We had a historic set of zone conferences this past week! Because of our mission's self-isolation, we held our zone conferences in five sessions via WebEx, a video conferencing software. It was an incredible experience in each one, full of the Spirit, inspired teachings, and a sense of unity and participation that far exceeded our expectations.
The music numbers were absolutely fantastic!
The whole conference was extremely poignant. Our two assistants, Elders Abraham and Chase, put an incredible video of those who have gone home because of the coronavirus. The missionaries who had already gone home sent in short and powerful, recorded testimonies.
The, the Assistants went through each video and grouped specific points together. For example, they took the introduction from each missionary and streamed it. Then, if the missionaries testified of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, they did the same thing. They continued with each point. At the end, each one of them said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
When coupled togethered, these testimonies were fantastic and poignant. Elder Heaven asked if he could beam in from Canada. We allowed him to do so because he had just gone home the night before and now was in self-isolation. He bore his testimony and said he wished he would have done what the others did because it was so “cool.” We are going to record and then insert later.
Each zone leader and each sister training leader who present did well and brought such an inspiring Spirit into the video conference. Plus, they all invited the missionaries to do certain things. We love invitations, and we know the zone and sister training leaders will be following up.
When it was our turn to testify, tears were already streaming, and we could barely say anything. All conferences, all five sessions, were so good. The Assistants orchestrated it extremely well, and the testimonies were touching and revelatory.
Discussion topics included:
- “Disciples of Christ follow the example of Christ by persisting in doing good and serving others by loving, lifting, leading, inspiring, and inviting others.” President Norman of the Mission Presidency presented this topic.
- “Be of Good Cheer and Resilient During These Challenging Times” Sister Hammon and I presented this one.
The rest were done by the zone or sister training leaders and the assistants
- “How to use social media wisely to share the gospel, finding, utilizing live discussions, utilizing appropriate videos from the Church, and developing person conversion videos.”
- “How to develop power teaching lessons via technology and learn how to talk to people on the phone and texting people.”
- “How to have an effective and powerful home visit via technology and learning how to follow up on the invitations you extend. This could include more focused finding by using members and their social circles.”
- “Feed My Sheep!”—Assistants, Elders Abraham and Chase.
As we contemplated what happened this past week, we were very happy with it. These young missionaries are absolutely incredible. We do hope they talk about what happened this week with their parents and family as we truly participated in something historic--at least for our mission!
