Zone Conference and Feeding the Multitude

Long Island Zone Conference at Plainview Stake Center

We know that "man shall not live by bread alone" and that's why there's zone conference every six weeks in the mission field. We will all remember that missionaries are generally young men between the ages of 19 and 21 as well as somewhat more mature 21-23 year-old sister missionaries. It is important to re-charge their spiritual batteries, re-kindle their flames of faith and re-program their spiritual selves. President and Sister Bennion are perfect at this! They have the right combination of love and skill to reach and motivate the missionaries. It is a wonderful time or teaching and learning.

That being said, it is also true that a great deal of time, expense and planning goes into preparing physical food to satify the appetite and give those same wonderful, spiritual missionaries strength and energy to keep going in their missionary endeavors. Sometimes Elder de Paula and I get that assignment - with help from other senior couples, the Comers, the Smiths and the Roushs' - and we just love to do it!



FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!

MY CHALLENGE
I don't know why I like to do this but I do. I love the challenge of feeding a multitude on a shoestring. Not only that, I add more pressure to myself by preparing a menu I've never done before. Is that a sign of something? At my age it's probably senility. At any rate, this time I thought I would do meatballs with sweet & sour over rice. But the day before the conference while at Costco to purchase the bulk food items, there were no meatballs. None - not a meatball! (That must be a New York thing. I can't imagine that happening in my state!)

MY DILEMMA

Well...I stared endlessly at the frozen food cases hoping for inspiration and a calculator. After all...I was spending the tithing funds of the Church and had to be very careful to stay within the budget. Chicken nuggets. That was it! Four bags would do and I'd make my own homemade sweet and sour sauce and add 5 or 6 bags of frozen sliced peppers and serve it over oven-stemmed rice.

I have to say it was a huge hit! The main dish, the salad and corn, the breads, the cakes - all worked out just great. President and Sister Bennion were delighted and I figure if they are pleased... it worked:-)

LUNCHTIME FUN















"HOW SWEET IT IS"
These elders are all smiles with giant-size portions of food, packages from home and socializing a bit between zone conference sessions at the Plainview Stake Center. Mission Zone Conference happens within a week or two after every transfer - after old missionaries leave, new missionaries come and new assignments are made in the mission.

It's hard to tell which is "sweeter" - the packages sent to the mission office for the missionaries to pick up today or the three kinds of cake from which to choose for dessert.

Luckily some missionaries got both at zone conference today!

TESTIMONY AND GOOD-BYES
President Bennion had asked Elder de Paula and me to take 10-12 minutes during the afternoon session to bear our testimonies in the general session since this would be the last zone conference of our mission. It was a sweet and tender time for both of us to share our feelings of love for the Lord and his Church. Elder de Paula testified specifically about the power the scriptures can have in our daily lives. Through using those powerful example and applying the scriptures to ourselves, we can protect ourselves from the buffetings of Satan.

My testimony was a witness that through faith in Jesus Christ we can literally change our perspective and see ourselves as we "want" to be. As it asks in Alma 5 - "Can you imagine?" "Can ye think of being saved?" "Can ye feel so now?" In today's vernacular it is called positive mental imaging (PMI). "Can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord saying unto you in that day: Come unto me ye blessed..." This empowers us to forge through life's difficult times by focusing on the broader perspective. That's the beauty of the Gospel.