The President Has Arrived (2) ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

ZONE CONFERENCE'S

BUCHAREST ZONE ~ Monday

These meetings are remarkable in so many ways.  We've had to do the last few over Zoom which is great but there is nothing better than to be able to gather together and have the amazing spiritual uplift that having all these powerhouse missionaries together, in one place, bring!

They give the cutest presentations and what I would have given to have seen my own children in action on their missions! We are so blessed to have the technology that we do now so that parents can be a little bit more involved with their children's mission and see a glimpse of what they are doing and how they are feeling and growing through these missionary experiences.  To have been a fly on the wall so many years ago, when our kids were serving, would have been a dream come true!

We spend a few hours setting up and preparing for the missionary's lunch and birthday celebrations. As most of you know I semi-retired from cooking once we became empty-nesters so we order most of our lunches from the local stores or restaurants.  Elder Matthews manages to get pretty good deals on the food! For the birthdays we don't do anything big; they each get a candy bar, we take pictures and sing to them! Just a little something to make them feel less homesick!

Because it has been so long since we have met in-person we had quite a few Birthdays to celebrate (twice)!

I love having this calling with Billy ~ we have pretty much figured out our different roles; he does about 75% of the hard work and I follow with my 25% of fun! Some days are harder than others but just having him to share it all with has truly been amazing!

This is our Bucaresti Zone: front row - Soras Gunn/Elmont, Elders Reese/Truscott. Seated: Soras Tobler/Bauco, Soras Pallo/Wilcock, Soras Weaver/Sorensen, Elders Beck/Ekstom, Elders Miller/Wilensen. Back row: Elders Sarkady/Chandler, Soras Guest/Perry, Soras McAfee/Bell, Elder/Sora Falslev, Elder/Sora Matthews and President Rucker!

EAST ZONE

These were some of our helpers getting set up the following day for our 2nd Zone Conference with the East Zone. We get to do the same thing as yesterday all over again with another sweet group of missionaries!

Singing and birthday wishes! Sora Falslev made the dessert for each birthday celebration ~ she is the best baker ever ! Delicious!

Great presentations by Elder Church, Alder and Christensen!

~change; YW's Room & Leader

August 2, 2014

We've had a change in our YW's Presidency.

 

Lori Jennings is a cute creative neighbor who I'm really excited to work with and have join the Young Women's program here in the 17th Ward, St George Stake!  And with this change a long overdue "makeover" of our Young Women's room was in order.  

This is something I've wanted to do ever since we came back from being in the other chapel on Main Street (while our ward building was being remodeled) but never took the time (or energy) to complete this task.  I am such a 'social' worker (for me, this means that I like having others around when I do projects) so when we called Lori I knew she would be just the gal to help me accomplish this task! We spent a few days and enough hours to make this one of our projects in the Personal Progress Program!

OUR WORK BEGINS!  

First we took down all the previous pictures and Lori began working on our "Come Unto Christ" mutual theme and flag banner while I got our motto and monthly lesson and other pictures framed.

So many wonderful and amazing programs within the Young Women's organization!  It's exceptional and truly inspired.

~ Now for the "Before" and After" pictures ~

^^^^^^^^^^^  BEFORE  ^^^^^^^^^^^

(Aren't those the most adorable girls!)

Bazinga!

Now for the rest of the "AFTER" pictures . . . 

(I had to post every one of the "after" pictures because it was such a fun project and it turned out so wonderful ~ the room sets the mood and is conducive to a feeling of contentment, learning, well-being and spirituality).

In these pics you can kind of get a better idea of the whole room.  The door the girls enter is on the right (west side) and the east wall has a picture of the Savior.

Each month we focus on a different value, this month was on knowledge (green): "Seek learning, even by study and also by faith (D&C 88:118). I will continually seek opportunities for learning and growth"

The Motto and Torch picture along with the monthly lesson and our YW's scripture are seen as you come into the room and on the piano is our Personal Progress "treat" jars. Each time a YW completes one of the value experiences in Faith (white), Divine Nature (blue), Individual Worth (red), Knowledge (green), Choice & Accountability (orange), Good Works (yellow), Integrity (purple) or Virtue (gold) she gets to get a treat from one of the value jars. Just another incentive tactic to help the girls strengthen their testimonies of Jesus Christ, strengthen both their present and future families, prepare to be worthy to make and keep sacred temple covenants and prepare for their future roles and responsibilities.

 

As the Young Women enter the room they get a "treat" for just being there.  Then they find their notebook (spiritual journal) and take a seat.  The theme, value and 'another' treat are displayed as well (for those that brought their scriptures and personal progress book)!

As you can see, I am really into treats - I like to refer to them as positive reinforcements - I figure that everyone likes rewards - for those in the work force their reward is a paycheck, for those that come to YW's theirs is a spiritual experience along with a yummy treat.

On the main table is a basket for handouts, a few extra Book of Mormon's, some True to

the Faith books (one of my all time favorite books in the whole wide world), pencils, etc..

We're all ready for an enriching and enlightening lesson from one of our fantastic leaders!

On to the back wall! It was just blank so I bought 2 bulletin boards and had Bro Fisher put them up for me, we (he) also moved the hymnal case to the east wall (from the west wall where we put the picture of the St George Temple).

^^^Before^^^ and ^^^After^^^

 ~The End~
 . . . or should I say, "The Beginning"!

Side note: after the room was finished we started getting a lot of people coming in during the 2nd block and just hanging out; it was a very inviting and cozy room to be in!