PHOENIX ZONE INTERVIEWS 1/13

 Our second day of ZONE INTERVIEWS were with the great PHOENIX ZONE!


As I mentioned in the previous post, interview month is quarterly, and President Taylor gets to talk with each missionary individually while the Zone Leaders and I do training with the other members of the zone.

We love it.

We talked about FINDING.  Hmm. What does that mean?

One of our most important responsibilities is to FIND people who are prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is really a comfort to know that every one of us knows Jesus Christ already from before we came to earth.  So we are helping BRING people back AGAIN to something and someone they knew before.  It gives us CONFIDENCE to understand this concept. (Alma 31:34-35)

We had a really fun "SPEED CONTACTING" activity that gave us some good practice!

Elder Rodgers then taught vehicle safety and went over new procedures and gave great advice to all our drivers and potential drivers.  They love him so much...because he loves them so much!!!

They love his CLEAN CAR AWARDS that he gives them to earn extra miles.  They love when they have the most points and win treat too!

 Next we had our practical training on BUDGETING.
While half the zone was making meal menus and shopping lists from weekly ads, the other half was in the gym playing LIFESIZE CHUTES AND LADDERS.








Remember the real game...how the little children make good choices and get to climb the ladder, or make a bad choice and have to slide back down the slide?

Well, these three missionaries all chose to shop hungry and had to slide down the same slide...sad day!

 But Elder Fenton chose to use the mission donated foods in his menus for the week so he got to climp up a ladder!

 The missionaries are really good sports...

 ...they pretty much humor me in any game I come up with.

 Elder Zayas is pretty stoked that he chose to eat fruits and veggies in his meals...he got to "Run and not be weary" as a result!

Parents...does this give you an idea of the resources that we have been able to procure to benefit these great missionaries and their investigators?
Tomatoes, bananas, apples, tampico punch, gatorade, watermelon, potatoes, cabbage and always lots and lots of bread products!

WE LOVED BEING WITH THE PHOENIX ZONE!!!!

S. PHOENIX INTERVIEWS 1/13

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


January is an interview month.  This means that President Taylor gets to have a one-on-one talk with every single missionary in the mission during this month.  It is a highlight of each quarter!
I love it because I get to come along and teach the missionaries by zone as they take turns in interviews.  We use it as a special training time for me and the zone leaders.

 This month we focused on "FiINDING" which may sound strange to someone not a missionary...but makes perfect sense to us missionaries.

One of our most important responsibilities is to FIND people who are prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is really a comfort to know that every one of us knows Jesus Christ already from before we came to earth.  So we are helping BRING people back AGAIN to something and someone they knew before.  It gives us CONFIDENCE to understand this concept.
We had a really fun "SPEED CONTACTING" activity that gave us some good practice!

 Elder Rodgers was on hand to inspect the vehicles and to teach and train on how to care for them.  Yes, he gets to teach the same things over and over and over again just like we do!!!


Our missionaries love him so much!  He gives them fun awards to earn extra miles and treats for the top scoring car!












Since we have an extended period of time with each zone, I use this time to teach practical skills.  This month was about BUDGETING!  Missionaries are given a limited budget so they can learn to spend smart!

I created a lifesize CHUTES AND LADDERS with lots of good and bad budget choices that led them up ladders or down chutes.

I had some very fun helpers set it up with me!!

Elder Castanos looks sad as he gets to the bottom of the chute...If only he had not used his emergency debit card from home to buy food...that is a NO-NO.
And poor Sister Murdock...went down her chute 4 times in a row.  You would think that she would learn not to SHOP HUNGRY!
It was tragic!

We had a spiritual feast after the game as the zone leaders led their zone through the Mission Action Plan and focused trainings on key goals.



What a blessing it was to be with the PHOENIX SOUTH ZONE for Interviews!
They are happy and obedient, having fun serving the Lord!

ZONE LEADER COUNCIL JAN 1, 2013

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR MORE PICTURES OF THIS EVENT!!

We started off the year right...with a wonderful ZONE LEADER COUNCIL.

These great priesthood holders come and share and set goals and teach and learn...and then take what they learn and teach it to their zones at monthly Zone Meeting.

 We had a little object lesson at their expense today...it was a hard one for me to participate in.

We have really been trying to help our missionaries do everything they can to preserve the dates that they set for baptism with their investigators.  The actual percentage we keep is about 4 in 10.

 So, at lunch time, I brought in all the lunch items, and then counted down the first six pizzas and...

 ...dropped them into the garbage.

 They are smiling on the outside, but cringing on the inside...trust me.  It was devastating.


I did the same thing with the large size bags of chips, throwing them away and putting out the little ones...
...throwing away the large water bottles and putting out little ones...

 ...and then there was the big cake...
"NO!  NOT THE CAKE!"  Yes, this is what they shouted.

But we cut 60% off and...

...into the trash it went as well.

 The 60% we could have had!

 ...It was a very little lunch for these young men.













We had told them we needed to host the meeting at the church because we had family in town.




In reality, I had a lovely lunch waiting at the Mission Home that they came over later to enjoy as they worked on Zone Meeting Plans.  It was a work and eat lunch.  Many of them working so hard they did not eat for a while.

And yes, some cute and sweet notes from one who knows his Mom checks out the blog.
Hi LaDawn!!

 It was a GREAT day of council!



We have several NEW ZONE LEADERS that I forgot to get a separate photo of:
Elders Marble, D. Gerber, Hall, Hilton, Robinson and Dunn.
THEY ARE WONDERFUL LEADERS!

 Out by the fruit trees in January!
FRONT:  President and Sister Taylor, Elders Marble, Pollmeier, Hernandez, Castanos, K. Gerber, D. Gerber, Campbell, Robinson, Hamblin, Weston.
Back: Elders Nield, Burden, Bartleson, Hilton, Griffin, Dunn, Lancaster, Steinfeldt, Bolton, Hastings, Hall, Whipple, Lynn and Miller.

After the meeting we loaded them up with food from our donated sources to take to their zones.  What a blessing it is to have these great resources to bless them and/or those that they teach!!

We appreciate the loving service our Zone Leaders and Assistants provide to the missionaries that they serve with.  It is meaningful and so helpful to this great work to have a priesthood line of authority that really works!!

WELCOME BACK ELDER JENSEN!

We have been looking forward to having Elder Jensen back with us in the great Arizona Phoenix Mission!



It was like one of our favorite Christmas Presents for him to arrive this time of year!!












So, of course, he was really at home in the Mission Home...

Oh yes, helping me make lunch!!
We had some pretty good leftover Cafe Rio knockoff Pulled Pork Salads!

Elder Jensen is ready and excited to serve the Lord here in this part of the vinyard.  He knows and loves the area already.

We are THRILLED to have him back and look forward to serving with him this year!

SO GRATEFUL FOR OUR MISSIONARIES AND HOW STRONG THEIR DESIRE TO SERVE IS!!!

Yes, and we are grateful to have Braden back for a visit to play photographer...we have really missed him this fall semester.

Just two more months and he will be down with us for a month!!

WELCOME ELDER JENSEN!  We love you so much!

YET MORE DECEMBER VISITORS

The week after Christmas we had a couple more returned missionary families come see us.

We were able to have both Aaron Johnson and his folks...

 And Shaun Hampton and his family come visit for a while.

It was so good having them back in the Mission Home.  I hope it feels as good to them to be back for a visit as it does for us to have them in our home!  They are both doing just GREAT!

THANK YOU FOR VISITING!




Mid December we were blessed to have about 10 returned missionaries stop by to see us.



First came Sisters Wells, Overy and Jeanfreau...







I am pretty sure that these shoes are NOT MISSION APPROVED!!!

But they are pretty darn cute on RETURNED missionaries!!












Then came Jessie Burton with her Dad and Stepmom.  They were down for her brothers wedding in Mesa.



We met Sister Graves that same night...but did not get a picture with her :(  Next time!!

 The next day we saw Elders Buttars, Mouritsen and Kennington.


They were checking out the Mission Flag...

 ...and the Mission Quilt...

 ...and the Mission Gatorade!

 Great to see Thomas, Colton and Laken (Who we just met, but immediately adopted!)

They had gone to a Suns/Jazz game the night before and sent me pics to put on here.

 Even got on the jumbotron!

 We had met Elders Bird and Giles the night before at a wedding reception they were at, and invited them to go hiking with us near the temple site.

We had a great time hiking and visiting with them.  They were very good sports...as you can see, it was a rainy day, but good to get out and about!
Our returned missionaries are very important to us.  We were called to an eternal calling.  We are not Mission President and wife for 3 years only...this is our calling the rest of our lives, which is eternal.







We met another of our returned missionaries at the temple grounds in Mesa; Tyler Holden was there with his family for a funeral of a relative and had let us know he was in the area.  It was so good to see him there!  We only wished we got to meet his sweet wife, but she had to work.
GREAT TO SEE YOU!

 We love these people for who they are and who they are becoming!!! They are choice sons and daughters!

DECEMBER DEPARTURES

It has been an incredibly busy December...and wonderful!
One of the wonders was that we let 3 more amazing missionaries leave this field of service to go on to serve elsewhere.
This group are leaving a few weeks early in order to start college the first of January.







 We recognize Elders McCauley, Carroll and K. Beck for their dedicated and loving service for the past two years.  They love the Lord and they love their neighbors here in Phoenix.

We had a lovely departing dinner with this group in the Mission Home along with the Kings and our visiting family.  The Kings brought these great sugar cookies...shaped like AIRPLANES AND GIRLS among other things.

 As you can see, they were thrilled to have the girl-cookies.  OK, I forced them into posing with them for me.

 We had Family Home Evening with them that night and after the lesson, we played the traditional "Don't Eat Pete" game with Braden leading out to teach them how to play.


It was an interesting game because you are supposed to shout...and we couldn't because of the baby sleeping...so we "whisper shouted" which was still pretty hysterical.

Yes, they are all very good sports and we have so much fun together.

 The real highlight of the night is when they share a brief testimony of what their Savior Jesus Christ means to them.  Two years of fulltime service in His behalf brings you closer to Christ than many of life's experiences, so this is a very tender time.


We know these young men will go on and be successful in whatever they undertake; not saying it will be easy...just saying that they know how to do it right!  They will be guided.

We love you three so much!  We are better people because we know you!

BEST WISHES TO YOU BACK HOME!!