishes while they waited for their taxi. I turned down their offer but appreciated their thoughtfulness.

Oh, and now the pictures of the food. I always have to post these because we spend so much time preparing it--in this case it took us three days. :-)

Breakfast was typically Mexican--beans, fried egg and green chile chilaquiles.  Later we had a snack of orange slices and muffins. The green chile tomatillo sauce is made from scratch, as are the beans, and so were some of the muffins and all of the banana bread.

Then came lunch (at 2:00).  It seems like no matter how much food we have, someone still leaves hungry so we carb loaded them this time. I think it did the trick.:-) We had tortas with shredded pork, fresh guacamole, refried beans, cheese, lettuce and homemade salsa, chips and pasta salad loaded with veggies.

And for dessert . . . .fruit pizza!! (One of Kathryn's works of art:-)

It was so much fun being with them all. It has been very rewarding seeing their progress over the past year. Many of the missionaries in the council were here when we arrived, but a few came about the same time we did. We have loved serving with them all and watching them grow in their testimonies.