The Play by Play

It was quite a week. Here are some of the highlights:

 

1. We had Zone Leader Council. That is were all of the Zone Leaders meet together with the Assistants to the President and the President and learn how to be better leaders and where we are going to take the mission. The Assistants (Sister Bryers and Sister Rodriguez) are quite the jokesters and they wouldn't tell us where it is was going to be. So we all met at 9:30 am and they led us outside and we walked up the the Capitol building. Yup, we had Zone Leader council in the public lounge in the Capitol building (which we had rented out). I had never been in the Capitol before and it was a beautiful building, it's modeled after the US Capitol building. It was a great and spiritually uplifting meeting. We talked about how we need to be "show-how" leaders and not "tell-how" leaders. Another thing that president talked about that caught my attention is that if you only see what you see and hear what you hear then you don't see enough or hear enough. It is so critical that we rely on the Spirit as leaders to know how we can help those that we are leading. It is definitely something that I need to work on as a leader. I'm still working on knowing what I'm supposed to be doing--Sister Moore helps me out a lot.

 

2. We had Leadership training this past week too. It was mostly a repeat of what was talked about at Zone Leader Council, but it was still great. We met in the Conference Center in one of the rooms that are used for translation during General Conference. It was pretty neat to be able to look out over the auditorium there (it's being set up for the Christmas concert now).

 

3. Sister Moore and I (and another companionship) went to a baptism! It wasn't for anyone that Sister Moore and I had taught, but it was wonderful. Darryl was the person getting baptized. I guess he used to work in the Army, but he is absolutely terrified of water because he almost drowned as a boy. It took three attempts to baptize him. At first he wanted to be baptized going forward and they tried that two times, but he didn't fit. So they did it the normal way and it worked out. He sang "Amazing Grace" afterward and it was beautiful. It was wonderful to be there and see just how happy he was with the decision he made and feel just how happy his Father in heaven is with his decision. Baptism is just such and important step and brings so many blessings. Even Jesus Christ himself tells us in 2 Nephi 31:12 --

 

 "And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do."

 

4. Sister Moore and I met a wonderful couple at the desk this week. There was a huge plasma physics convention in Salt Lake this past week and it brought a lot of people to Temple Square. Vic and Betty were some of those people that came. They actually came to Temple Square because they were curious about what Mitt Romney believes. So we talked with them for a little bit, we talked about family and about plasma physics. I kind of understood the plasma physics part, but not really. I got to tell them about how I love science because it is just evidence to me that there has to be a God. Nothing so beautiful or with such incredible patterns could just be random. It made me think of Alma 30:44

 

"...and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

 

They referred for missionaries right then. It was a miracle. They're Jewish at the moment.

 

This is less of a highlight, but fun to tell, Sister Moore, Sister Igelzia (from Brazil), and Sister Cruz (from Arkansas) went to a Korean restaurant today. It's because Sister Kim and Sister Jung who are both from South Korea wanted to go to this Korean restaurant on their p-day but didn't get to because they couldn't find anyone to drive them. So we went and picked up their food for them and ate lunch there ourselves. It was fun.

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 'Tis the season to be grateful.

 

"...live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you." --Alma 34:38