Dr. Suess

 When I went walking last week I came across these plants.  I have no idea as to what they are called.  There are some of these plants on the way to the church in Ventura. We've labeled them Dr. Suess plants.  Don't they look like they came out of one of his books? 

I said this statement last week "If I were home,  I would be cold outside; but here I'm cold inside."  Today I had the same sentiment.  We were in Santa Maria for interviews.  I was freezing in the church and went outside with missionaries to warm up.

Last week we were invited to be in Newbury Park for Stake Conference.  We were asked to take 15 minutes in the Saturday night's session.  That meant I had 5 and President had 10. Elder Sitati in the First Quorum of Seventy presided. He is from South Africa and has a great accent. We met him in the foyer and walked up to the stand.  He leaned over to President and asked if we were going to be there on Sunday.  He said yes.  Elder Satati then said I would like your wife to take up to 10 minutes tonight and you talk tomorrow.  President had prepared a talk. We were told the focus for the meeting would be ward councils.  He was going to tell them that MLC is like a ward council in the mission field and how we come together to coordinate the activities in the mission in hastening the work. All week I studied Preach My Gospel, the Ensign, and scriptures because I had no idea what I was going to say and I just wanted to prepare myself.  Really, what do you say in 5 minutes?  I had one sentence written down that I thought I may use.  "There is neither man or woman in this Church who is not on a mission. " That quote is from Brigham Young. I did use that statement but I was given stories or experiences that I was able to share. Our focus right now is working with the members.  The members make such a difference in the success of missionary work. I shared the experience we had of going to a baptism earlier in the day of a young married man. They were married in May. She was a member and the church was important to her. Mainly by her example he became interested.  His parents did not go to the wedding because he was marrying a Mormon and have disowned him.  He started taking the lessons and the ward embraced him and he was baptized.  He expressed thoughts after being baptized and it was great. Another experience was hearing from a bishop last week.  He called to get phone numbers of two sisters who had taught one of his employees.  About 5 months ago the employee was in his office.  The man from Mexico was concerned about his immigration and his wife who was still in Mexico.  Their marriage was suffering. During the conversation the bishop was prompted to ask the man if he would talk with the missionaries.  He agreed to the offer. That night the bishop went to a baptism (in fact we were at that one) and gave them the man's contact info. Well the employee went back to Mexico but met with the sisters a couple of times.  The bishop wanted the sister's numbers so he could tell them the man had called and wanted the bishop to thank the sisters for planting the seed. He, his wife,  and children were getting baptized in Mexico. As the bishop told me the story,  I got chills. 

I am learning to trust in the Lord.  He does put thoughts and words in my mouth. In preparing for the 5 minutes I knew I would be guided but I needed to prepare myself.  

More to the stake conference story --So President is not told how long he would be talking on Sunday.  We'll the talk he had was not going to work.  He put together thoughts on our purpose. With talks that transpired prior to his 10 minutes,  he didn't give that talk.  His remarks were about the memory of being called to be a mission president and his heart attack.  He told them we were to be here at this time. He shared what the missionary purpose is and invited the congregation to invite their friends. 

He did an excellent job. 

This week we are attending San Luis Obispo 's stake conference. Elder Packer who is an area Seventy will be presiding. President has 15 minutes in the leadership session, evening session is not certain, and Sunday we each have 5 minutes.  Here we go again. ..