Seven Months Progress

The Palm trees have been moved from the mission home lot to the center divider strips of the parking lot. There are rumors that constuction might even start in the next month.

Two men trying to keep the Palm tree from colliding with another tree:

The hole that the tree went into:

Zone Conference Aug 2011

We had Zone Conference on Monday and Tuesday. Elder Kevin R Duncan of the Seventy directed the meetings. He had previously asked each missionary to write a three minute talk on “what I am doing to become a better disciple of Jesus Christ.” We had each missionary type them up so we could collect them and send them to Elder Duncan a week ago. He read every one and asked several of the missionaries to give their talks during the conference. I hope families will ask their missionaries to share their talks.
Elder Duncan began by meeting with our District and Zone Leaders. He asked them, “what makes missionaries happy?” The answers were working, teaching, baptizing and having the Spirit. He encouraged them to help their missionaries have a vision of what is possible. He told the story of Florence May Chadwick who learned to overcome the fog in her attempt to swim from Los Angeles to Catalina Island.

In the main meeting he began by helping the missionaries understand the “Why” of missionary work by talking about how God loves all his children, especially missionaries. He referred to the last verse of the hymn “Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd” where it states “Make us Thy true under-shepherds, Give us a love that is deep.” We begin to have charity by desiring and praying for it. He quoted Dallin Oaks talk Desire to teach them that desires dictate our priorities which shape our choices which determine our actions.

He explained that missionaries are building bridges from investigators to the Savior and in order to do that missionaries have to listen to and understand where their investigators are beginning as well as having a vision of seeing them in the temple as their goal. He used a video of Naaman to teach that obedience leads to faith. When missionaries express their faith through a positive attitude and combine that with effort, they can reach “Frontiers of Faith” and attain their goals.  Elder Duncan is sitting in the center of each of our zone pictures:

Westwood:

South Bay

Penninsula

Metro

Marina

Lakewood

Central

Zone Leader Council August 2011

Elders Judd, Maddox, Conlin, Hill, Hall, Hernandez, Bigler, Bennett, Jacobberger, Stenquist, Jones, Haslem, Molinaro, Gilbert, Jahng, Cottrell.

Arriving Missionaries August 2011

Our new missionaries from left, Elder Cooper from Montana, Elder Kuli from Tonga, Elder Murdock visa waiter for Finland, Elder Aguilar from Arizona, Elder Ratto from Oregon, Sister Olivo from New York, Elder Kiser from North Carolina, Elder Mitchell visa waiter for Brazil, Elder Broad visa waiter for Brazil, Elder Dudragne from Canada, Elder Hsieh from Taiwan, Elder Nelson from Nevada, Elder Graves from Texas, Elder Pack from Utah, Elder Gonzalez from Florida, Elder Walker from Mississippi, and Elder Wald from Idaho.

Trainers: Elders Ferrin(Kiser), Gagnon & Myers(Aguilar), Riska (Hsieh and Ratto), Skousen (Graves), Salzl (Wald), Shannon (Walker), Watkins (Gonzalez), Carter (Dudragne), Tanner (Kuli), Allred (Cooper).

Our American Sign Language Elders: Elder Tritsch and Elder Western training Elder Pack, Elder Hadlock and Elder Van Dam training Elder Nelson.

Our new Chinese speaking group: Elder Ratto, Elder Wald, Elder Riska (who does not speak Chinese but is training two Chinese Elders), Elder Hsieh, Elder Salzl.

Sister Bustamante is training Sister Olivo in the Visitor's Center.

Departing Missionaries August 2011

(bottom) Alex Vizcaino, Naim Cornelio, Kyle Davis, (middle) Vernon Wilcox, Spencer Nelson, Mallory Hales, Eric Goold, Victor Cruz, (Back) Casey Brady, Roberto Salazar, Leighton Romney, Christopher Howe, Cody Pitts, Benjamin Seebeck, Fritz Jung, Tyrel Lathrop, Matthew Kelly, and Spencer Rogers.

Sorry about this picture, Elder Jung

Clean Apartment Awards July 2011

Sisters Johansen and Alcantara,Elders Lee, Godderidge, Cutler, Tovo, Payne and Takogawa. Elders Payne and Cutler were the winners.