It's been another tough week with zone conferences and zone interviews Monday - Friday. You're probably wondering why it was tough for me? Dad did most of the teaching and did ALL of the interviewing, but teaching "Lock your heart" and "Body Odor" eight times in a row was challenging. Dad taught the same thing every day --Agency and Self-Mastery--and the Spirit taught me something new every time, and it's already blessing my life. I can testify to the power of repetition of doctrine. (But not of body odor.) Sitting through the training from the Missionary Department on smart phones for five afternoons challenged my ability to stay awake! Thursday afternoon we finished the zone conferences and Friday held our Mission Leadership Council where we handed out phones to all but eight of the mission leaders -- the ones being exiled to the Quezon City Mission. They are great missionaries and are handling their disappointment with faith and hope.
Stewart is such a great leader. He has the assistants and zone leaders teaching the missionaries about smart phones this week, which gives them ownership of this endeavor and they learn the most. I'm so thankful to serve with him and continue to learn from him. I have seen the priesthood keys he holds working in behalf of the missionaries-- even these past few days before the final transfer of missionaries to QC is complete, he receives early morning revelation and makes adjustments on which missionaries should go. And after relieving a less-than-obedient zone leader of his responsibilities and sending him to a zone going to QC mission, he invited him to dinner and showed forth an increase of love.
I'm really grateful for the experience of cooking for a large family and of making Sunday dinners for cousins the past few years. I still get nervous preparing Sunday dinner for the missionaries, but at least I have the experience and tested recipes to feed a crowd. I still cannot make white rice properly -- which is astonishing to the Filipina missionaries who try to fix it at the last minute -- but they loved the green salad and the Hawaiian haystacks yesterday. We try to teach them to send a thank you text after someone feeds them dinner, and I got some sweet ones yesterday: "You make meatloaf just like my mom" and "I felt I was home for Sunday dinner." I'm grateful for a husband who is willing to help me when he has time and who loves and enjoys these missionaries.
Today he is driving our assistant to the QC mission where he will begin serving as one of their assistants today. He will be a key to the success of blending these two cultures and has been positive and encouraging to the missionaries who are going with him. We will miss him but I'm thankful we could serve with him and see how much he has grown and matured in the past 18 months.
I'm very thankful that I don't have to prepare all the mission meals for zone conferences -- Ann is such a good cook of Filipino food and the missionaries love to eat her rice and ulam and cookies. S&R pizza is always their first choice, but she is a close second. We are not allowed to ask members to help, so having her prepare the zone conference lunches allows me to attend the conferences and be with the missionaries instead of in the kitchen each zone conference morning.
We're extremely thankful for how you take care of each other and support each other in our absence: Hannah and Abby supporting Sam and Celeste at the temple Saturday, Mark supporting Dallin and the missionaries with their health challenges, Amy tending children so Sarah could run a marathon and Rocky and Dan could run, Fenton helping Dallin get to the hospital, Dallin and Fenton willingly doing an errand for Dad in France, Derrick and Julie supporting us through Family Journal posts and having this time with the Lund family, Fenton, Derrick and Dallin with their technology help and for everyones' prayers. We feel so blessed! I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg and I've missed a lot of the help and love you give.
This is our last week with 194 missionaries. Friday is our last meeting with the departing ones, and Stewart had the idea of a big feast with a roast pig for their last mission meal -- so great photos to come next week.
Love,
Mom
Elder Cacayuron, the assistant transferring to QC North helping mission leaders remember what they've learned.
Faces of missionaries fascinated by vide of mosquito biting human and transferring dengue fever.
Little guy playing drums made from paint can and discarded cannister on jeep. He looks 6 but could be 12??
Our Mission Leadership Council.
The selfies begin -- the tall sister only had a phone for two days, then transferred to no-phone mission!
Sunday dinner photo.
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