Final Transfer!

Every six weeks we get our hearts ripped out as another group of missionaries leave to go home. Last night we had the farewell dinner for this wonderful group. We are already missing them!! But we wish them all the very best in their lives at home and look forward to seeing them all again some day.

Elder Roberto Cordón---San Pedro Sula, Honduras

Elder Horacio Cisneros---Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, Mexico

Elder David Marroquin--Monterrey, Mexico

Elder Jared Vazquez--Mexico, Mexico

Elder Jose Casas, Durango, Mexico

Elder Mario Lopez--Chilpancingo, Mexico

Elder Jose Ramirez--Delicias, Mexico

Hermana Noemi Flores--Mexico, Mexico

Hermana Kathryn Wagner--Provo, Utah

Elder Kevin Fox--Flagstaff, Arizona

Elder Tyrell Turley--Rockland, Idaho

Elder Wynston Anglen--Fort Bridger, Wyoming

Elder Lee Jonas--West Jordan, Utah

Elder Cody Snyder--Provo, Utah

Elder Corbin Loveland--Henderson, Nevada

Thankfully, Elder Casas will be with us for one more week, and Hermana Wagner will be with us for two more weeks. 

Congratulations also to Elder Ramirez, Elder Casas, Elder Lopez, Elder Cordón and Hermana Flores for taking the English test!! The other native Spanish speakers will be taking it soon at home. Good job everyone!!

And of course we made the work up until the very end. While waiting for dinner they spent their time coloring bags that will be used for Christmas gifts for the elders. Thanks so much!! You all did great!

And a couple more pictures . . . 

A Fun Visitor!

We had fun on Saturday.

Elder Lopez and Elder Casas came to the house with their companions to take their English tests before going home today, and Elder Vergara, one of our great missionaries who went home in August, dropped by to visit as well!

It was fun to see him and to have all five at the house for a while.

Scripture Power!!

The Church strongly encourages all non-English speaking missionaries to learn English during their mission. This is a great challenge for some but also a huge blessing to all those who make the effort.

To help them, our daughter Kathryn, who is a church service missionary here with us, has been coming up with ideas to encourage their learning and challenges for them to achieve.

I am pretty sure the most fun part of the zone conference was the English portion. This was also the scariest for some. Everyone was challenged to prepare a 2 minute talk on Faith. Then their names were put in a bag and three from each zone were drawn out and asked to share their talk. Almost everyone prepared in advance (but unfortunately not all). But for those who did, we were so very proud of them and their accomplishments.

We also had a "sing off" with the song Scripture Power. The Americans learned it in Spanish and the native Spanish speakers learned it in English, and then we had a competition to see who could sing it the best and the loudest. This was my favorite activity at zone conference, and I am pretty sure everyone else loved it as well.

Pictures:

Planning how they were going to present it . . .

 Have to admit this was my favorite zone!! Both the English and the Spanish versions were awesome. I just wish I had thought to record it.

Sorry the pictures aren't that great, but hopefully you can catch a glimpse of the enthusiasm!
And that leaves me with just one more post about zone conference--which I will post next week--because tonight we have a farewell and tomorrow we have transfer day!!

Book of Mormon Stories . . .

The Book of Mormon is the key to our religion and the key to conversion. If a person has a testimony of the Book of Mormon they will know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that the Church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth through him, that God calls and speaks with prophets in our day and most importantly, that Jesus Christ is our Savior and the Redeemer of the world.

Therefore it is critical for investigators to begin reading the Book of Mormon in the very beginning of receiving the missionary lessons.  And not only should the investigators read the book from cover to cover, but the missionaries should always use the book to teach gospel principles throughout their lessons.

And so in our zone conference we practiced using the Book of Mormon in our lessons. Mostly we wanted the missionaries to catch the vision of how the book can be used and how we need to present it in an interesting way to create a desire in others to read it.

Since we were also focusing on the Doctrine of Christ at this conference, we divided into small groups and had each group come up with a list of stories in the Book of Mormon that teach faith, repentance and baptism. They could use one story for all, but we were really looking for separate stories for each one. We then compiled everyone's list. From that, each group was assigned one topic--such as faith. Then each companionship in that group had to choose one story on faith to present to the rest of the group.

After each companionship presented, each group chose the best companionship to present to the entire zone--during what we called, "Book of Mormon Story Time". This was a lot of fun and everyone did a great job. Here are some pictures of them telling their stories.

 King Benjamin addressing his people

 Alma the Younger

 In this one the whole group got into the action. I think that is King Noah in the back being fanned by one of his servants.

 Another group effort. This was Helaman and the 2000 Stripling Warriors. The three in the back represented the 2000.

Good Job to everyone!! You were awesome. 

We Love Visitors!!

One big difference between our full-time missionary service and that of our young missionaries, is family can come and visit us!! And this past week we were very blessed to have our daughter Kristen and her husband Peter and twin boys come and stay a few days. The boys were born just a few days before we started our mission, so it was quite a treat to see them--and see how much they have grown!!

But it was so sad today when they left us to go home! We loved having them here and are now missing them terribly.

Double trouble!

Doing the Grandpa thing . . .

By the way . . . our daughter Kristen Niedfeldt is an author! You can find her books on Amazon. She has two books--"Ending the Rain", and its sequel, "Finding Ever After". They are teen fairytale romance books, but adults will love them too--especially the sequel.

Getting a little help with changes . . .

President Wagner has a big challenge ahead of him this week. Changes. We have 14 missionaries going home--all of which are awesome and most are currently serving as leaders in the mission. Thirteen are elders and 1 is a sister.

On Monday we have 15 missionaries coming in. Two are elders and 13 are sisters. This means that several areas where elders are currently working will be changed over to areas for sisters. It also means a lot of shuffling--and right before Christmas. So, President has consulted an expert for help. Good thing the grandchildren are here for a visit!!

I still am lacking some pictures from zone conferences, but due to travel, visitors, colds and a bad episode of the stomach flu, I am once again behind. But here are some of my favorite random shots in the meantime.

Always working hard--the assistants!

 I am not above a little brown-nosing. :-) Thanks Elders!! I love you too!

Holding up the standard of Liberty/Excellence!

Since we are no longer allowed to have a mission hymn, many of the zone leaders got quite creative with the closing song at zone conference. In this zone we had a special musical number complete with violin!

No, he is not getting a shot.:-) This is Elder W. to the rescue removing stains and saving white shirts to be worn for yet another day!

On Tuesday we had our monthly mission council. In addition to the regulars, we had a few others drop by for a visit. 

The bathroom line?

The new zone leaders this change . . .

From Honduras . . . our daughter with her companion on Thanksgiving Day. Their "feast" consisted of fried bananas but their headwear got them in the spirit.:-)

Huatulco!~
In October we traveled to Huatulco in the state of Oaxaca for the Mission President's Seminar with the Area Presidency. We had a great time being trained by our leaders and visiting with the other mission presidents in Mexico. Here we are on our p-day--fresh fish lunch on the beach!!

And sweltering at the airport, waiting for our flight to take us back to our areas   . . .  I love this picture! I think it looks so retro!

Lastly . . . Our office staff before changes in November at our house on P-day.