a Great Zone Conference

We had a wonderful Zone Conference where we brought all the missionaries in the entire mission together. We found a very budget priced caterer who cooked hot dogs and cheeseburgers on a charcoal grill and we had a wonderful picnic type meal.

We had our pictures taken, and that was fun.

Click on the video below.

We had fantastic training and talks, but for me the bestest part of all was the missionary testimonies of those missionaries who are going home next week. It was truly humbling.

Elder Bevington was among those who bore quiet but powerful testimonies. He was the missionary who was working in the office as Vehicle Coordinator when we arrived and thus became my trainer. He did a good job as a trainer, especially having an old forgetful trainee to deal with. He told me everything at least 7 times, and still I had to call him to ask questions after he left the mission office. In the video above he is the missionary on the left who folds his arms.

He read us a statement from D&C 118 that goes like this. “Let the (missionaries) continue to preach from that hour, and if they will do this in all lowliness of heart, in meekness and humility, and long-suffering, I, the Lord, give unto them a promise that I will provide for their families; and an effectual door shall be opened for them, from henceforth.”

Elder Bevington explained that his parents divorced when he was young and he lived mostly with his father. His mother never attended church. As he wrote to her each week throughout his mission she would reply and sometimes tell him he was getting too “preachy.” He never stopped writing and telling her of his experiences and bearing humble testimony. He then related that in a recent letter she told him not to faint but she was going to attend his homecoming and is starting to come back to church.

He then expounded the scripture in section 118 in a very quiet and soft voice and explained that “an effectual door” was opened by the Lord, just as the Lord had said it would be.

When I was the Stake Clerk at BYUI I watched the face on our Stake President as he came from his office after interviewing a young man who was about to go on a mission. He had a funny look in his eyes, so I asked him what was up. He said, “That is a good young man. I wish I was that good.”

So, that’s how I feel too.

Love,

US

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