Zone Conference, Week 1

This round we are focusing on the Area Plan, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine of the Family, improving our finding techniques and Lesson 1. Normally we probably wouldn't try to teach so many different things, but since this is our last conference we wanted to be sure to get everything we could in. So it might be a bit of an overload, but we are enjoying it and hopefully the missionaries are learning something.

Scripture Chase!! Here are our three top scripture chasers of this round. The scriptures were taken from Chapter 5, how the Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul. So many were so close to winning!! Good job to everyone and especially these three!

We also celebrated birthdays and Sister B (below) not only won the scripture chase but she was also the only birthday in her zone!

And here are the birthday we celebrated in the other zones. Happy Birthday to you all!!

For more pictures from our first three zone conferences, scroll down below to our Book of Mormon: Read it! Love it! Live it! Share it! campaign.  Enjoy!!

The Book of Mormon! Read it! Love it! Live it! Share it!

We started our last round of zone conferences. Knowing it is our last round and the last time we will see many of our missionaries makes this very sad for us!

One of our focuses this round is the Book of Mormon--we need to read it, love it, live it and share it! Here are some of our Book of Mormon pictures!

 Can't you just feel their joy?!

 Love this!

 A real contact! He was a good sport.

 This was during the song "Scripture Power" And it was powerful!!

Hopefully I will have some more pictures to add to this next week.  In the meantime--Read the book!

Leadership Training

This past week we visited three cities in three days for training. First we met with the district, zone and sister training leaders from Manzanillo, Colima and Guzman, then we met with the same leaders from the three zones in Guadalajara, and ended with Tepic where we met with the leaders from Santiago Ixquintla, Tepic and Puerto Vallarta.

The assistants do a large part of the planning and training of this meeting and they did a great job. Many of the sisters, district leaders and zone leaders also participated and they were awesome as well. Good job everyone!! Now go and put it all into practice!

Here are a few pictures from our training meetings.

 Not sure what this conversation is about, but it looks very serious!

 And this is a phone . . . :-)

So Sweet!!

This is my Mother's Day gift from the assistants. So sweet!!

Welcoming another new group of missionaries!!

The morning after the farewell dinner we have a welcome breakfast for the new missionaries arriving from the Mexico City MTC.  This time all the missionaries were from Mexico with the exception of one sister from the Dominican Republic

It is always fun to meet the new ones. They usually arrive very tired (they get up around 2:30 to pack, or some just stay up all night) and very excited and ready to work. And the only thing they really care about is who will be their companion and where will they work.

But first we feed them breakfast. It is usually around 10:00 by the time they arrive at the house and we have everything ready. I switch it around, but lately we have been eating eggs with ham, tomatoes and potatoes mixed in them with refried beans on the side, tortillas, salsa, fresh fruit, and juice. This time we also had slices of roasted poblano peppers with fresh corn, onion and cream cheese. Yum! (But a lot of work so we probably won't do the peppers again.:-)

During breakfast we go around the table and everyone introduces themselves. Next we give some general training like--"the next few weeks are going to be some of the hardest of your life and you will probably cry every day". (It is just better for them to know that right up front.:-)

While President interviews each missionary personally, the assistants meet with each Latin missionary individually to review the English language program and help them set goals to learn English while in the mission field. Meanwhile I am meeting with groups of 4-6 explaining health procedures. Then we head to the church building for additional training and to meet their companions!

Here are some pictures from the day. The trainers are on the right.

The three sisters who arrived in the morning:

 The elders who arrived in the morning:

 And the companionships!

And then we had two missionaries who arrived later in the day. Their training was done the next morning at the office. Here are their pictures.

 In this case the trainer is on the left.:-)

We are so glad to have them and look forward to great things from each of them!

That time again . . . Another Farewell

This group included missionaries from four countries,  our first American sisters and two elders who returned home for several months each in the middle of their missions for medical reasons and then returned. Elder Mendoza has the distinct honor of celebrating three Christmases with us!

We will certainly miss them all. 

Final Transfer

Hermana Brittni Newbold--Tooele, Utah, USA

Hermana Ashlyn Naegle--South Jordan, Utah, USA

Hermana Linda Bazan--Oaxaca, Mexico

Hermana Kathia Castillo--Veracruz, Mexico

Hermana Carly Huchendorf--Rexburg, Idaho, USA

Hermana Brylie Warburton--Weiser, Idaho, USA

Elder Abinadi Mendoza--Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico

Elder Velazquez--didn't feel out the paper work 

Elder Esteban Acevedo--Talcahuano, Chile

Hermana Dulce Cruz--Veracruz, Mexico

Hermana Whitney Ford--Riverton, Utah, USA

Hermana Carly Kortas--Almont, Michigan, USA

Elder Kevin Ramos--Ahuachapan, El Salvador

Elder Maximiliano Hernandez--Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, Mexico

Elder Moisés Cordero--Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico

And here are a few pictures from our last night together:

How can anyone not love these cute Hermanas?!!

 The entire group of sisters

Our pioneers.  The first American sister missionaries to serve in the Mexico Guadalajara Mission. There were four others in their group originally. One sister is now serving in Illinois due to knee problems, another broke her ankle and went home for three months so will be returning in August, and another had to go home a couple months early due to health. The fourth is a Latin sister from the United States who entered the MTC three weeks later and so opted to go home during the next change instead.

 And our wonderful group of elders!

 My Mother's Day dinner. :-)

 Elder Mendoza and his ugly socks.

We wish them all the very best!! And hope Elder Mendoza gets some new socks!!