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.

"Thanks for the Memories - Stony Brook Class!

THE JOURNEY
When we began teaching an Institute (Religion) class for the 18-30 year-old age group at Stony Brook University, we had one student. That was 15 months ago. Things have really changed.

THE STUDENTS
Row 1: Christina, Bruna, JaNae, Anjela, Michelle, Vania
Row 2: Elder de Paula, David, Krystal, Joann, Sister de Paula
Row 3: Landon, Kristian & Rob (Tate left before the picture)

THE PROCESS
We went searching, calling, asking, spreading the word, praying, looking up records and slowly the program grew. Each of the 35+ who have come and gone through the program have left an impression on us. Some have left for missions, temple marriages, job relocations, advanced degrees, etc. We have grown attached to each one. We love teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to these amazing young adults who will be the leaders of tomorrow in the Church.

THE LAST CLASS
Our farewell class and dinner was Tuesday April 14 at the Terryville Church. It was a better environment in which to hold a dinner than in the stark classroom on campus. Elder de Paula finished teaching the marvelous Book of Revelation and afterward we had a sit-down dinner in the multi-purpose room and visited much longer than usual.

Kristian's 22nd birthday happened to fall on our last class of the year so we had a birthday party for every one's birthday with three different cakes to suit any taste. Happy Birthday Everyone!

THE DINNER
"Sister de Paula what are we eating?" It must be that "funeral potatoes" is a Wasatch Front dish because most of the kids in our class had never heard of them and went crazy over them. Of course all the gals wanted the recipe and the guys just wanted to take the leftovers home! With the potato dish, we served baked chicken breasts and a huge green salad and rolls. This was our treat to the students. Our coordinater would die if we turned in every one of our expense receipts for this activity, so we'll only submit the ones for the "funeral" potatoes. Hm-mmm.

Funeral potatoes and Chicken Breast
THE PROMISE
What great memories we have from our experiences with "our Stony Brook kids." We exchanged email and phone numbers and promised to connect on Facebook...and in person in our back yard for a summer BBQ or in the nearby canyon for winter snowboarding!

"Our Memory Walls - Reminders of People"

Little by little we're getting things used up, taken down, thrown away or stored safely away. The memorabilia which has had a place in our hearts and on our bedroom walls is now safely packed away to make the 2,222-mile trip west with us in 19 days and 17 hours.

We have quite an array of items - everything from birthday cards from our children and our friends to grand children's art work to notes from friends back home to wedding and birth announcements to ticket stubs from Metropolitan Opera and Broadway productions to Church and missionary meeting agendas, and many, many more. They are all physical reminders of the of people - people who make such a difference in our lives. People we love - new and old - people we plan on associating with through the eternities, thanks to the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. We count our blessings.

The Beauty of Easter Sunday

It was, indeed, a beautiful Easter Sunday. The fact that we were both asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting had given us an opportunity to focus intently on the real, spiritual meaning of Easter for the entire week. Without knowing what each other was speaking on, we both shaped our messages around using the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives. We focused on four aspects of the atonement (grace):

1. Through grace every person born will be resurrected
2. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to enjoy eternal life
3. Through grace we can repent of our sins and receive strength to do good works
4. Grace is the divine means of help or strength during trials, sorrows, afflictions and adversity to do what we are literally unable to do on our own

Most people are pretty clear about the first aspect of the atonement - that they will be resurrected, or live again after they die - somehow, somewhere. The second aspect is a bit less clear, or maybe completely unknown. It allows that we have the opportunity to live as families and progress eternally - conditional on our righteous choices in mortality.

The first two aspects of the atonement are realized once we pass from this life. The next two points are to help us here and now - in this life.

The third aspect of the atonement enables us to repent and become better people through faith in Jesus Christ. The fourth aspect is perhaps the least understood, and therefore, the least utilized of all. It is an enabling power that we can, through our faith in the Savior, use "to make us more than we are" against all kinds of struggles. We can literally receive peace, strength, comfort, direction, help and companionship from the Lord through His atonement - here and now. Those blessings await us by calling on Him in mighty prayer.

The Easter message is beautiful and we should be celebrated all year.

Click the Play button to watch this video about the Savior:

New Companions in Bay Shore

We are so lucky to be able to keep Elder Maughan in our area and also to welcome Elder Merrill from Rexburg. These two are a great team and seem to work well together in just the short time they have been assigned. We look forward to getting see the fruits of their labors before in this wonderful area of the New York New York South Mission. Our first social outing with the new companionship was Easter dinner.

Easter Dinner Dessert

The elder and sister missionaries, as well as us "older" couple missionaries were invited to Sister Cruz' home...again...for a wonderful Easter dinner. My assignment was dessert. She goes to so much work to serve us - whom she calls her "angels" and does so because she claims she needs the blessing she receives from doing so. What a sweet sister. (See March 26, 2009 "Becoming a Citizen")

Last Bay Shore Institute Class

Good-bye to Bay Shore Class

There were tears and hugs and promises to get together again. It was the final meeting of our New Testament class in Bay Shore, although we will be around for three more weeks. These are people we claim as family - Mike, Glen, Deanna, Everett, Kristian (by Sister de Paula) Adela and Shirley (by Elder de Paula). Some are life-long members who live part time in New York. Two are converts since we arrived here. Others are converts of various years' time. All are dear friends and precious children of the Lord.

What a surprise to see these beautiful flowers and a pillow embroidered with "Teaching is Love" - gifts to us from these thoughtful, loving class members whom we truly love...and will greatly miss!

Final Class Celebration Dinner

The class treated us to a local buffet for our final dinner together. We had a great time socializing, visiting with our newest investigator, and even handing out a few pass-along card to inquisitive spectators in the restaurant. I even had occasion to invite some of them to church on Easter Sunday:-)

Sister Missionaries Find Louis

And a very nice touch on the evening was meeting Louis, a new investigator whom the sister missionaries found while tracking one day. He was very interested in finding out more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and met them at the church on Thursday evening - the same time we held our final New Testament study class.

We have high hopes for this young man!

A Farewell to the USMMA Institute Class!

Welcome Aboard!

We always did feel welcome at the United States Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point, New York. Our first drive there was in January of 2008 where we met Brock and David - two wonderful young members of the Church attending the academy.

Brock then spend duty at sea, David went on a mission, Garrett returned from sea duty, and later Jon and Josh arrived as new plebes in July of 2008. Josh will leave for his 2-year mission in July. There have been a few other students and visitors throughout our experience there including Charles, a teacher at the academy and Stephanie - Garrett's "good" friend, who came to the Island as a nanny.


Above, Elder de Paula is leading the final discussion of the last few chapter of the Book of Revelation with Garrett, Brook and Josh participating. These young men take time out of a very rigid schedule to come to Institute class to learn, to feel the Spirit and to get a little homemade treat. Josh got to choose the refreshments for the evening which were Chocolate Chip Brownies & milk and apple slices. These guys are very adept at reading and munching!

Elder Douglass & Elder Edwards

Elder Douglass and Elder Edwards have attended our classes by assignment from President Weidler, president of the singles branch, to get ideas to stimulate activity among the several less active members of the Church who attend the academy. We have had a few discussions on possible approaches they could use. These two great elders have been both a physical and spiritual asset to our Institute classes.

The assignment to teach at the USMMA has been a part of our mission experience that we will remember with great fondness. We love all of these young men! We told them Monday evening we do not want to end our relationship with them and that "We do come to weddings!"