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We had the craziest week this week! Normally the first Tuesday of every transfer is Zone Leader Council. All the Zone Leaders have to go to Tulsa for a couple of days and there we get instruction from the Assistants and from President Merkley, and also we plan the upcoming Zone Conferences, talk about problems in the mission and things we need to focus on, stuff like that. We all get there Monday night, then the meeting starts Tuesday morning, goes for a few hours, then we get to drive back to our areas. Since here in St. Robert we are by far the furthest away from Tulsa, we have to leave early in the afternoon Monday and don't get back to Tuesday evening, sometimes pretty late. Usually the way it works, and the way I think I told you about 6 weeks ago when we did it, is that we, along with the Zone Leaders in Branson, get a ride (from members) to Springfield (about an hour and a half drive) then the 6 of us all ride with the Springfield Zone Leaders to Tulsa. They have a minivan, so it works out pretty good. Actually I'm pretty sure that's the reason they have a minivan. Anyway, this time it was totally different because we got some special instruction from the missionary department in Salt Lake. Their names were Brother Littlefield and Brother Beck, and they were awesome! I learned so much! The only bad thing was that because of that the meeting was on Wednesday, so we had to leave around 3 pm on Tuesday, then Wednesday after the meeting drive back from Tulsa to St. Robert. We didn't get back here until 10:15 pm on Wednesday, so the meeting pretty much ate up both of those days. Also, because of the special instruction President Merkley wanted alot of other people there as well. Basically as many other people that we could fit in our car he wanted, mainly the District Leaders in our zone. So we took Elder Davis, Elder Draney, and Elder Paget down with us. All 5 of us crammed in that little Malibu for 5 hours was alot of fun... not to mention it killed our miles. It was fun though being with Elder Davis again, and I got to see Elder Moxon at that meeting too. He's been out 4 and a half months, and now he's District Leader and training! That's crazy! I just barely finished training him! That was so exciting. Also Elder Paget liked it because he's been a Zone Leader for the last 10 or 11 months, he's one of the best missionaries out here, and for his last two transfers they put him down to District Leader so he could go open the new Eldon area. He's training there too, and I'm really excited for that area. Anyway, he was really excited because he thought he wouldn't get to go to ZLC ever again, but he got to this one last time! I really love ZLC, you just get to go hang out with all the other Zone Leaders and learn a ton. The only bad thing is that's two days that we aren't working... Because of that this week was a little slower. Sweet story from Thursday, though. Because they got back so late, those other 3 Elders stayed the night in our apartment in St. Robert then went back to their areas Thursday morning. Well Eldon's ride back was a man named Jim Bird who is getting baptized this week. We did his baptismal interview right there at the church when he came to pick them up, and I got to interview him. He has the most incredible story. Back in September a friend gave him a Book of Mormon and a copy of the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Jim Bird has been a devout Episcopalian for 58 years (his whole life), and hates reading, so he just threw the books aside and didn't think anything more about it. Well, he's a truck driver for a living, and for nearly a month those books just sat on the floor in the cab of his truck. Even though he had tried to throw them aside, something kept drawing his attention back to them. He just kept looking over at them and something kept telling him to read it... so finally he did. After almost a month one night he picked up the teachings of Joseph Smith with the intent to just flip through it casually. But he couldn't put it down. He read until about 3 in the morning, and did the same the next night, and then the night after that. Before long he was done with it, then he started reading the Book of Mormon. He said there was a power in that book that grabbed him like nothing ever had before. He knew immediately that it was the word of God, and as he kept reading and praying he recieved some marvelous answers to his prayers. Well in the mean time he decided that he really needed to find a mormon church. The next Sunday he got online and found the closest church. This was the first Sunday in November, so of course it was fast and testimony meeting. He felt the Spirit there stronger than he ever had before, and he hasn't missed a Sunday since. That's 15 straight Sundays! The amazing thing is that he is a trucker, so every Sunday it's in a different state that he goes to church. But he hasn't missed. Meanwhile he has also bought the Book of Mormon on cd for while he's driving, and has now listened to it 3 times. And read it once. One Sunday in late November he was attending church in Atlanta, Georgia and he happened to sit next to the Mission President there. So they started chatting, he told him his story, and that Mission President basically committed him to baptism. Then he gave him these instructions: Figure out a few days ahead of time what town you are going to be in each Sunday, and call the Bishop of that ward. The Bishop can hook you up with the missionaries. So each Sunday for the past 2 months he's gone to church then had the missionaries teach him immediately after church. He has a Teaching Record that he carries around and those missionaries sign it after they've taught him. So he's recieved all the lessons, and all the different principles are signed off by different missionaries from New York, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, and all over the place! Isn't that crazy? Then 3-4 weeks ago he slipped on the ice in Wisconsin and broke his wrist, forcing him to get off the road for a few weeks and come home to Eldon, Missouri! So I got to interview him for his baptism. Isn't that an amazing story. He is SO converted to the gospel. There is zero doubt in his mind that it's true. His wife isn't too happy about it, but he said that that doesn't matter to him because he knows that this is Christ's church. I'm so grateful that I had the privilege of interviewing him. Also this week we set a baptismal date with Noni for the 27th of February. I think that covers about everything that happened this week... Have a great week! I love you!
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