Teaching in the Conference Center, distant relatives (maybe), and Will you be baptized...

Hello everyone! It has been a WONDERFUL week here at Temple Square. This week we had Zone Conference which is basically where we have a long meeting for the whole mission (half of the mission one day and the other half of the mission on the next day). There were two big focuses for this Zone Conference. The first was the contacting model. It basically helps you organize how to talk with someone and organize how to teach. It was organized kind of like a progressive dinner except instead of eating at each spot we taught a step in the contacting model. Sister Medivelso and I were in the Conference Center and the step that we taught was teaching and testifying. It was so neat to teach IN the Conference Center auditorium where the Prophet teaches the world what God wants them to know. We emphasized being brief and clear, asking questions, using the scriptures, and bearing testimony frequently. There are a lot of other things that you can do to teach, but those were the ones that we chose to focus on. I learned that the purpose of everything we do in the "teaching" step is to bring the Spirit because He is the true teacher. Without the Spirit nothing will make sense.

Then the next focus of Zone Conference was baptism. Baptism has been emphasized in Zone Leader Council, Leadership training, AND Zone Conference. I definitely have baptism in my head now and I think it is getting deeper and deeper in my heart. Baptism by someone holding the priesthood authority of God is the only way back to Heavenly Father. When I talk to people on the square, when I'm talking with them on the phone, and when I'm teaching our investigators I always have baptism in mind because that is my purpose as a missionary. There is no other way! (2 Nephi 31:21)

Since this is Sister Mendivelso's last transfer we also had the "Finish Strong" meeting to go to. President Holmes said something about scripture study that I really liked. He said, "how long you read is not as important as how much you apply it." I love that. By the way, today is President Holmes's last day as mission president of the Temple Square Mission. Sister Mendivelso and I met him and his wife, President and Sister Gillette, this morning. They are going to be great in their new assignment. We're going to have a mission meeting EARLY tomorrow morning and we're going to get to know them a little more.

The reason that Sister Mendivelso and I met our new mission president is because we were one of thirteen companionships that were asked to contact people on Temple Square with the new visitors' center directors. Each visitors' center and historical sight in the church has a director (Temple Square and Nauvoo have mission presidents, though). Visitors' Center directors start their assignments in January instead of July (like other mission presidents). My guess is that it is because summers are really busy at visitors' centers. Anyways, Sister Mendivelso and I were with the new director for the Cody Wyoming Mural Chapel. Guess who they are...Elder and Sister Smiley. Yes, I was just as shocked as you are right now. They are a wonderful couple and we had a great time on Temple Square. We only got to talk with one person, who is actually a teacher at the MTC in Provo, but it was a really great contact. In that contact we talked about what it would be like if everyone knew who they really were--children of God (Romans 8:16). Hopefully we helped them get excited about their new assignment and look forward to teaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in Cody, Wyoming.

This week Sister Mendivelso and I met Will through the referral center. We taught Will yesterday and he is such a wonderful person. We asked him what his expectations are for us calling and teaching him. He said that he is looking for the church that is right for him--he hasn't found it yet. That made my heart leap for joy because I know that if he is really searching for truth then this is where he will find it. We taught him about God and how He is our loving Heavenly Father and about prayer. We asked if he had ever had an answer to a prayer and he told us "yes". We asked how his prayer had been answered and he told us that he found out that there is an LDS church building in the town next to his. He thought that the nearest one would be hours away. What a wonderful prayer he must have offered. At the end we committed him to baptism by asking him if he "would follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" He answered with a firm "yes". We committed him to pray morning and night and ask God if baptism in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is what God wants him to do.

What a blessing it is to learn the gospel of Jesus Christ by teaching it everyday!