FINAL ZONE CONFERENCE- COTTONWOOD/FLAGSTAFF ZONES 6/14

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE TO SEE ALL PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT INCLUDING A PHOTO OF EACH MISSIONARY WITH PRESIDENT AND SISTER TAYLOR
We began our second week of Zone Conferences up in beautiful SEDONA, AZ.  It was a sweet...well, bittersweet day with these two zones as we got to counsel and share our testimonies with them.
The day began with our favorite subject...the DOCTRINE OF CHRIST, specifically, the doctrine of ENDURING TO THE END!  Perfect for this time of year!

 We LOVE the Doctrine of Christ so much!  Everything meaningful in our lives ends up coming back to our knowledge of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we can be better each day, that we can have eternal families as a result.

 Next I brought back a throw-back skit just for fun...we call it "MAN COLD!"  (Google it on You Tube to see what it was based on)
The Assistants did a great job as did President Taylor.
It was a good chance to remind the missionaries that they can BUCK UP and take care of many small medical issues themselves.  Actually, our mission does extremely well in this area, they are pretty amazing!

 Next I led a discussion, or rather, an accountability of how we are doing with using FAMILY HISTORY as a proselyting tool.
I wish I could say we are all doing amazing, but we are really just beginning to see how this can help us in our efforts to find and teach people how to follow Jesus Christ.
If you have not helped your missionary with stories or photos for their family history book, please take some time to do that.  It is such a great tool and we have been ASKED BY AN APOSTLE OF THE LORD to use this in our missionary efforts!

President Taylor made a new version of a fun bicycle safety video using photos of current missionaries.  It is so fun!  This was another throwback from an old one from the start of our mission.

 Next we had VEHICLE INSPECTION reports from Elder Rodgers.  The Rodgers are completing about 28 months in the mission with us so they pretty much know it all!
We love our CLEAN CAR AWARDS!  And a new addition, the GOLDEN PLATES for the top car in each zone to try to hold onto by maintaining their car as the cleanest!  GOOD LUCK!

We are having the joy of welcoming new office and presidency members to our staff and having them at meetings.
Rodgers, McDaniels ad Perrys at this table!  (McDaniels serve in Grand Canyon Village)

 I have been taking the MISSION QUILT around to the meetings so the missionaries can see it completed.  It is always fun seeing them trying to find their square.  It is pretty much chronological, so it is not too hard.

 After lunch we sing our MISSION FIGHT SONG.  Each time I treasure the feeling I get when I hear/sing it...and know my time is now very limited!

 We celebrated our JUNE BIRTHDAYS!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:
Elder Manzano
Elder Judkins
Elder Hancock
Elder Nielsen
President Juchau
Elder Cordero
President Taylor

 We love to sing in all languages in the mission.  ENGLISH

SPANISH

MEXICAN (OK, I know that is not a language, but the song is from Mexico "Las Mananitas")

 NAVAJO




                                                        RUSSIAN

FRONT:  Elder and Sister Rodgers, Sister King, Sister and Elder Perry, Sister and President Taylor, Sisters A Walker, S Jones, C Turner, Barton, Young, Wade and McDaniel.
ROW 2: Elders Bryant, Hall, Hancock, Judkins, Farnsworth, Albrecht, Timm, Jo Weeks, Pratt, Cordero, Arave, Juchau and McDaniel.  ROW 3: Elders Parkinson, Zaugg, Shurtleff, Z Jensen, Dickson, Livingston, Nielsen, Q Wilson, Ford, Blake, Christensen and Manzano.

After lunch we brought back the Spirit very quickly by having musical numbers by both zones.

If we could have one thing to take with us, we would want a CD of the songs we have heard while serving.

 After the musical numbers, I got to lead a discussion I have been just dying to lead since our training in April with Elder Bednar.
I call it "DECIDE NOW TO BE WEIRD!"
because that is a direct quote from Elder Bednar at our training.  This was the basis for our discussion.
We first looked at the words "Peculiar" and "Strange" to see what the scriptures say about them.  We discovered that the word PECULIAR had a positive connotation scripturally, meaning "Covenant keeping" "Treasure" "Chosen" etc.

The word STRANGE meant more what we think of today when we hear that word, but which is used to describe us at times.
We then went to the word that we often describe ourselves as, or others may use to describe members of the Church in this world.
WEIRD!

We started by making this list on the board of all the things that we could think of that we do or believe that are just weird.
For example, we are not paid to serve in our Church, and we even pay our way to serve a mission!  We are modest, we believe in chastity, we wear "Garments" we do not swear, we actually keep the 10 commandments, we believe we can progress to be like God and we believe in family.
We talked about what we can continue to do after our missions to remain weird forever!

President Taylor then led a discussion about the SUBSTANCE AND STYLE of a new Mission President and Wife.

He told them it was sort of like how we like our CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES...they have the same essential ingredients (like Preach My Gospel, the Doctrine of Christ, Love, Obedience, White Handbook etc.)
but HOW IT IS DONE just like cookies can be gooey or crispy, is the STYLE!  Style is what makes life interesting within the bounds of the Doctrine/Principles.

 I LOVE THAT WE ALL HAVE UNIQUE PERSONALITIES AND STYLE!  It makes life and each person so interesting!

Our lucky missionaries get to know a new President and Wife very soon, who from what we know, are incredible people, the kindest, best people ever!  We love them already!
They will have just the style that is needed here NOW in this incredible place!

 We finished the day with a beautiful testimony meeting of brief witnesses of Christ and what his mission and ministry mean to each of us.

We arranged time to greet, take a photo and HUG each of our missionaries before we leave on the 1st of July.

 This Google+ photo collage shows some of the photo posing we did...it just does not do justice to how much we love each one of these incredible people...and you cannot see the tears in my eyes thankfully!

We see each individual missionary for WHO THEY HAVE BECOME...and that is a special privilege to watch that growth and conversion.  We love and admire each one for the choices they have made and continue to make as they faithfully serve their Lord.


We invite you to check in with us if you live in Utah or come through to visit.  We are cheerleaders for life for all our missionaries past and present. We will get you information on when we are speaking in sacrament meeting on July 13 in Provo as well.
May the Lord bless you as you support your missionary and this great work of salvation.
This is the Lord's work, and we are privileged to be a part of it.