We had the great privilege this past weekend of having Elder David A. Bednar visit our Mission and the Stakes in Puebla. Elder Walter Gonzalez of the presidency of the Seventy, who set me apart for our mission, Elder Tenorio of the Seventy, and Elder Avila, an Area Seventy, and all of their wives also accompanied him.
On Saturday morning, we had a special Mission Conference from nine in the morning till noon. Just before we entered the chapel for our conference, Elder Bednar asked Robert what our missionaries needed to hear. Robert told him that more than half of our missionaries have never heard the voice of an Apostle and that simply hearing his voice would be a blessing to them. Before beginning the meeting the missionaries had the opportunity to shake Elder and Sister Bednar´s hands, as well as the other visitor´s hands. At 11:00 a.m., I wondered where the time had gone and was sad there was only one more hour. Elder Bednar led a discussion with the missionaries on faith and how to exercise it effectively. The Elders and Sisters asked many questions and Elder Bednar answered all of them. One of the best answers he gave to two of the missionaries was, "get a Book of Mormon, read through the Book with your question in mind and mark all the scriptures that give insight into your question. Then get a piece of paper and write a paragraph or two telling me what you learned, then email it to me." He said he didn´t want to grade it or anything, he was just interested in reading what they learned. Then he handed them a card with his email address. This was the basis of his teaching to us that day, to read, ponder, ask and seek revelation for ourselves through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the way we learn and grow and become spiritually dependent on the Holy Ghost, not another person. he emphasized that we are agents that need to act, not objects to be acted upon.
We could tell from their questions and the answers given that the missionaries were really internalizing what they were hearing and we know it will be a blessing to all of them to have met with him.
After the missionary meeting, we were able to have lunch with the twelve Stake Presidents in our mission and their wives and the visiting General Authorities. Then we were off to another couple of meetings, I went with Sister Bednar, Sister Gonzalez, Sister Tenorio and Sister Avila and Robert went with Elder Bednar, Elder Gonzalez, Elder Tenorio and Elder Avila, and then we attended another meeting in the evening with new converts and investigators under the direction of Elder Gonzalez. It was a very full day, but so wonderful to spend some of it with Elder Bednar.
On Sunday we attended a Special Meeting with the members of the La Paz Stake under the direction of Elder Gonzalez. He and his wife are very gracious and loving and we enjoyed spending the morning with them.
Sister Reeves (me), Sister Avila, Daisy, Sister Bednar, Sister Tenorio, Sister Mejia (the Temple President´s wife) and Sister Gonzalez. Sister Bednar´s translator for the day was Daisy, the secretary to the Area President, and it was her birthday on Saturday! We sang Happy Birthday to her and took this picture.
Larry did some photos for Brian for his Senior Graduation Announcement
...and after the ceremony with his friends
The whole group of new missionaries and their trainers... too many to name! We are excited to have them all here. Many of them have been waiting for their Visas for many weeks, so we are happy that they are finally here.
At first I thought this was a common Mourning Dove,
Great Tailed Grackle ... These are very common in Arizona,
Yellow Rumped Warbler This one doesn't come around very often,
Western Scrub Jay, another one that doesn't show up
I thought this was a type of Warbler, but I found out that this is
Last month we had this visitor every day for a week. For some reason, this Summer Tanager
We now have a shower with a view...
the downstairs bathroom from the garage side...
and a couple of other patches along the same wall...
and under the window. I'm not sure where the leak is coming from with this one!