Peoria/Peoria N and Glendale ZONE CONFERENCE 5/13

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT!

Wednesday was the second day of our six ZONE CONFERENCES.  April is an interview month, and May is a Zone Conference month.  Each month for a mission has a purpose in addition to the underlying purpose of helping our missionaries invite all to come unto Christ.

 Specifically, at Zone Conferences, President Taylor is "Lead Trainer" for the mission.  I am a backup trainer :)  Our Assistants sometimes teach and train as well.  Each set of Zone Leaders also have an hour to meet with and train their zones during the conference.  It is TIME WELL SPENT!
The Zone Leaders taught us about how to use our missionary planners to include the VISION-GOALS- PLANS- TASKS and ACCOUNTABILITY that we use in all our planning.

 We are joined at these conferences by our wonderful Secretaries in the Mission Presidency, the KINGS!  They are great, so service oriented and people oriented and just look for every opportunity to make life easier and happier for everyone they come in contact with.  We are blessed to associate with them!
Today President Taylor spent considerable time teaching the SCATTERING AND GATHERING OF ISRAEL.  We had been taught this by Russell M Nelson in Mission President Seminar last month and were so excited to share it with our missionaries!

I get to teach a HEALTH LESSON at each Zone Conference... basically, I have a captive audience and they are forced to listen to me preach about good health practices.
Today was SKIN DISORDERS.  Oh yeah...hot topic.
Our Assistants totally humor me in doing a skit to introduce health topics for me.  They are so funny!



We love music in this mission!

Today we had musical numbers from both zones. Elder Barley played guitar while Elder Barrus and he sang.  It was beautiful!  So much talent in our mission!

Lunch is probably the favorite time of the day!

We had a great lunch today put on by our ward here in Peoria!

 We had been hoping to have Elder Parks and Sister Parks meet.  Today they were at the same meeting!

As our mission grows, it is becoming very common to have many missionaries with the same last name.  We always pray that mail comes with both first and last names!

 This photo is of much of an MTC district that ended up at the same conference as well.  They love to follow each other's journey on the mission here in Phoenix!

 They also love to look for their signatures on the MISSION FLAG.  We are quickly running out of room...and over a year left to go!

We LOVE our Mission Fight Song!  It was sung with gusto as you can tell.  Wish you could see them in person and hear the enthusiasm we have for our mission!  WE LOVE THE APM!


We celebrated MAY AND JUNE BIRTHDAYS as well!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ELDERS ANDRUS, BURDEN, SISTERS PILCHER, NEARY and SISTER and PRESIDENT TAYLOR!

Our musical number in the afternoon was also amazing.  Elders Parks, Brothers, P. Wilson, Weston, Sisters Pilcher, Holmes and Neary.

 We finished the day with teaching our missionaries about the doctrine of REPENTANCE and then FORGIVENESS.

They were both great discussions.
We went to the scriptures to define Forgiveness and came up with a huge list of what it IS and IS NOT.
We discussed how sin is anything that separates us from God, and that we need the Atonement of Jesus Christ to help us turn back to God through repentance and forgiveness.  These principles are principles of JOY.
We also discussed that sometimes we are the hardest on ourselves.  Often we struggle to forgive ourselves because we remember the bad choices we have made, and confuse remembering with not being forgiven.  We reminded ourselves that we do remember, (Alma remembered his sins) but our sins are not WHO WE ARE.  Remembering keeps us from repeating the same mistake. (Alma was not troubled anymore by his past.)
I am personally grateful for repentance and forgiveness, the experience we gain here on earth to try and to sometimes fail...to learn and improve and experience the joy of living the commandments of God...all made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Look up some scriptures about Repentance and Forgiveness this week!  You will learn a few things too!