Monday July 8

On Saturday we had Zone Conference with our new President and his wife, President Walker.  They came over to the Visitor's Center and greeted us each individually and then took a picture of us with them.

After the greeting which took about 2 hours we went into the Stake Center and they took charge of the meeting.  They were really cute and had this power point presentation about them and their five children.  We learn a little bit about them.  President Walker is the grandson of President Benson.    He told us that when he was set apart by President Nelson that the Prophet told him that people all around the word come here thinking they are going on a vacation and  in reality many of them are coming here to hear about the Gospel.  This mission includes people from all over the world, many from lands where the Gospel isn't allowed to be taught but they can hear about it here and take it back to their people.

He told us that President Holland said a mission should be forever.  That our families need to understand that our #1 priority is to serve the Lord, and we are doing it for them.

Leslie wrote an email and I'm going to copy part of it, since she had already typed it up so I'm going to use it:

"He said that after he was called to be a Mission President, before he knew where they would be assigned, they guessed they would go to a French speaking mission because both he and his wife speak French.  There were 3 French speaking missions needing new presidents, 2 were in Africa.  Six weeks before he they received their assignment,  during 4 successive nights, feelings and impressions came to him about the importance of serving with senior couples and senior missionaries.  He wrote down several things, but was confused because there are no senior missionaries in the 3 French speaking missions.  His assignment came (they showed a video of them opening the call and how excited they were--their family is all screaming) and they found out they were going to the mission with more senior missionaries than any mission in the world.  He said when he met with President Nelson, he told him 2 things, 1)  People think they are coming to Hawaii as tourists, but they are really coming to hear the gospel.  2)  We can't get into several countries.  We have the unique opportunity here to teach the gospel to people from those countries.  They come to us.  The role we play is to help them feel our testimonies.  

He visited the Laie Temple Visitors Center on Tuesday and watched as a bus of Chinese tourists, led by their driver, came to the Center.  (They have 150 to 300 Chinese guests a day there).  The driver brought them in, sat them down in front of the Christus and told them they would learn about Jesus Christ, see a short film about the Church, and receive a free copy of the Book of Mormon before they left.   

He told us that senior missions are an act of pure love.  "You are indeed a Royal Army.  Blessings will be poured out on you."

I've been thinking what a blessing it is that so many students who work at the PCC speak Chinese.  Everything is in place here to teach the gospel to people from all over the world.  These students are hand-picked by the Lord to come here. " end of Leslie:)

I think we area very lucky to have had and are having such great men be our Mission Presidents.  He told us about when his Great grandfather, Ezra T. (not Taft) Benson was here in 1864, he went to Maui to investigate a man who was leading the church astray.  As they approached Lahaina some how, I'm not remembering why, Ezra T. somehow drowned as he was trying to get from the boat to shore and they pulled him to the shore.  Joseph F. Smith and Lorenzo Snow were with him and tried to get him to breathe.  Nothing was working.  So they prayed and then were instructed to take turns blowing air into his mouth, each man took a turn till he was tired and then the other man took a turn.  His great Grandfather started breathing again.  He said this was 92 years before mouth to mouth resuscitation was instituted as a life saving means.

His father was also a roommate of President Nelson when they were at Medical school.  His father was a  heart surgeon in Alberta, Canada.

Over all it was a great Zone Conference and we learned a lot about this great man and his family.  His wife is cute and even send out an facebook picture thanking us for welcoming them so lovingly.

Yesterday, we had our Break the Fast day.  The YSA went well considering it was our first time and President Lee's wife is gone.  Elder Taylor and his wife made pulled pork with pineapple coldslaw on it.  Was great.  The Crist's, Shahara and Tom's side of the family were here with us with their daughter McKenzie and then I had my friend Carrie Peterson's daughter, Carly, with us also.  I hope they liked it.  We loved having company there.  My grandsons, Sam and Isaac come on Wednesday and we can hardly wait.  Miss my kids so much.

There is Sister Jenkins, they go home next week :(