Saturday May 25, 2019

 Yesterday we had the most mazing Zone Conference.  Our Mission President Elder Bekker has been called to be an area Seventy in the church and he is such an amazing man.  Everyone loves Elder Bekker.  He inspires us all to try harder and be better at calling people to come unto Christ.

President Bekker's wife is also a great leader.  They had just met with President Nelson in Kona last week and she wanted to share some of his words with us.  President Nelson was asked what he had learned in the 10 decades he had lived.  He said that we should learn to live with disappointment but what matters most is that our Father in Heaven is concerned that  those who have left should come back to Him again.  He left them with 10 things to know:

1.  That God is our Father and wants us to have joy and return to Him.  He will never take away our agency.

2.  Jesus is Christ and came to do one thing, the will of His Father.

3.  We are created in the image of Them.

4.  God communicates through His Prophets, in all the past dispensations he didn't because the Gospel was lost, but it has been restored and now He communicates again to men through His Prophets.

5.  Scriptures are true, and we have been given the Book of Mormon.

6.  The church is true,  it's the same church as was here for Adam, Noah and Abraham.  It was been restored as it was then.

7.  Satan is allowed to function on earth today.  If you want to be miserable follow Satan, if you want to be happy follow Jesus Christ.

8.  The youth of Zion today are the greatest chosen generation ever.

9.  Joy comes from one thing, keeping the commandments, the world needs to be more religious, devote yourself to the Lord.

10. Salvation is an individual matter but Exaltation is a family matter.  Blessings come by following certain laws.  If you want a blessing for something find out what the laws are for the blessing then you will receive the blessing....like the law of tithing.  (which I totally know is true!)

Sister Bekker reminded us to keep the Sabbath day holy, that how we keep the Sabbath day holy is telling the Savior how we feel about Him.  The blessing that come from this law are:
1.  We are unspotted from the world
2.  Are blessed temporairly
3,  Spiritually blessed

President Bekker later bore his Testimony.  He said it was different from the one he had born before to us.  Since then he had been called to be an area Seventy and they had spend a week in training with the Apostles of the Lord.  He said he now does not witness of Jesus Christ but he now knows assuredly that he lives.  He was so humble when he told us this.  He is such a great man and leader of this mission.  He told us if we'd do four things we would never fall away from the church.
They are pray, study the scriptures, go to the Temple, and Serve.

We also played around with the Family Tree app and I found a close 4th cousin sitting right in front of me.  Everyone else's closest was 9th cousin so this was pretty cool.  He came from my mother's side, my grandma was red headed and he has red hair.  He is one of our 8 Elders we work closely with and now I will ask him more questions next time I see him.  His name is Elder Allen!