ADELANTE PUES, ELDER JONES!

 One of our pleasures is to occasionally host some Visa Waiting Missionaries in our mission.
We have had Elder H Jones for about 4 months now and it was really hard to let him go!
If we did not know how much he will help his mission in Argentina, we could not do it!
His apartment-companions were there to see him off on a preparation day!

 The unique thing for Elder Jones was that his true home was actually in the metro Phoenix area...so he has been close to home since leaving the MTC in Provo.  Not every missionary could have handled that well, but he was so obedient and focused that he just jumped in and learned and grew and worked hard and was ready to go when the time came!

 We got him all checked in and luggage weighed in perfectly and then we headed upstairs.

 I do not think he was surprised to see his family there waiting to say goodbye to him.   After all, they live so close!

It was great to meet them and to see how supportive they are of him.  He is a special young man, and we know he was meant to be with us for the short time that he was here.  We learned from his example how to do hard things (leaving your twin for the first time to serve a mission/ serving so close to home etc.) and we feel he learned from the obedient culture of this mission, things that he will use as a leader in his mission in Argentina.

And away he goes!  On to share the Gospel in another part of the Lord's vinyard!

We will miss him, but are so glad for him to get to go to his assigned mission!

VAYA CON DIOS ELDER JONES!

ZONE CONFERENCE: Buckeye/Goodyear and W. Maricopa Zones 8/13

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Last day of Zone Conferences...we went all the way to the Buckeye Stake Center, way out in beautiful, rural farmland.

We had elders trying on the rack of used suits we brought before the meeting, and finding some great fits!

 We also had Elders shining up their shoes at our "Arise and Shine Forth" shoe shine station!

They were so happy to get shiny and newer elders were learning tips from the older ones...no, Elder Kroeger, that toothbrush is NOT for your teeth!

We had a couple of AMAZING musical numbers today starting with the W Maricopa Zone.  They brought the Spirit so strongly into our meeting!
What a talented bunch of missionaries!

During the morning session we learned about the principle of FAITH.  It was taught simply and with examples.  This is how we learn.
Next we had some great discussion on RULES VS PRINCIPLES  that really helped us understand the WHY of some of the missionary handbook rules, and the why of mission guidelines as well as help us take ACCOUNTABILITY for our choices on so many things that are just not spelled out for us.  When we base our decisions on eternal principles, we cannot go wrong.  Think of the Jews that had 613 rules for the Sabbath instead of one priniciple...KEEP THE SABBATH DAY HOLY.  Which is easier?  Well, it is up to you!  I LOVE PRINCIPLES!

My discussion was on Stress/Rest/ Positive Thinking.  Ask your missionary about ANTS!  I will give you a clue.  These ants you want to SQUASH!

Elders Negative Ned and Positive Pete helped illustrate the power of positive thinking in a skit to introduce my topic.  Is your water bottle half empty or half full????  The choice on how to see it is yours!  Yup, based on the Principle of Agency!

 Lunch was a great time as usual.  We had two full tables of Sisters today...the most I have seen at one conference...and growing!  YAY SISTERS!

We appreciate the wards and Stakes that provide these meals!  I am grateful I do not have to cook every day!!!

 After lunch, we sing a thank you song to our hosting Sisters and then our MISSION FIGHT SONG, which is so great!  We had great enthusiasm today!

 HAPPY AUGUST BIRTHDAYS TO:
Elder Okelberry
Elder Graziano
Elder Livingston
Elder Dickson
Elder Dart
Elder Arave

We sang to them in English/Spanish/Portuguese/Tongan & French

 Elder Lutz and Gerritsen did a musical number to start our afternoon session and it was AMAZING...even set to the tune from Amazing Grace.  Beautiful!

We had our training with this zone to head them towards ONLINE PROSELYTING for an hour a day.  This is a big step for the Church to roll this out and we are one of the first non-test missions to take the whole mission online.  (We are testing digital devices but those are not being rolled out yet.)

Please help your missionary keep this sacred trust to use these online tools to fulfill their purpose as missionaries only...in no way to just communicate or socialize.
Please take the challenge yourself to:
MAKE A MORMON.ORG PROFILE
Make a FACEBOOK PAGE that is worthy of a member of Christ's Church.
Use your BLOG to share what you beleive.
INVITE people to learn what you believe by going online to MORMON.ORG to learn more.
The first word of our purpose is INVITE.  We invite YOU to invite!  MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK IS WHERE IT IS AT!  If you need ideas, ASK YOUR MISSIONARY, THEY CAN HELP!!!

ZONE CONFERENCE: Deer Valley/Glendale North & Phoenix N. 8/13

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This week we continued on with our Zone Conferences.  We LOVE meeting with missionaries in relatively small groups of a couple zones at a time.  Nothing is small in this mission anymore though!
We had Elders shining shoes at the "Arise and Shine Forth" shoeshine station outside of the chapel before we began.  Good way to start the day!

 Our morning session involved a great presentation on FAITH by President Taylor and was the foundation to our next discussion on RULES VS PRINCIPLES.  Let me just say that if all of us understood principles, our lives would be so much more happy!
There could never be enough rules to guide us if we required rules for every decision we have to make each day.  I personally am so grateful for ETERNAL PRINCIPLES based on eternal truths.  They will not fail me!

 For example, the Jews had 613 rules for what you could or could not do on the Sabbath.  We have one principle:  Keep The Sabbath Day Holy.
Principles answer the WHY in things.

We love Zone Conferences because we also have musical numbers.  Today was no exception, they were both great!  We have a very musical mission!

 There were several "Skills Trainings" during the day where companionships or a couple of companionships would get together to practice a skill that was taught.  We learn a lot from these practices.  Practice brings revelation.

I usually introduce my health topic by having our Assistants do a skit.  Today was "Negative Ned and Positive Pete" to introduce Stress, Rest and the Power of Positive Thinking topic.

They do a great job and made it really fun!  We poke fun at ourselves and really are learning lifelong skills that will bless us in our relationships now and in the future.  Missions are such a great place to learn life skills!

Remember the principles we talked about earlier?  Well, positive thinking really is principle based.  Agency and Accountability are huge in how we deal with our thoughts and what we choose to do with them!  Put on YOUR rose colored glasses!

 At lunch, we had a bunch of ties, suits, shirts, slacks and other items for Elders to take.  We have shared a LOT at these conferences!  My garage will be less crowded and I am so happy to see Elders wearing things that were just hanging around!

Lunch is also a favorite time just to socialize and share as fellow missionaries.  This stake decorated with school supplies and donated the table decor to the missionaries!

 We bring our Mission Flag to the conferences and it is great to see if you can find your signature on the flag!  There are SO MANY signatures now!

Our Mission Fight Song is really enthusiastic and we love to sing it together.  We pretty much have THE BEST in the Arizona Phoenix Mission!!!

 We celebrated August Birthdays!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:
Sister Gacutan
Sister Larson
Sister Turner
Sister Brewer
Elder Weiler

 Another great musical number after lunch to start our afternoon off with the Spirit!

President Taylor then taught these two zones what it will take to be ONLINE PROSELYTING MISSIONARIES.  It is a lot of work, but they are up to the tasks!

The amount of FAITH they will need to do this is huge.  The PRINCIPLES this work is based on will need to be understood...do you see how our morning discussions led to this point?
These missionaries are striving to be PERFECTLY OBEDIENT.  This is what it will take to have the focus to be an online missionary!
AND YOU CAN HELP!
FAMILY AND FRIENDS,  Please allow your missionary to teach online without distracting them.  They are not to use online tools just to communicate with you.  You may be asked to  help teach a lesson or to give referrals on those that they can teach online.  It would be good for each of you to have a MORMON.ORG PROFILE and to look at your FACEBOOK PAGE to see if it represents you as a member of Christ's Church.  How often do you post things about what you believe, or invite someone to come to something or do something that would promote their faith and lead to questions about the Church?  This is a Church that relies on MEMBER MISSIONARIES...so follow the lead of your child and invite others to come unto Christ in every activity of your life including YOUR online activities!  If you need help, ask your missionary, go to LDS.org for ideas or check out our FAQ blog where we will post more helps for you soon!

Zone Conference- Flagstaff/Prescott/Cottonwood 8/13

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We ended our week of Zone Conferences up in Prescott with our three northern zones.  It was a great day!

It started off with a surprise!  Elders Burbank and Skalka had made this amazing coatrack for President Taylor and my anniversary last Sunday!  What a treasure!

We had to meet in the chapel with such a large group, but it was comfortable and worked fine.





President Taylor set the tone for the day talking on FAITH.  Our understanding increased of this basic and underlying principle of the Gospel.

 After this initial discussion, the Assistants took over with a great discussion on RULES vs PRINCIPLES which just helped us understand faith even more and the WHY of doing things...the WHY of commandments etc.

It was perfect before also discussing
"Tighten Up 2.0" our second go with taking things up a notch in this mission where obedience is something that is really such a happy thing!

 We had some GREAT musical numbers.  The whole time that Sisters McAllister and Summerhays were singing, I was thinking..."No wonder these two were supposed to be together!"  Their voices blended just perfectly!  Now that's companionship unity!

 Our Assistants, Elders Bartleson and Knobbe, humor me in doing a skit to introduce my topic of REST and STRESS and how to SMASH THOSE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS!

You are seeing  Elders "Positive Pete and Negative Ned" at their finest!  They do a great job!

We had a wonderful discussion, principle based, on how the power of our thoughts is very real and controllable.  Look at the world through some rose-colored glasses yourself sometime...play the GLAD GAME...say "Well at least...a few times a day and make things seem better all the time!

 Lunctime is so fun!  The chance to make new friends and renew some old friendships.

 Elder and Sister McDaniels met some of the misionaries again as well as the new couple in this area, the Templetons.  We now have 3 couples in our mission besides the ones in our office.

The Mission Fight Song is sung with gusto!

 AUGUST BIRTHDAYS were celebrated...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:
Elder Martinsen
Elder Jackson
Elder Hall

Another great musical number for the afternoon session by Elders Hall, Bangerter, Gorham and Judkins.  

 For the afternoon, we spent about an hour learning how to be effective ONLINE PROSELYTING MISSIONARIES.  This is no small thing.  It requires complete obedience to the standards set forth and complete trust on the part of the Missionary Department and President Taylor.  We have incredibly powerful missionaries because of the level of obedience that they employ.  It will take some time to learn how to use these tools to use our time the most wisely, but we know it will bless the WORLD.

After some great instruction from Zone Leaders on INVITING, and some time spent on Using our Online Time Wisely, we wrapped up the day remembering that this is the time where the Lord truly is HASTENING HIS WORK!  It is an honor to work with your son or daughter in this work.  They are amazing!

After the meeting, we had some great coats and suits to give away as well as leftover cookies!

It was a wonderful day with these zones!  Amazing how I can learn more each time that I hear the same topics over and over again!  Love it!

Our day was not over.  We followed over Elders Nelson and Lane to Bagdad,AZ for an interview for baptism there.  It was our first time in this little city, but we LOVED IT!  The drive there was picturesque and the people were delightful!
The two hour ride home afterwards was not too bad either.

We love this work and just do not get tired of serving with your missionary!  Now, go and study some of the topics that we studied...go and invite someone to do something to build their faith...go and share what you believe online in some form.
GO AND DO THOU LIKEWISE

Zone Conference- Surprise 8/13

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Our second day of Zone Conference was just with one zone, the Surprise/Surprise N zone.  As I have said before, our zones are named after the stakes that they serve.

It was great to have personal time with this zone! We all learned so much as each member of the zone participated a lot since they were few in numbers.

 President Taylor started the day with a discussion on FAITH.  It was the perfect start to our day and led to another great discussion on RULES vs PRINCIPLES led by our Assistants.  These two things were the foundation for the entire day...and pretty much they are the foundation for our lives!

You can see our trusty Assistants here as they perform a skit to introduce my topic for discussion: rest and relaxation/ how to stamp out negative thoughts.

 Hence the nametags "Positive Pete" and "Negative Ned."  They do a great job!


Lunch is always a favorite time.  Socializing is always important.  We always get treated so special by the ward or stake who host the luncheon and I am so grateful for their service to us.  It makes my life so much easier!

 We also had a "Arise and Shine Forth" shoeshine station for anyone who needed a little shine for the day.  Love the smell of shoe polish!

Good job elders Parry and Miller!  President gave them a few pointers!

 It is always fun to find your signature on the mission flag.  It is getting really full!

 After lunch, we sing to our hosts and then do our Mission Fight Song, which is just so fun!

 We celebrate birthdays for the month.  In this zone it was only Elder Miller who has a birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER MILLER!

 After lunch there was a musical number by many in the zone, which was just beautiful!
They sang "A Child's Prayer."
The rest of the afternoon was instruction on how to be an effective ONLINE PROSELYTING MISSIONARY!
We are authorized to use Facebook, Blogs, Skype etc. as tools to fulfill our missionary purpose...that is the key TO FULFILL OUR MISSIONARY PURPOSE.  Please remember that, and do not look for excuses to communicate online with your missionary.  They will be learning how to make this an effective use of time for only 1 hour a day.  You can help by reading the instruction on our other FAQ blog and by becoming a better online missionary yourselves!

We encourage you to study the topics that your missionary is studying:
Faith
Rules vs Principles
Power of Positive Thinking
Online proselyting
Obedience
Wise Use of Time

All of these are based on eternal truths that will bless our lives not only now but for the eternities!  missionary work and what we learn as missionaries is just incredible!  What a great foundation of truth to build the rest of eternity on!

ZONE CONFERENCE- Glendale and Peoria 8/13

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Quarterly we conduct ZONE CONFERENCES with all our Mission.  This involves getting 1-3 zones together at a time for instruction and mutual learning.
Our first conference this session was with the GLENDALE and PEORIA/PEORIA N zones.  Incidentally, our zones are named after the stakes that they serve.   Some serve just one stake and others two,

We had a shoeshine station set up where Elders could "Arise and Shine Forth" so they would look their best for the conference.  They did a great job!

We had great instruction from President Taylor on Faith.  He teaches in such a simple way that all can understand this basic and oh, so important principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is the founding principle upon which all others are based.

One of the things that I love about conferences are that we get to hear musical numbers.  Our mission is very musical and we love to hear them sing!

 Our great Assistants taught about RULES vs PRINCIPLES and then led a discussion on how we are tightening up on obedience...constantly.

It was so positive and so understandable.

This photo shows them in their roles as "POSITIVE PETE AND NEGATIVE NED" as I had them do a skit to introduce my topic of rest and stress and how we can control our thoughts to crush the negative ones.

 Lunch is always a treasured time to visit and share a meal provided by the local stake or wards.  They take such good care of us and we appreciate it so very much!

 Missionaries always try to find their signature on the Mission Flag...so many signatures!!

 Today I also brought a bunch of suits and shirts and ties I have been collecting over the year to try to give a few to new owners.  We found some!  Always great to recycle a good suit!

 We end lunchtime with our Mission Fight Song, which is just so fun to sing with enthusiasm!

 We celebrated AUGUST BIRTHDAYS:

Happy Birthday to:

Elder Mullenix
Elder Elder Wainwright
Elder Stulen
Elder Laititi
Elder Nelson

We then heard the birthday song in Samoa...(Elder Laititi)

...In Swedish (Elder Stulen)

...and in Portuguese (Sister Morrison)

The afternoon brought another great musical number.

Training on how to use online proselyting tools and instruction by zone leaders on INVITING and by the APs on Wise Use of Time...key in online proselyting!  The internet can eat up time faster than none other!

At the end of the day, each missionary received a stack of handouts on:
Basic principles of online proselyting
How to create a Mormon.org profile
How to use Blogs to share the Gospel
How to clean up their facebook page to use as a missionary
How to eliminate Automatic Negative Thoughts

Ask your missionary to share any of these topics with you!

How well do you understand the WHY of things...the PRINCIPLES behind what we do?

How does your online activity reflect who you are as a member of the family of God?

We can all be more effective missionaries as we learn to use our time wisely and as we learn to INVITE in all that we do!

Please see our FAQ blog for more information on how we are using these tools go to:
http://azphoenixmission.blogspot.com/2013/08/an-online-proselyting-mission.html