ZONE CONFERENCE

Orson drove one of these (the Holden) on his first mission.
May 10, 2011 Tuesday

Today was zone conference, and it was wonderful. President Cahoon started it out talking about Christ and the Atonement. It was such a powerful talk. The spirit was very strong and he helped me understand a few things I’ve never put together before. Just a few notes from his talk: Joseph Smith said that “All things pertaining to our church are appendages of the Atonement of Christ.” To each person to whom we testify of Christ is brought an “echo” of the council in heaven. If we lived what we sing in the hymn, “Come Unto Jesus,” we wouldn’t need a zone conference. If you want power, testify of Christ. He then told the story of a man on an airport shuttle who stood up just before getting off the bus, turned to the other passengers, and asked, “Have you heard the news?” He then said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoso believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” and got off the bus. Sister Cahoon gave a recap of Elder Robbins conference talk of “To Do or To Be.” The AP’s followed that up with a challenge for us to add an extra step in our commitment pattern by not merely asking, “Will you be baptized?” but “Will you be obedient by being baptized?” thus offering the investigator the opportunity to “be” something and not just to “do” something. There were more things said and done, but those were the highlights. We really benefited by being there today.
All the senior missionaries came into town either last night or today, so this evening we all met and had supper at the Crawford’s. There are now 14 of us, but Crawfords leave in 6 weeks. It seems strange to even think of their not being here. (They served in Broome before we did, but then they were called to work in the office and have done so for a year now.)