Dear Family and Friends,
It is finally starting to cool down here
in Georgia. A couple of weeks ago it was still in the mid-90’s but this
morning there was a freeze warning. When we arrived here in May we were
told that it was unusually hot for that time of year. Then in September
and October once again we were told that it was unusually hot for the time of
year. Now we are being told that it usually isn’t this cold this early in
the fall. So the only time we have been exposed to “normal” was in the
middle of the summer. Nevertheless, we love it here and we are trying to
enjoy every day no matter what the weather.
We had a wonderful October. The
highlight of the month was our trip to Savannah to the Mission Leadership
Seminar. All of the 15 mission presidents and their wives in the
Southeast Area meet together twice a year for several days of training.
Area Medical Advisors are invited to the fall meeting and so we went. It
was great to see all of the Mission Presidents/wives who we have been working
with and who we love. The first day of training was done by the Area
Presidency: Elder Martino, Elder Stanfill, Elder Montoya and Elder Tai. That
afternoon we went on a tour of the city and then had dinner on a riverboat as
it cruised up and down the Savannah River. The following day we were
taught by Elder David A. Bednar all day. It was really quite amazing to
be there. We expected that much, if not most, of the training would be
about the nuts and bolts of running a mission and would not really apply to us.
There was actually very little of that. Most of the training was on
discipleship and doctrine. On Saturday morning Elder Bednar taught us
again and then the seminar was concluded with a testimony meeting.
Elder Bednar spoke of the recent
adjustments made in church procedures and programs. He told us that we
should not view any of the recent adjustments in terms of ourselves or an
American church. This is a world wide church and the adjustments have
been made with a world wide focus. He said that by 2035 1 in 4 persons in
the world ages 15-30 will live in Africa. The church is aware and
focusing much effort in Africa.
Speaking of ministering Elder Bednar
taught that ministering is helping a person receive the next ordinance that
they need, including the ordinance of the sacrament. He said that if our
efforts are not focused on ordinances and covenants it is not
ministering. We need to find ways to help those we minister to take “the
next step” on the covenant path. We need to extend invitations to
act. He reminded us of the story when Peter healed the lame man at the
temple gate and then assisted him in taking his first steps.
Friday afternoon Elder Bednar focused on
teaching missionaries spiritual self-reliance. He said that we must turn
them to God. He said that our ultimate objective is to turn people to the
Lord, to heaven. He said that if we think we personally have all the
answers we may make the mistake of giving them to people. We then make
them dependent upon us instead of heaven. He taught that if a person is
feasting on the words of Christ they will be OK and that mission presidents
should help missionaries learn to love the Book of Mormon.
Here are several more statements from
Elder Bednar from my notes:
“You don’t receive the Holy Ghost because
hands are laid on your head. The laying on of hands is an injunction to
seek, or receive, the Holy Ghost and thus retain a remission of your
sins. If you always have the Spirit you are retaining a remission of your
sins.”
“When people try to put reasons to
revelation they are always wrong. Even those who receive the
revelation don’t always know the reasons.”
“Repentance is more than changing
behavior. Unless it involves turning to Christ it is not repentance.”
It was an incredible couple of days that
we will always remember.
This last week we returned to Nashville
for zone conferences. The mission president has changed since our last
visit and we were able to spend a couple of nights in the mission home with
President and Sister Weaver. They were great. We attended zone
conference on Monday and Tuesday and then we had Wednesday off because it is
P-day in the Nashville Mission. Tuesday night we went to the Grand Ole
Opry. We had a lot of fun. Each night at the Opry they have a
program that lasts exactly two hours. There were seven musical acts the
night we were there and one comedian. As they introduced each of the
musical acts they listed all of their accomplishments, their #1 hits etc--and
we had never heard of any of them. The rest of the audience was impressed
and excited but we were listening to strangers. But it was really fun and
we enjoyed ourselves.
On Wednesday (remember it was P-day) we
went to Broadway in the middle of Nashville and listened to more music.
On Broadway there are five blocks of bars, restaurants and honky-tonks on both
sides of the street and each venue has live music going on. You just walk
in, take a seat, and listen as long as you want to. Waitresses will come
to your table and ask if you need anything but there was no cover charge and
you aren’t required to order anything. We had a burger in one place and
fried pickles in another and about a half gallon of diet coke but we
listened to music for several hours. It was a rainy day so we waited for
the rain to let up a little bit and then we would go to the next bar. The
only place we didn’t like was a bar where they were playing a Beatles song and
so I thought it would be great. Once we sat down and ordered the fried
pickles they started playing AC/DC and some other hard LOUD heavy metal
stuff. Carol had to wad up her napkin and make ear plugs. We got
out of there as soon as we could pay the bill. Otherwise it was a fun
day. See Carols blog for some pictures of our time in Nashville.
On Thursday we attended zone conference
in Hopkinsville, KY and left at about 3:30 to drive home. We got home
about 10:30.
We won’t be travelling again until
January. With the holidays coming all of the mission presidents are
planning special zone conferences and we don’t want to get in the way so we are
going to hunker down for a couple of months.
We love you all and miss you. We
would love to hear from you.
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