My First Zone Conference

Hello, 

Hope things are going well for you. This week has been a very interesting week. Let me just tell you...

On Monday night, we went to the Branch FHE. We split into two teams and built temples out of legos. I was on one team building the Las Vegas temple and Sister Bliss was on the other building the Hawaii temple. It was so fun! The elders came late, so we made them judge. Elder Ball voted for Las Vegas and Elder  Methvin voted for Hawaii, so it was a tie. It was so much fun.

On Tuesday, I was on an exchange. Sister Bliss and Sister Hill did an exchange with two sisters in our zone, so I was with Sister Lytle again. We did a lot of service, and we also saw some people. It was a good night. 

On Wednesday, we had Zone Conference. Sister Lytle and I drove their together and then I was back with Sister Bliss as soon as it started. It was incredible. President Mella has made a lot of changes. We used to have Standards of Excellence. These were numbers that we needed to reach for the week, or you really felt like a failure. Some of them even focused on things specific to the mission like contacting and baptismal invitations (things not in Preach My Gospel). President Mella got rid of the Standards of Excellence and declared that we are a Preach My Gospel and White Handbook mission! You know what this also means? We're not getting up at 6:25 anymore! We're getting up at 6:30! :D So, we still have Standards, but it really isn't so much about numbers anymore. We also really don't need to worry about contacting as much! President wants us to do other things to find. So, we can still use contacting, and we really should, but it isn't as big anymore. We are also using a new method of teaching. We are to use the pamphlets and teach more simply! It is tricky to learn, but I am excited! :D

San Jose Zones

 Zone Conference was from 9:00-5:00 (they fed us lunch), so we went straight to the Institute after that to set up for dinner. At Institute, we taught Sam (a recent convert), Alan (a member of the branch), and Kyle. We then went home. What a day!

On Thursday, we went to the mission office and called our referrals. We then taught Michelle. Something happened and now she is really interested in learning again. She is not at the point where she wants to be baptized (she just wants to learn) but her heart is changing. Who knows, maybe she will want to be baptized in the future? We then had lunch and service. A lot of our service this week has been trash-tacting. Going out with trash-tactors an d cleaning up around town. People love it when we do that! We then went and saw Manny and Christina. We taught them about the Spirit. We then had to go to Milpitas to meet up with some other missionaries before dinner with the Chandlers. It was really fun. We then went and taught Anna (a member of the branch).

Friday was a weird day. We had our study and went trash-tacting with the elders before going to lunch with Alan (he fed us and the elders). We went to a Chinese place that was really weird and then went and got donuts at Psycho donuts. The place looks really creepy, but the donuts are awesome.

Afterwards, Sister Bliss and I felt so sick! We then had to go clean our car and take it to the mission office. Sister Nedreberg (the vehicle coordinator) wanted our car to go into the shop and get the bumper fixed (from our little rear-ended incident in November) so we had to go with her to take it in and pick up a loaner car (another companionship's car; they weren't using it). We then taught Christina at the Institute building before leaving for Milpitas to have dinner with the Rogers (the Branch President and his wife). It was us, the Laytons, and the elders at dinner with them. After dinner, we went back to San Jose to teach Sam. It was just a weird day. 

On Saturday, we did a lot of service. We went trash-tacting and then helped Ali set up for her boyfriend's sister-in-law's baby shower. We then taught Carmina. That was a great lesson. I was teaching her about the sacrament and I realized that I needed to ask her a question. A weird question came to me and it came out. It turned out to be just what we needed to ask! We found out why she hasn't been coming to all of Church! Looking back, that was totally the Spirit.

Something I have come to learn, is that having your mouth filled doesn't mean that you will understand what comes out of it. I feel like I "spiritually puke" on people and they totally get it and it was what they needed. Even though I had no idea what I said! The Spirit also pokes people and says "Yeah, what she said made noooooo sense, but she meant this." I really appreciate it when he does that! Another thing that I find hard is that I do A LOT of learning "on the job". Oh well. I am learning to just go with things. 

We then had dinner at a yummy mexican place that Sister Bliss and I had never been to before. They don't charge missionaries, so President Mella has set a rule that missionaries can't go there all the time or in huge groups. So, we went there because we didn't have a dinner and we wanted to try it (My Spanish is sooooooooo bad XD). We then came home and I helped Sister Bliss plan before we did weekly planning. 

Sundays are very busy for us. We get up, get ready, and have a little bit of study before going to Branch Council. After Branch Council, we have Church and then we meet with people after Church. We are at Church for a looooooong time. This Sunday was very good. Linda got confirmed! :D After Church, we met with Colin and then with Linda and Sam. Linda was so funny. She was feeling so happy and excited and she had no idea why! We explained to her that that was the Spirit and she felt better. We then went to dinner at the Parker's. It was really fun, and I ate a lot of good food. We were then able to meet with Chris (a less active). He came to Church today and we talked about why he came to Church and what is going on in his life.

I think that is all for here. SJSU starts up this week so all of our people will be back! :D

Love you lots!