July 19, 2015
Greetings to all from a quite humid and hot Hawaii. We’ve probably got another month of this sultry weather with rare breezes blowing. It’s also the high tourist season. The two together don’t compute in my brain!
Today marks the four-month mark since arriving in Hawaii. The time is passing rather quickly, it seems. I’ve decided I need to start up my “Hawaii Bucket List” to make sure we get to the places we need to see before we go back home in about nineteen months from now.
The week has been pretty “normal” for us. We’ve been very busy at the Visitors’ Center with an average of 480 guests each day. This week was also our first Zone Conference that we could attend.
The Mission is divided into “zones” with a set of missionaries as Zone Leaders. Each zone is further subdivided into “districts” with a set of missionaries as District Leaders. Once a quarter each Zone has a conference presided over by the Mission President where a lot of training is conducted and other related business. Zone Conference usually convenes about 9am and goes until about 3pm in the afternoon with a lunch provided by a local Relief Society organization. Since the Visitors’ Center doesn’t close for the conference, and there are two senior couples at the Center, we take turns going to Zone Conference. The last conference Elder and Sister Jensen attended. This past Friday they worked the morning shift while we attended Zone Conference. We left the conference a bit early so we could do the normal afternoon shift at the Center.
Zone Conference was not only quite a lot of fun, it was also very inspirational. That’s certainly a major intended outcome … to help the missionaries get re-tracked, re-enthused, and ready to go back to work with renewed energy. The Mission President, President Warner, started the meeting with a great presentation and discussion about inviting the Spirit of the Lord into teaching situations. His wife, Sister Warner followed with an excellent discussion on the role that music can play in the teaching process. She has a beautiful soprano voice and sang in the Tabernacle Choir for many years. We had other discussions about the ordinance of baptism, how to work with members, and how obedience is a critical attribute of a missionary. Lunch was a taco salad … very nicely done.
Before Zone Conference the Zone Leaders inspect all of the mission cars, so we needed to be there an hour early to be inspected. Our car passed! That was actually fairly trivial as we aren’t under the same inspection guidelines as the younger missionaries. It just meant being out in the hot parking lot for an hour so we were particularly grateful for being inside for the meeting, even though the room was not air conditioned. Next Zone Conference will be for Elder and Sister Jensen. That’ll be their last Zone Conference before they go home from their mission in January.
We are really enjoying having working air conditioners in our home. They work well and are sufficiently quiet that we can now have the bedroom unit on during the night.
My mother turns 91 on August 1st. Letters and cards would be most welcome! You can send them to her at:
Arlene Smith
Edgewood Assisted Living Center
425 Spring Creek Drive
Soda Springs, Idaho 83276
While she isn’t physically able to write back, I promise that she’ll be very grateful for the cards and particularly for any pictures that you might include.
So, we’ve made it through the four-month mark and are still going strong! All is well in this little corner of Zion. Know that we love you and pray for you daily!
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