Christmas Zone Conferences are the best!

December 20, 21, & 22—Christmas Zone Conferences

Tuesday in Lucena for Lopez, Lucena, and Marinduque Zones.

Wednesday in Lipa for Batangas, Lipa, and Mindoro Zones.

Thursday in San Pablo for Cabuyao, San Pablo, and Santa Cruz Zones.

            Christmas Zone Conferences are always a favorite for everyone. Each day we were able to have a wonderful experience as we taught along with the Assistants. There were great comments and participation. We had the missionaries write things they had done to Light the World and put them on our tarpaulin Christmas tree.

            We began with business including the change for Zone Conferences and Zone Interviews every transfer cycle. We had the missionaries leaving in December and February share their testimonies. There were wonderful musical numbers at each conference as well.

            President and I taught about the importance of using the Book of Mormon. We introduced a 90-day challenge to read the Book of Mormon as a mission and focus on Christ by marking His names and references to Him. We will also mark references to the cleansing/redeeming and enabling power of the Atonement. We also taught the importance of teaching the First Vision from the heart. We had a missionary in each conference share the First Vision and then committed the missionaries to memorize it if they hadn’t. They will share with me at the Zone Conference. The Assistants did practice teaching with some of the missionaries to demonstrate how they can teach from the Book of Mormon and address the needs of the investigator using the chapter where they are studying. It is very powerful (even done in Tagalog).

            We talked about the 1-1-1 program which is one active member bringing one convert into the Church in one year. We showed the infomercial done by a few of our missionaries as well as a beautiful song written by two of our sisters to help teach the importance of teaching the one.

            The missionaries always enjoy Christmas lunch which includes a lechon. We also had fun watching the Christmas DVD. The senior couples organized Christmas games by forming the missionaries in three groups and doing a rotation of the games. Afterwards there was a musical performance by some missionaries and the senior couples sang a little song, “All I Want for Christmas is a Baptism”. It wasn’t great but fun for the missionaries to see us. Then the Howards led them in a song with actions. We then had a gift game. The Philippines missions are blessed with a group of parents who send gifts for all of our missionaries. This year each missionary received a pocket set of scriptures donated by the group. It was a wonderful gift and very appreciated. President Mangum and I gave them a pocket size Gratitude Journal so they can follow President Eyring’s counsel to look back at the day and notice the hand of the Lord in their life.

            After the games we returned to the Chapel where I shared a brief Christmas message about lighting the world. President Mangum read the Nativity from both the Book of Mormon and New Testament while showing some pictures. It is always a sweet experience to hear this sacred story. We then knelt as a group and President Mangum offered a closing prayer. It was emotional every day as we thought about it being our last round of Christmas Zone Conferences.