Pressing Onward

  I love these missionaries!  I can't express how much I've come to enjoy being with them, teaching them, and learning from them!  Again, I haven't been faithful as I should be in keeping up with this blog, but here's more of what's been going on...

     The quarterly interviews with the zone training meetings are over.  Wow-- this took us two weeks to travel through the mission and complete.  In the zone meetings, President Trayner took some time teaching about obedience, discouragement, and having vision.  He taught the missionaries that they should avoid using the word 'dis'-'courage' because nobody can take your courage away from you except yourself. It's alright to say that we're disappointed.  He also taught them that the Lord has a much bigger picture than we do. He told them about one little town that he served in while in Mexico.  One Sunday, no one in the branch presidency showed up and he wrote in his journal that "someday that little branch will just dry up and blow away."  Ten years later there was a stake there, and there's been more growth ever since.  I later spoke about dealing with stress- following the schedule, obeying the rules (even if we don't understand why), and having an organized environment help alleviate stress.   I also helped the Zone leaders and Assistants teach about working with the members.  We gave the missionaries some M&M's (for Members and Missionaries)  and encouraged the missionaries to more effectively use the members.  There are alot of members who want to share the gospel, but really don't know HOW- like what to say or how to approach the subject.  Example is not enough, members need to open their mouths. We encouraged the missionaries to teach the members the HOW'S that they need so that the member is the one that does the inviting and the missionaries will do the teaching. 

   I'll share some pictures from the last three zones:



Brownsville Zone




Harlingen Zone





Hildago Zone