Week 10

Sep 11 -17

Sunday we attended our regular two YSA wards. We had a linger-longer at the first one and then both Cliff and I spoke in the next one. Cliff spoke on the value of true identity while I spoke on overcoming contention. Then we came back and prepared the building, the technology, and the refreshments for the Church Young Adult devotional with Elder and sister Renlund. We had "root beer floats with the Renlunds". We had missionaries and new members to drive to and from the meetings.

We were so impressed with the devotional and how it impacted us spiritually. There is so much value in knowing who we are, where our ancestors came from, how the church was gathered, and biographical stories and testimonies of those who lived through the times. It makes you wonder what people will say about us in the future. Will we be recognized as one of the valiant saints or for someone who just went along for the ride?

On Tuesday we were asked by President Horgesheimer, our mission president, to provide a workshop on how to study the gospel and the scriptures.  

Elder Perona and I put together a workshop that taught a learning pattern called CIUFA. It is a model that we use in Institute for teaching. We adjusted it to be applied for all learning, including studying the scriptures.  We used the "tell, show, do" method for the workshop. We told them what the learning pattern was and how it worked. Next, we demonstrated it for them. Then we had them do it for themselves. Here is a link to the handout materials that were supplemental to our workshop.

Zone Conf Preso resource materials

SharePoint Presentation

The zone conference was held at a farm called 22 Acre farm, in Newark, OH. This is a picture of inside the barn. It is mostly a wedding venue, but they have gorgeous sunflowers to purchase, take pictures in, etc. It is owned by members of the church. It was a wonderful facility for the conference. It is actually near some mounds that contain many archeological findings that correspond with the time when some of the peoples from The Book of Mormon timeframe, from around 600BC to about 200AD, were living here in the Americas. We hope to visit these and other "mounds" while we are here in Ohio. 

In the photo above, the missionaries are blind folded. In this part of the learning experience, they had to find their way to "the iron rod" while blind folded. It was both a fun and spiritual event. We were really blessed with good weather and with a great Spirit of the Lord.

Here is a picture of everyone at the zone conference at the end of the day. 

Here is a view from the farm just as the sun is beginning to set. I still marvel how green everything is in Ohio during the summer. 

On Saturday, p-day, we went to visit Elder Perona's first cousin Robert Perona and his wife Patty. They live up by Cleaveland, OH. We had a great reunion with them. We visited for over 6 hours. It was fun catching up and making connections and finding out the "rest of the story" on lives of certain family members. 

Elder Perona's father was one of 15 children. He had an older brother, John, pictured above, who died in 1937, at age 24 of a rare blood poisoning. Fast forward to several years ago. Elder Perona's cousin, Robert got a job in Cleaveland and his name and picture were in the newspaper. The widow of his Uncle John saw the newspaper article and recognized him immediately as family. She had lost contact with the Perona family after her husband's death, but she looked up Robert. She was in her 90's by then and Robert and Patty became great friends with "Aunt Lucy" and helped care for her until she passed away. They were able to make some wonderful memories with her.

This was another amazing week of miracles, visits with missionaries, teaching lessons, teaching investigator lessons, connections, feeling the Spirit, helping students, loving people, and knowing that we are in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. It is so comforting to be in a mission at this time of our lives.