FINAL ZONE CONFERENCE- PRESCOTT 6/14

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE TO LINK TO ALL PHOTOS OF THIS ZONE.  EACH MISSIONARY HAS A PERSONAL PHOTO WITH PRESIDENT AND MYSELF.

The month we never thought would really come has come...
we have served in the ARIZONA PHOENIX MISSION almost 3 years now.
We feel like parents trying to give that last word of advice to our children before they leave to college or something, except the tables are turned and we are the ones that have to go.
So, we scheduled another month of Zone Conferences for our specialized trainings this month to teach a few more things from our trainings in April with Elder Bednar, Foster and Robbins.
President Taylor opened the day with a doctrinal discussion about ENDURING TO THE END.  We discuss a point of THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST every month of our mission.  This month is the doctrine of enduring.  Sort of perfect for us!

As usual, I had a health presentation, with a throw back skit we call "MANCOLD" that we did about 15 months ago and just had to bring it back because it was so funny!

 To see the video I took this skit from, google "Mancold" to find the Brittish skit on YouTube.

Good times, and the Assistants were in fine form!
I encouraged the missionaries to keep taking good care of themselves.  Sister Griffin will be amazing at helping them with their medical needs!  We have so many resources here, we are just blessed!
I also discussed our goals in FAMILY HISTORY to use this as a tool with every group of people we teach.

Speaking of blasts from the past...President Taylor re-made the old BIKE SAFETY VIDEO using photos of current missionaries and with the trademark YouTube video of the little kid who gives the speech about how YOU CAN DO IT, I KNOW YOU CAN!  YOU CAN BE HAPPY OF YOURSELF!
We love to make fun of ourselves on our mission and just have fun with being a bike mission!

Yes, we do have vehicles though...and in Prescott, everyone has a vehicle!  So, Elder Roders was there doing inspections.
Our missionaries love their CLEAN CAR AWARDS!

Even our couples are in on it!
And the Templetons even won the GOLDEN PLATES AWARD!!!
Their car was the cleanest, so they get to have the Cleanest Car in the Zone Golden Plates Award until someone else takes it away by beating them!

 We had a beautiful musical number by the zone.  Super talented musicians!!

 We brought our completed quilt to the conference so everyone could see where they ended up...most signed just a square of fabric before it was sewed row by row over the past 3 years.  It was fun to see them looking for their square.

 And we always take photos of each table of missionaries at lunch.  We know Moms love to see them in their element and food is definitely one of their elements!

 Another element is our mission fight song.
After we sing our thank you song to our lunch helpers, we gather for our fight song.  I never get tired of hearing it!

 We celebrated JUNE BIRTHDAYS!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:
Elder Templeton
Sister Ratto
Elder Davis
Elder McCuch
President Juchau
President Taylor

Front:  Elder and Sister Rodgers, Sister King, Sister and Elder Perry, President Juchau, Elder and Sister Templeton, Sister and Elder Williams. Standing Floor: Elder Bryant, Sisters Jensen, Collette, Elders Hernandez, Hunsaker, Westlund, Sisters Ratto, DeMille, Bennett, E Walker, Probeyahn, Muhlestein, Sister and President Taylor. Sitting Stage: Elders Rushton, Hicks, Cook, N Nelson, B Nelson, Sutcliffe, Davis, Blackburn. Standing Stage: Elders Jackson, Bolinger, McCuch, Graziano, Starr, Wardle, Rusk and Weiler.

In the afternoon session, we discussed a great principle..."DECIDE NOW TO BE WEIRD"
This is a direct quote from Elder Bednar and we really got into it.  We talked about the words "peculiar" or "strange" and what the scriptures say about them...somehow "weird" is not in that vocabulary.
We made a list of all the things that could be considered "weird" about us as members of the church...and then talked about how we can decide now to stay that way...even some things from our missions need to stay.
the great truth we discovered on this journey was that all of the things that we do are based on COVENANTS WE HAVE MADE through baptism or the temple...and as such, we are given the POWER and the STRENGTH to keep our covenants no matter what life throws at us!
President Taylor then led a discussion about the difference between SUBSTANCE AND STYLE...the Griffins will come in and teach the Doctrine of Christ, they will lead by the same handbooks...but their style will be different, and that is how it is supposed to be!  We love them so much and feel the Spirit each time we visit with them on the phone.  We know they are called to take over this great mission!!
We are grateful for our opportunity to fulfill covenants by serving this mission.  We plan to BE WEIRD FOREVER!  We are cheerleaders for your children forever as well!  They are part of our eternal mission family.
We look forward to meeting many of you in the future.  We thank you again for your wonderful children who have made promises to God that they are fulfilling and as a result they are learning and growing deep roots of conversion that nothing can sway them in their desire for truth and eternal life. We love and admire them so much!
 (Click on the link at the top for a photo of us with each missionary individually.)