Happy Mothers day was great! At church we heard wonderful talks by several of the youth in the ward plus the primary kids singing to us. We also received a long stem rose and an amazing home-made Oreo among other delicious treats I so wanted to indulge in all of them but resisted. I had preordered a meal from some sisters in one of our wards in our mission that make and deliver meals each Friday. I saved it for Mother’s day so I didn’t have to cook. We enjoyed Columbian shredded pork, chorizo rice, real cornbread that tasted like the corn fritters my mom would make for my birthday and homemade zucchini, carrot, pineapple cupcakes. Zac cut of fruit and Bode made a salad to go with it. It was a wonderful mother’s day meal. Aaron got me a new exercise outfit too! J
I have an awesome visiting teacher. We meet for lunch, yogurt or at a park to visit and she shares a lesson with us. It is extra nice because it gives me an out from everything else that is going on in my life. This week we meet for lunch. We always have great conversations that are though provoking. Here is my plug for visiting teaching. Visiting teachers are a blessing both for your temporal and spiritual needs. Let them bless you!!!
This week was BUSY!!! Crazy busy for the whole family we had to be on our game in all aspects. STAR testing is this week for Bode and Jessie on Monday and Tuesday, both four hour testing days. Jessie and I are also schedule to meet with the Immersion Mandarin Magnet School in Houston (about 20 mins away) to see if she can get on the waiting list to attend. Jessie loves the idea of going back to an immersion school. She hates the idea of going after school to keep up her Chinese. We also have four days of Zones conference that I am responsible for two of the meals since we are bringing all the zones to the mission office for the conferences because of the vehicle advisors coming from Salt Lake to do some updates and training on TIWI. I will prepare the bulk of the meals with Veronica’s help cuting the fruit and Sister Lowrance making the desserts. I have coordinated with sisters in my ward to serve it the day of the conferences.
"I am a disciple of Christ" from Alma 5:13 was the theme for our zone conferences. I kicked off the conferences speaking on discipleship and tried to help the missionaries think through what it means to be a disciple. I like to use videos from church leaders in these trainings; this time Aaron found a talk from Elder Faust that was amazing about discipleship. I showed a few minutes of the talk and then lead the discussion about what the missionaries heard or felt. I think the biggest take away for the missionaries is that discipleship begins the Savior's ways become our ways to follow him. The root word for disciple means pupil or student. We discussed how their discipleship was about learning obedience, self-mastery, love for others, going about doing good, and reaping the blessings that come from becoming true disciples. I then had them role play their invitations using extending invitations as disciples of Christ, and as His ordained representatives, they can invite people to be baptized, read, pray, come to church, keep the commandments etc., using His name in the invitations. The missionaries could feel the power when they did and that their investigators would be more accountable to the Savior too.
Aaron then taught the missionaries about awakening people unto God through the power and authority of their callings, awakening people through the power of the Book of Mormon, and how to work more effectively with ward and stake leadership. We both see the need to help the missionaries become more bold, preach His gospel by the spirit and from their own conversion experience using the Book of Mormon as a more powerful witness of Him. Zone Conferences are wonderful and full of the spirit but exhausting. I get so excited about Friday date night and p day on Saturday!!!
Zac is driving a lot. It is so convenient and easy to just let him drive to Young Men’s, pick up Jessie from friends and take Bode to soccer practice. Bode bought a penny skateboard with his birthday money this week. He is loving it. He keeps trying to show me a trick he lands but every time I watched it doesn’t happen. He is frustrated about that. He also has been great about taking Izzy on a walk after school. Poor girl is still chubby. Aaron and I have been going on evening walks and taking her as well. We have needed the short walk to decompress from the long days of zone conferences.
Star tests are over! Jessie swam a lot after school. I think it was her stress reliever. ;) The meeting with Chinese immersion school went well, it was apparent that Jessie has missed a lot of Chinese in the last year and would have a very hard time catching up and the fact that we don’t live in the district puts us farther down the waiting list. Entry into the school is done in phases based on when you put the application in, where you live and then how well you did on the test. So we will see.
Ironman Houston is running here today and it's making Aaron very desireous to participate. It would be great for him to find a shorter distance race. He needs it for an outlet. He has been exercising but without a goal it is not the same for him. He is just a little bit competitive. ;) I enjoyed a nice ride, a short run and then I played in the pool with Jessie. She really is a fish. I wish she would do swim team here but she has absolutely no interest. Bummer! I am desirous to find her competitive bone. It seems the summer weather temperatures are upon us. I not sure I’m excited about 5 months of muggy hotness. As long as I don’t think about it much it really isn’t as bad as they say it is. I will have to employ my “I’m in Hawaii” mindset so I will enjoy it. Have an awesome week! I know we will!