First Week of Zone Conferences

Poor Colima! We always start our zone conferences there and so they get our first attempt. After that trial run we usually change something that we didn't feel worked. And that is what happened this last time as well. At least there are always different missionaries there each conference!

So we started in Colima then went to Manzanillo and ended in Ciudad Guzman. We had a great time with all the zones!

We usually have the sisters sit and the elders stand but in this zone there are more sisters than elders so we did it the other way around.:-)

Yes, we had a visitor. We aren't getting lax on the dress code.:-)

This round we are focusing on finding with the ward/branch list (again) and the seven habits of successful missionaries

1. Challenge for baptism always (PME p. 20)
2. Teach the lessons in order (PME pg. 30)--other than the occasional time they might be directed by the Spirit to do otherwise.
3. Teach them to pray (PME pgs. 39, 40, 96, 97)
4. Use the Book of Mormon and help investigators read it (PME Chapter 5)
5. Invite to church (PME pgs. 76-77)
6. Always ask for references/names (PME Chapter 9)
7. Evaluate and set goals (PME pgs. 156-162)

That was the first hour with President Wagner.

Also during his time all the elders did pushups. (The sisters did theirs during the Sisters' Conference). Everyone set a goal last conference to improve their pushups and now they had the opportunity to show how well they did on their goal. Everyone improved a lot!

Giving it their all! :-)

During the second hour we had a follow up activity to our interviews where we practiced explaining each point of each principle from lesson 2 and then the Sister Training Leaders taught  how to outline lessons 4-5 following the guidelines given to us by Elder Pieper to:

1. Teach the doctrine (the What)
2. Teach the principles (the Why)
3. Invite to act (The How)

The zone leaders then taught how to teach lesson 4 following the teach model which is:

1. Teach the doctrine
2. Testify
3. Invite to act
4. Promise blessings
5. Verify

I love how great our zone leaders teach. They always follow the training model which is "Explain, demonstrate, practice, evaluate, re-practice and apply." We always have lots of practices!!

And all of the examples they demonstrated also showed how to tie in the commandments to the baptismal covenant. Both the STL and the zone leaders did a great job!

We then had our scripture chase, test and a lesson on health--to prepare them for the summer heat.
After lunch we watched the movie "Meet the Mormons" It was so fun to watch this with our missionaries (even if that means I get to watch it 6 more times:-)

The top scripture chase winners in each zone!

 This elder barely beat out his companion! Just one point! They both were awesome. 

During lunch we also celebrated all the January, February and March birthdays!

President Wagner then lead a discussion on how each of the families applied the principles of the Plan of Salvation into their lives and followed that discussion with a lesson on the Plan of Salvation. It was wonderful and very powerful.

All in all a good day.