Dear Family,
Papa Josh enjoyed all the messages and phone
calls for his birthday. Thanks to all who sent happy wishes. He loved all
the FaceTime singing, chats, and grandchildren making silly faces. It was a
busy Sunday, so we’re looking forward to really celebrating
when the Walkers and Haleigh arrive to spend some of Spring Break in Grand
Junction.
Our mission runs on 6-week cycles. President
Gifford counts the time by how many Zone Conferences we have—we have two down
and ten to go! Last week was Zone Conference for the Western Slope so we
put 600 miles on the JEEP, stayed in hotels in Craig and Rifle, and spent our
days in training and working with missionaries. One fun feature, after lunch,
is singing to all those who have birthdays that month, which means that five
times Josh enjoyed the birthday song, along with the Giffords (their birthdays
are the 15th and the 17th).
If you’re interested, here’s the schedule for
Zone Conference:
8:30 am Arrive and
quiet preparation
9:00 am Greeting,
prayer, song, recitations (Our Purpose and D&C 4), Mission Business
9:30 am APs: Preach
My Gospel Training (the Restoration)
10:15 am Pres. Gifford:
Scripture Training (“A Perfect Brightness of Hope”)
10:45 am Holts: Preach
My Gospel Training (working with ward and stake leaders)
11:30 am Sister Gifford:
Book of Mormon Training
12:00 pm Prayer, lunch,
zone photo, birthdays
12:50 pm Musical Number
1:00 pm Sister
Training Leaders: Handbook training (Focusing on Our Purpose)
1:30 pm Sister
Gifford: Technology Safeguards Review
2:30 pm Zone Leaders: Preach
My Gospel Training (companionship study)
3:15 pm Zone Leaders:
Invitation to Act (review all the day’s lessons)
3:30 pm Closing song,
prayer
The topics change from ZC to ZC but the schedule
stays the same. We all work together to plan a variety of activities in each
lesson so the missionaries stay engaged and excited. We’re trying to follow the
advice of Elder Nattress that, “The best ideas are caught not taught.”
This week a delightful disruption changed the
schedule a bit (that’s why we had one ZC last Friday instead of five
conferences in five days). On Wednesday we picked up four Temple Square
sisters. We took them to a church building for lunch and then and spent the
afternoon in training and orienting them to the CDSM. They'll be a strong
addition to our mission for the three months they are in Colorado.
Saturday we took a P-Day and went to Men’s
Wearhouse. For his birthday Josh picked out two custom suits. That night we
went to the baptism for a mother and two daughters. Such a powerful
Spirit!
Since it was Daylight Savings we got less than 5
hours of sleep before we had to leave at 5:20 am for our 6:45 am meeting in
Montrose. After we met with the Montrose Stake President and high councilman
over missionary work, we drove to Gunnison and attended meetings 10 am-1 pm,
and then the Ward Mission Council, and Josh interviewed a disobedient but
repentant elder. We stopped in the Curecanti National Recreation Area for lunch
and then detoured to Ouray (100 miles from Grand Junction) so we could see the
San Juan Mountains—also called the American Alps. We laughed at the Ouray Hot
Springs, where the lifeguards were wearing long pants and ski parkas (it was
only 38 degrees). On our drive back to GJ we enjoyed a delightful conversation
with Robyn and Scott Bergstrom. They are getting ready to retire and had loads
of questions. We went straight to the Institute Building so Josh could do a
baptismal interview. She’ll get baptized on Saturday!
In Relief Society the lesson was on President Nelson’s
talk on the Book of Mormon. A seminary teacher shared that each morning the
students report their scripture reading with “I D.I.D. it (“Do It Daily”). The
teenagers also like to say: “I ‘feasted’ on the scriptures. I didn’t just
‘lick’ them.”
Thought for the week: Your patriarchal blessing
is like having your own section of the Doctrine and Covenants.
Enjoy a wonderful week. Sure do love ya,
Karen/MOM
