Baptism, Zone Conference, and P Day, Oh My!

PDay errands

Playin at the park on Pday

WalMart makes us do crazy things

The fridge went out.  And I'm planking...

We know from experience that this is NOT true!  

Where to begin.. Zone Conference was amazing! Elder and Sister Zwick are awesome people and we learned so much. They started off the conference by asking us what are we willing to change? At one point we were doing practices on simplifying and testifying. It is so much more powerful that way. We had to pick a principle from PMG, share an experience/story, testify, and then share a scripture. There were three different zones there and so they had a companionship from every zone go to the pulpit and give their example. Well because I am still a new missionary we got picked! So we shared the principle that when we teach members in their homes they will be more prepared and willing to go out and teach with you. We had done that with a recent convert and then had her come to a lesson with Sammy and it went really well. Then Sister Brog shared part of Helaman 5:50 where "many were convinced." But because we went up and demonstrated we got our names in Elder Zwick's PMG! So that was really exciting. 

Sister Zwick, Sister Kelly, Sister Brog, Elder Zwick

(Elder Zwick is the one who spoke a conference ago about his wife jumping out of the truck with their baby.)

At the end of the conference we had a testimony meeting and they were only suppose to be 40 seconds long. There was and elder at the front timing them and then he would raise his hand when time was up. The spirit was sooo strong! I love testimony meetings. They can strengthen us so much if we are open to listening to the spirit.

I got to see Sister Garner, my MTC companion, at our Zone Conference!

Sister Kelly and Sister Brog

Elder Zwick also announced Ipads!! He said that we will all get one in the next 30-60 days. I am not sure how it is all going to work but they are only going to cost about $270 instead of $400. I will let you know when i have more details. 

That night they had a big stake meeting about member missionary work. Elder Zwick spoke then as well and just gave all these ways on how members can be better missionaries. He challenged everyone to have the missionaries in their home for lessons with an investigator. Whether you find the investigator or the missionaries bring someone. Missionary work is so much more successful when the members are involved. 

Zone Conference was in Shreveport and that is about a two hour drive from New Boston so we stayed the night and then had meetings in the morning as well. We stayed with the sisters in the area, Sister Zemp and Sister Huffacker. Sister Zemp was one of the Sister Brog's trainers and Sister Huffacker came out with me. It was a lot of fun to talk with them! Before this trip sister Brog had told me how bad of a driver sister Zemp was and i got to see it first hand! We were driving to the church building after dinner and all of a sudden all these cars are honking at us and sister Zemp says, "Oh! i am going the wrong direction on a one way road!" What the heck!? so then she starts honking her horn to let the people coming know that we were coming! Thankfully there was no accident but we were freaking out! 

The next morning we met back at the church and talked about everything we learned during zone conference. It was really good to review and take more notes. After we got to watch Meet the Mormons! It was soo good! We loved it and it was like a mini break from the missionary world, kind of weird. 

We drove home after the movie and on the way stopped by Xander's for his final lesson! It went really good and so did his interview the next day! 

Sister Kelly, Xander, Sister Brog

Saturday was the baptism, and it happened! But it was the most chaotic thing ever! We got to the church at two and started filling the font and making programs. At three we had to leave so we could meet with Sammy. Then we came back to the church at four and had an hour to get everything ready. The programs weren't looking how we wanted and then they wouldn't print. The bishop was the one who baptized Xander and he didn't show up until 5 minutes before we were suppose to start. The two men we thought we were going to be here to witness ended up being late and so we didn't know if we were even going to be able to have the baptism. The main point is that he was baptized and the spirit was there at the end of the meeting. His grandma is a little crazy and she was the one who was suppose to give the closing prayer. She wanted to read from Psalms and until we told her we don't give recited prayers. It was crazy! But I was able to give the talk on the Holy Ghost and that was really special. I am so proud of Xander. He is going to be an example to the rest of his family! 

This is what our faces do when everything is crazy before a baptism!!!

Baptism Day!! 10-18-14

After the baptism we had a scout auction and chili cook off. It was a lot of fun and there were a lot of cool things they auctioned off. Me and sister Brog made a cake and it was so yummy! and amazingly decorated. Sister Brog is an amazing baker. The ward members are all so friendly. There is so much dessert donated to the auction they didn't have dessert with the chili cook off. But when someone buys a dessert they cut it all up or pass it around and everyone gets some kind of dessert. It was a lot of fun!

Our practice cake.  Mmmm

The finished product!

We have miracles happen all the time but this week we had a big one. I don't remember if i have told you but Sammy is being kicked out of her house. The guy that owns the house was a friend of hers and because she won't sleep with him she wants her to leave. So she has been looking for a place to move. Well we went to the Caswell's (a family in our ward) for dinner on Thursday and sister Caswell's mother was there. Right as we were leaving she asked if we knew anyone who was looking for a place to live... Yes!! We got her information and gave it to Sammy. They have talked to each other and are moving in hopefully at the end of this month! Because Sammy has been so busy with moving we decided it would be best if we moved her baptism date back until the middle of November. But she is doing so good studying and reading. She is almost half way through Alma now and just keeps going. We gave her an Ensign and she has read most of that as well. She just needs to commit and that isn't going to happen until she is moved in and not thinking about other things. 

Our friend Sammy

Sunday we had Elder Houston come to the ward. He is the second councilor in the Mission Presidency and it was really good. He taught the third hour lesson all about allowing us to come into members homes. He told them that because i was a new missionary i needed to be giving lots of practice lessons and if i don't give them now it is going to be their fault it im not a successful missionary haha we have a meal appointment i think every day this week now! So that should be really nice! 

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers. You are all such great examples to me. I know i say it every week but i love my mission. I love feeling the spirit all day and helping others to also feel of that spirit. This gospel blesses lives and when we are willing to give everything we have Christ will make up the rest. In my studies this week i was reading in Helaman and the Lamanites are the more righteous ones. In chapter 6 towards the end of the chapter the Lamanites hunted down the Gadiantan robbers until they were all the destroyed. What an example to us. We are surrounded with sin but we shouldn't just avoid it or dance around it. We should be hunting it and destroying it from our lives. And then filling it will the light of Christ! The scripture are amazing. Make sure you are reading them!

I love you all, have a good week.

Love, Sister Erika Kelly