Aaron and I spoke in the both sessions of Bay City’s stake conference. Participating in their conference on Sunday makes for a long day. We drove almost two hours to speak to half of the stake in Victoria, enjoyed a lunch provided by the relief society and then drove two hours to get to Lake Jackson to speak to the other half of the stake and then drove an another hour 15 minutes to get home. The theme for the conference is Christlike attributes found in Preach My Gospel. Our assigned topic for the adult session was charity and this morning our topic was obedience. Although I am a complete stress bucket trying to prepare two talks for stake conference I really enjoyed studying these topics. They filled my spiritual bucket. When we got home we had dinner together as a family. It was too late for our family walk. ;)
As much as I try to stay on top of my blog entries…….I never am. L So I tried to catch up on Monday after our weekly meeting with the AP’s. I was pretty productive until I realized I had a visiting teaching lunch in 5 minutes. I quickly got myself on my way. I really am blessed that my visiting teacher is committed to her calling. I sing her praises. I need her visits and spiritual uplifts more than she realizes….even more than I realize. I hope every visiting teacher could realize the influence and impact they have in another’s life. ;) Take away…..Always do your visiting teaching. You make a HUGE difference!
We began our full week of zone conferences in League City on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday we will be at the mission office for Houston South/Richmond and Houston Central/Houston North/Bay City zones. Our conference theme was “We Invite & Help” which centers on basic principles that missionaries need to focus on. I kicked off the conference teaching how to personalize each principle. I had them sing a primary song between each of the first four principles from lesson 1 in Preach My Gospel. It is incredible how music can have a powerful effect to bring the remembrance of spirit in our lives. We invited the missionaries to share how they’ve come to know for themselves these doctrines and it was incredible to hear them share some of their experiences. There are 42 “celestial” principles we teach in the five lessons and we want to make sure the missionaries can teach from the heart for each one. If we can get them to teach simply and from the heart it makes all the difference.
Aaron’s emphasis in the conferences was on helping the missionaries understand their WHY or in other words, the Doctrine of Christ. He then tied their WHY to the principles of goal setting and planning. We see that missionaries that grasp their purpose will set goals and will be tenacious in their efforts or plans to see that they achieve their goals. Their personal effort is demonstrated by the plans they diligently make and do to help people progress on their journey to come unto Christ. It takes repeating these principles over and over for it to really sink in. When the missionaries first come in the mission they have no context of application. As they have experiences in teaching the Doctrine of Christ, their knowledge and desire to help others know increases however they kind of forget the “how-to” which is the plans they make for their individual investigators. We are hoping that through zone conferences we help them put the puzzle pieces together. ;)
As with most weeks, Aaron has been working with several missionaries dealing a variety of challenges. We had two of our sweet sister missionaries hit by cars (two separate incidents in different areas) while riding their bikes last Friday night. Fortunately their physically injuries weren’t too serious but road rash is never fun to recover from and can be very painful. There is also the mental toll that an experience like that can have on an individual that we have to be aware of and help them heal and work through. Also with each arrival of new missionaries we have a few that struggle with anxiety/ homesickness that Aaron spends time with them individually to help them work through until they feel comfortable they can do their mission but sometimes they insist going home. Very hard to let them go but Aaron let’s them know we love them regardless and will always be their friend.
I love the feeling completing a physical challenge so I put in the mileage on my bike, run and swim on Saturday that would equal an olympic distance tri. It helps me know I still have it in me. ;) Aaron and I also went kayaking on Oyster Creek. It was a nice change but oh we were sweaty. Not from the workout because it wasn't much of one but from the heat of the sun along with the humidity factor. Gotta love not just a sweaty back but a whole sweaty body.
Bode is on the A team for the 8th grade football team; he tells us he’ll be a receiver and corner. This is our first week of morning practices and thus far he hasn’t had any trouble getting up and going on his way. His biggest concern is showering at school. Lucky for him his 1st period is PE. He is an office aid and gets most of his homework during that period. He is very much independent with his schoolwork. There is no helicopter parenting him.
Zac still requires my loving encouragement to get up for seminary but once he is up he is good especially since I have his breakfast sitting there as he gets out of the shower. ;) He is enjoying being in the basketball class again. Apparently once you have been in the class before you don’t have to try out like he had to last year. Zac is still planning on going home in October but we are praying for a miracle to have him stay.
Jess is making all new friends at school since everyone is new in her class except Sabrina. She has created a spa out of Allie’s room and is quite the entrepreneur or I should say trying to be. Friday she went to school and almost immediately went to the nurse’s clinic feeling sick to her stomach. I was headed to a comp study but ended up canceling it and picking her up to take her home. We read some of her book, took a nap and then watched Princess Dairies II together. Great Jess and mom time.
Allie has been enjoying her classes, buying books for class, cooking and eating dinners with her roommates and meeting new people (specifically baseball players). She is having a lot of fun with her experience in Provo and I couldn’t be happier for her.
Another week in THSM in the books.