WASHINGTON D.C. SOUTH MISSION: WE'RE ON A RESCUE MISSION-ZONE CONFERNECES

Sunday, February 21, 2010

WE'RE ON A RESCUE MISSION-ZONE CONFERNECES

We have just completed zone conferences. We combined 2 zones each day and held them Mon, Tues, Thurs. and Fri. The next two weeks will be filled with interviews with each separate zone. Our first conference was held at the Mclean Stake Center. The Oakton Zone also attended.

Our theme for this conference was, " As Missionaries We are on a Rescue Mission".

No amount of money, time, or investment is too high to rescue one of Heavenly Fathers' Children. President Albright used Power Point to tell the story about the rescue of Scott O'Grady, who was shot down in an F-16 over Bosnia during the conflict in 1995. The US put together a massive rescue mission in order to retrieve him from behind enemy lines. D&C 18:10 says that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. Verse 15 continues, How great shall be your joy if you save ONE soul". Our investment in saving souls also is not measured in money or time. Because no investment is too high.

The Assistants introduced a new program. LOBBY TIME. We know all about lobbyists here in the DC area. Trying to convert someone to your way of thinking. This is a new program where our missionaries go to businesses and try to place card holders that contain pass-along cards in the offices or front desks of all kinds of businesses. The assistants tried it out first and had great success. In just an hour they went to 5 businesses and placed 2 of 5. Nail and hair salons, dry cleaners, Dr. and Dentist offices, small restaurants, gift stores, etc are good potential businesses. The missionaries are really excited about this new form of tracting. Each missionary received 3 holders to start with and we had some of them place all 3 their first day.

So this is a really exciting new program.

We had breakout group with the zone leaders working on Baptism Invites. Elders Egan and Metcalf are the Zone leaders in Mclean. and Elders Brunstad and Giraud-Carrier are the ZL's in Oakton. They did a great job.

Departing testimonies were given by Elders Cortez and Egan and Ross. They were beautiful.

The Mclean and Oakton Zones together.

This includes in no order: Elders Metcalf, Egan, McGill, Coleman, Page, Bolos, Wilkinson, Freeland, Hall, Pomery, Larsen, Hancock, and Sisters Murray, Bolorsaikhan, Alvarado, and Larsen from the Mclean Zone. And from the Oakton zone: Elders Giraud-Carrier, Brunstad, Forsberg, Brazell, Schaeling, Scoble, Hoffer, Cheung, Clinger, Logan, Bullock, Lawson, Cortez, Hansen, Jeppesen, and Peterson, and Sisters Baxter and Bay.

We had the delightful opportunity to have Dr. Aldous and his wife speak at each of conference this week. Dr. Aldous is the Area Medical Authority for 14 missions. That puts him in charge of over 2000 missionaries. He is wonderful to work with and always happy to talk with me or any missionary who needs him all hours of the day and night. His wife was a joy to have with us. We enjoyed getting to know them and visiting each day. It was fun for the missionaries to put a face with the voice they may have heard before. Dr. Aldous gave an informative and fun story-filled talk.

Elders Cortez, Hansen, Brunstad, Cheung, Hoffer, Forsberg and Peterson

Elders Pomeroy, Schaeling, Scoble, Lawson, Logan, Bullock, Clinger, Hall, Forsberg, Brazell, and Sill

Elders Bolos, McGill, Page, Hancock, Larsen, Wilkinson, Coleman, and Freeland

Sister Larsen, Bay, Baxter, Bolorsaikhan, Murray and Alvarado. We had a wonderful musical number today. Sister Hahn and Murray sang, I Believe in Christ. Elder Hancock accompanied. Another piano player among us.

A table full of subs fixed by the Relief Society sisters. Thank you to the wonderful sisters who make my job so much easier.

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Stephanie Smith Fireside

Last Sunday evening we were privileged to attend a fireside in the mission. It was held at a beautiful old chapel in McLean. One of the pictures shows the inside of the chapel and the wood beams on the very steep-pitched ceiling of the room. The gym is under the chapel in the basement. I have never seen a floorplan like this one. Very unique. This fireside hosted Sister Stephanie Smith. Her story was in the Ensign sometime in the last year. She has a remarkable conversion story. She has held very high government positions and at one time was 5th in command at the CIA. She said something at the first of her talk that I wrote down: she said, "I've been on some remarkable adventures. But no adventure in my lifetime has been as extraordinary and life-changing as my path to conversion and baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. She then told about her introduction to the church. She was at a time in her life with tremendous worldly success achieved after clawing her way to the top without any regard for others, and she felt her life was shattering into a million pieces. At this time she turned to a colleague she admired who was a member of the church. He told her two things. That her Heavenly Father knew her by name and loved her and that Heavenly Father had a plan for her success. The next day he sent her a map to the temple visitor center. She told how when the missionary sisters came to her door, she didn't think she could relate to these young women. The first thing they did was ask if they could sing to her. They sang,"I am a Child of God." That was the beginning of her conversion, a long a beautiful story. You can read it on the web at Meridian Magazine. Her testimony was a real inspiration to me. There were over 350 people there and she does a great missionary work speaking to investigators. What a blessing to have heard her and felt her spirit.

Chelsea Our recent Convert

We have met the sweetest young sister. Chelsea is amazing. She joined the church during the last year and has an incredible testimony also. She never misses any missionary function and we were able to take her with us to the Stephanie Smith Fireside. She also came to the mission home a few weeks ago and we had family night. She gave the lesson and is was unbelievable. She is hoping to go on a mission next year. What a great young woman. This is a picture of her with Elders Ganaway and Gifford.