Yay yay yay!!

Let me think about this week....on Tuesday we has a Bishops meeting with the stake presidency, high councilors and all the bishoprics. They introduced the Boysons (our new senior couple. Yay yay yay!!🙏🙏) and talked about their responsibilities. Our Stake President also explained an interesting thing to us - he is a wealthy man and was asked by the Church to raise funds for an interfaith conference that the church would hold in Salt Lake City all about marriage. Sounds like a good idea right? So anyway he recently got a call that the conference would be on hold for now. He learned that in Arizona the House and the Senate had ruled to put in place a way to restore religious freedom to Arizonians. But a Gay Marriage activist group protested it so much so that the governor vetoed it. So in light if that, the church thought it best to postpone because they would undoubtedly face similar protests. He continued to say that the Brethren know the time is coming that religious freedom will be gone from our nation. That we need to prepare ourselves, our friends, our families, and our homes for that time. We need to be strengthening each other. It was very motivating to say the least!

We also had a lesson with the Josephsons about tithing. Which was awesome. They testified more than I've ever seen them do before, all because of the miracles of paying their tithing.the spirit was so strong. I love that they've been able to see gods hand in their lives. I'm so excited for them to go through the temple in November.

Wednesday we had Zone conference. It was awesome. We talked about teaching simply, with more clarity. About teaching the whole vision - the Brethren have actually come out with a revision of preach my gospel that we teach lesson five (where it talks about temples, priesthood, church callings, etc) before baptism. That was exciting. We also discussed the power of testimony. To close the conference, Elder Macpherson (the best pianist ever) played us his rendition of "Master the Tempest is Raging". I cried and then I had to give the closing prayer.

Thursday we taught Gaige And Journey. We are working to help catch Journey up on some of the lessons and it's a good review for Gaige too. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and the Law of Chastity. We hope to help both Gaige and Journey have some more experiences with the Spirit at church and in lessons and as they continue reading together.

We then had a service project just across from the Temple. We helped clean up a parking lot. After that we had a unique District Meeting. We met as a whole zone and Brother Musters (a member from our stake who is friends with one of our Zone leaders) presented a presentation about the facsimiles in the Pearl of Great Price. It was MIND BLOWING. Definitely something you could study for years and years. So cool!!! The idea was to get the feeling of an investigator first meeting with us and how we can better understand how they feel when we begin teaching them about things they only know a little about. It was pretty awesome.

Thursday night we taught a new less active name Ashton. She recently got out of jail after being there for two years and is working to turn things around. Her experiences with the Spirit are amazing. We love her already!!

Friday we did weekly planning with the Boysons and decided they would attend 3 of the ward councils on Sunday to give trainings on the ward mission process. They were so nervous but we did some role plays with them on Saturday to help them prepare. They're so great!!

And then Friday through Sunday I was sick - like a bad stomach bug/summer cold. So we were on splits where nice sisters came to stay with me and others went with Sister Hansen to lessons and meetings.
Blessed!