first zone conference............

........another tomorrow.........and three next week. I think I'm tired......... We each had to present this morning and take things with us. 'Course, the Elders carried in my four boxes. They are so good to watch and offer to help. I didn't have much to tell them, but as soon as I sat down I thought, "Oh!! I should have told them that!" Kind of like giving a talk........you understand.

The training was so good! I'm glad I get to hear it five times. Maybe by then I will remember better. We stand and recite D&C 4 at the beginning of nearly every training.......well, I don't "recite". I stumble through and just plain listen to some verses. I have it hung up here at home--in the bathroom and the kitchen--and it's getting a little better, but a very little. Pres. Hanks talked about "weapons of rebellion" (among a whole host of other things) and asked us to consider what our "weapons of rebellion" are and to "lay them down". I'm going to work on the bedtime thing. The "get up" thing will take care of itself if I can whip the other. He also gave them a grammar lesson!! Hooray!!!!! He had 4-5 sentences on the power point and asked them how to fix them.........mostly pronoun usage: him and me, ...............and that's the only one I can think of exactly right now, but other such things. He said if a potential employee used that kind of grammar in an interview there is no way he would hire him. He couldn't afford to take that chance that he would talk like that to a customer. Yeah. Oh! And he talked about "the little things". Some famous, very popular rock star (or something like that) would send out a 16 page document containing instructions on how to set up his lights and sound equipment for his concerts. In there he gave instructions to have a bowl of m&ms. And have all the green ones removed. Why? He knew if they got down to the green m&ms he didn't have to worry about the "big" things. Interesting, huh?

After lunch Roger and I went out to "go through the cars". He wanted to check the Tiwis and make sure they were all "communicating". I went through the documents in the glove box to makes sure they had current insurance "cards" and that all the numbers matched: license plate, VIN, Tiwi, gas card. We try to know where everything is..........daunting, but doable...........and we are getting it. Thankfully, we had a pretty good cloud cover most of the time. It was plenty hot and humid, but it could have been a whole lot worse!

Toward the end of the training Pres. Hanks suddenly said, "Drop your pencils and look at me." You should have heard the clatter of pens and pencils! Cool! Then he testified that they are representatives of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He has given them that trust and has empowered them to do just that! Then admonished them to go out and testify. Don't be afraid of anyone. Tell the world! ..........it was really neat.

On the way home, we stopped in the "peach capitol" of Alabama for some, you guessed it, peaches. And they had some homemade ice cream, so I got some peach ice cream. As I was coming out I greeted a man going in. He stopped and partially turned around to look at my name tag. I turned my shoulder a little so he would be able to see it more easily and said, "The Church of Jesus Christ..." but that's as far as I got. He said, "God bless you people!" I was a little surprised!! But it turns out that he has several friends who are members and he admires them greatly. He judges the entire Church by his friends...........not surprising. And way to go Friends!!!! Roger said he wished he would take the lessons. Turns out his wife is a strict Catholic and this man doesn't want to drive any wedges. I think he would jump in with both feet at the deep end otherwise..........kind of makes my heart ache. He again "blessed" us and wished us well. A really, really good ending to a very good day.