May Zone Conference

 We always receive a full day of really good training on the first day of Zone Conference.  The 2nd Day we go out and see some of the Perth area. 

In May our Zone Conference Training was to Help Missionaries extend spirit led baptismal invitations. We also learned abou the importance of planning, how to use social media to share the gospel and the importance of Obedience and Diligence.  Even though it is directed to the young missionaries I always come away uplifted and inspired to do better and be a better missionary. 

For this Zone Conference we had a senior activity with all the other Senior Missionaries.  We stayed at an Airbnb with 3 other senior couples.  It was a great time  We all shared what is working well in our area, where we needed help and ideas, and it is so great to spend time with these amazing missionary couples.  We learned how to play Hand and Foot and its quite fun. 

Giants of Perth:  We drove around Mandurah which is south of Perth and went to 4 of 6 Giant Sculptures.   (Thomas Dambo is the world’s leading recycle artist. He was taught from a young age about the value of recycling, sustainability, and unlimited imagination. And so to share that message and inspire people to get out into nature, Thomas creates larger-than-life sculptures from recycled wood, and places them all over the world. This is the first time his Giants have appeared in Australia though! )

Time is Flying

 I can't believe it has been 2 months since I posted.  I don't even know how to keep up, I guess I won't even try.  I will just start by explaining a mission 6 week cycle.  

Week 1 Transfer news comes on Tues. and the transfer itself happens Thurs and Fri. 

Week 2-6 Usually includes a zone conference 

Monday is P Day

All Tuesdays 11:30 - 1:00 we have a District Council Meeting.  We are in the Pilbara District. After the meeting is over the Elders stay for lunch. 

All Fridays (except the week of zone conference) at 10:00 am is Missionary Development Training

Zone Conference varies depending on a lot of other factors.  I will start updating this blog with posts from Zone Conferences.  Other than zone conference we spend all of our time, teaching with the Elders assigned to our area, picking up and delivering bread, meat pies and donuts and studying our scriptures, Preach my Gospel, Missionary Standards and Adjusting to Missionary Life.   We are also preparing and teaching Gospel Doctrine, Relief Society, Elders Quorum, Temple Prep and sometimes speaking in Sacrament Meeting.  One of my not so favorite things is "flat inspection". In Australia everything rules in favor of the landlord.  We have to maintain the rental house (called a flat) to perfection.  In return the landlord will not cancel the rental agreement.  They do not have to fix anything, keep appliances updated or basically anything.  Every 3 months we have an inspection.  We are lucky that the realtor that inspects for our landlord is really nice and very easy to work with.  

Our washer only has one water hose so if I want to wash in hot water, I hook it up to the hot water faucet/tap.  When I want to do a load in cold water I have to turn the water off, unscrew the hose and hook it up to the cold water.  We have to light our gas stove burners with a lighter.  There is no garbage disposal or dishwasher.  There are plenty of air conditioners and luckily they work well but we are only allowed to run the one in our bedroom and the kitchen/living area because it is too expensive to run all of them.  We have adapted and adjusted to this place but I will be so happy to sleep in my own bed.