First Zone Conference
October 18, 2021
Email #3
Aloha loved ones!
I hope this letter finds you all well and happy.
Some things are becoming routine, so I won’t write about them too much. The store was busier this week and so I had more to do. I am being called to go to the “settlement” on occasion, which adds some variety to my day. One thing that I dislike and that is taking some getting used to is that I get home so late—about 7:00 and still need to get dinner etc. And then we might have another meeting to go to—district or zone meeting so it makes for a long day. Which was the case for both Monday and Tuesday nights this week. Wednesday we got together with the six couples that we were in the MTC with. We are regularly invited to join with other couples for dinner, or ice cream or some form of socializing. Great fun!
Our zone conference was fabulous. The spirit was strong. We were challenged by Elder King to read and mark the entire New Testament before December 24th—so just a little over two months. There are six markings that we are supposed to do throughout the entire book.
*The DOCTRINE
*The PRICIPLES
*APPLICATION
*WORDS OF CHRIST
*CHARACTER, PEERFECTIONS and ATTRIBUTS of CHRIST
*REEFERENCES to CHRIST
We were each given a copy of the New Testament and a set of colored pencils. We are to choose what color we would use for each of these items. It takes a good amount of time each day but I am thankful for the challenge.
Elder King’s reason for having us do this is to become a witness of Jesus Christ. He said that the world is in trouble because so many do not believe in Jesus Christ anymore and the world needs witnesses. He promised us that if we read and mark this book in this fashion, we will become witnesses of Christ—that it will change us. I’m excited about it.
A tradition here is that when a senior missionary couple go home—they are honored at a zone conference by everyone in the audience putting a lei on them and telling them goodbye. “Aloha Oei” is playing in the background while this is done. The Petersons (they are over the PCC missionaries) are leaving soon and I got emotional when it was time for me to put on their leis and saying good bye. They are wonderful people and made a huge difference in us feeling welcome and like we knew what we were doing. I will really miss them.
There is a ukulele class taught on campus. A few of the senior missionaries are auditing the class. It is mid-semester now but my friend Ilene and I decided that we would join the class after getting permission from the teacher. The teacher has a great personality. I really want to get better at ukulele so I think this will be a fun thing to do. It is held M-W-F at 8:00 in the morning. Last Friday, I walked to it—only a little more than a mile—which I would like to do every time. It’s just hard to know if there will be a down-pour on my way there.
I try to walk each day for exercise anyway. But sometimes walking and then being on my feet for six hours at work is hard on me.
This week our P- day began with going to two different place to go snorkeling. We first went to Turtle Bay and then Shark’s cove. We went with the Bartons and had a wonderful time. Well—mostly wonderful. I really got banged up bad against some big rocks at shark’s cove and got huge red bruises on my arm. It has never been this bad before. It will take almost three weeks to heal. It always does. And Scott got pretty nauseated while snorkeling—motion sick. It took him most of the day to recover from that. We didn’t see many fish at Turtle bay but saw a lot at shark’s cove even though we didn’t go out that far.
We met with the bishop today after our two hour block. He wanted to give us “our assignment”. It isn’t a calling because our calling is “being a missionary”, so it is an assignment. The bishop wants us to be over the self-reliance in the ward. Particularly, the stake president has asked that every couple in the stake have a two week supply of food. He wants Dad and I to come up with a plan of how to go about that. He said that in the past, they have stressed having a two week supply but the students just end up eating it because they are so low on funds. For the most part—these students have very little money and they live in apartments that are really small, so it’s hard to have extra things sitting around and food around here doesn’t last long out of the fridge because of bugs and high humidity. Those are some of the initial challenges. But we will look forward to this challenge and can’t wait to see how the Lord wants us to handle this.
Most of you know this already but we would greatly appreciate your faith and prayers for Scott as he has been asked to be a devotional speaker at BYU-H on November 9th. It is rather overwhelming.
Thanks for your constant support and love! We miss you all very much.
Love,
Mom, grandma, Gayle
How I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life this week:
*I was able to make a hair appointment for next Wednesday to get my hair done. This may seem like a small thing but it is HUGE to me. It was something I was praying to get help with.
*I was able to join (audit) the ukulele class being taught on campus to the BYU-H students. I have really wanted to learn how to play better.
*Scott talked with our landlord about our cushions being so hard and uncomfortable to sit on. She was very nice about it and is going to look into getting new cushions. We were worried that if we bought new furniture, she might get offended, and we didn’t want to offend her.
*Elder King’s challenge to read and mark the New Testament
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