May 21, 2023

This week was zone conferences. We were in McMinnville, Albany, and Redmond. They make for a busy week as we travel to each one and conduct vehicle inspections and coordinate the lunches with the local Stake RS Presidencies. They don't sound like they should be tiring but they are. We were very grateful to the Larson's for helping us with the vehicle inspections so that they went a little more quickly. At the zone conferences the missionaries receive instruction from our mission president and his wife as well as the Assistants and Social Media Sisters. I don't think I have posted about our Mission President and his wife. They are President & Sister Phillips from Rigby, Idaho. They both have an accounting background so they are my people! They have 7 children, 5 of whom are adopted and are African-American. They are fantastic! Here is a picture of them.

I especially loved hearing the messages that Sister Phillips shared at these zone conferences. The theme for zone conference was "Looking for Christ" and Sister Phillips message revolved around the talk by Sister Tracey Browning from October 2022 Conference called "Seeing More of Jesus Christ in Our Lives." We watched the bible video on the "Road to Emmaus," where Christ appeared to (2) disciples after he had been resurrected. There is so much in that story from Luke 24 for our missionaries to apply to themselves. Will they recognize the Savior when they see him? How can they learn to know him better? Once the (2) disciples realized who he was they ran to tell others about him. Are our missionaries excited and anxious to tell others about Christ? We also reviewed the story of Zacchaeus from Luke 19:1-10 when Zacchaeus, who was short of stature, climbed a tree so he could see the Savior. What efforts are we making in our lives so we can "see" the Savior? Our Assistants also shared some great thoughts. I especially loved the thought from Elder Williams about Being S.A.F.E. It stands for Being "Spiritually Aware of Faith-Building Experiences." If we recognize the times the spirit has been with us to guide and help us it will help us through the hard times to hang on to those memories and experiences we had.

Our last zone conference on Friday was in Redmond, OR which is very close to Smith Rock State Park. Smith Rock State Park looks like it belongs in Utah and is one of the best rock climbing locations in the country. We decided we had to see it since we were so close so we took a little detour on our way home.

On Friday Sister Phillips thanked us for all we did and said that she and President Phillips had been worried about the other couples leaving. But she said that they were very happy and grateful because the transition had been "seamless" and we were all doing a great job! Our goal is to try and make their lives easier as they serve all of our missionaries so this was music to our ears!!!

To celebrate this good news we headed out early Saturday morning to show the Larsons another fantastic set of waterfalls! They have only been here a month and have seen 15 waterfalls now! This time we took them to Multnomah Falls and some of the other falls surrounding it. It was a beautiful day, perfect temperature, and I even got to eat my favorite Hazelnut Crusted French Toast at the Multnomah Falls Lodge! It has been a long week and we were tired after. Grateful for the Sabbath and a day of rest. :).