1 September 2010

Let Dr. Whelan and Bonnie know that a letter is on its way.

This week has been amazing. On Monday, we had a zone conference where Elder Mazzagardi from the Second Quorum of the Seventy, 2nd counselor in the Brasil area presidency, and his wife spoke to a couple of zones. He was doing a mission tour, which I believe he will end tomorrow in Ponta Grossa. It took him four years to get baptized, twice as long as Brigham Young, and he used that story to demonstrate the importance of keeping our area books up-to-date. I was better able to visualize the plan of our Heavenly Father for His missionary work. I think that many times I have only been able to focus on the people that I have been able to lead to the waters of baptism, when in reality the work progresses farther than on missionary, or even one mission president. I just imagined that if all the area books in the world were filled out correctly and updated regularly; in other words, if they were perfect, far more people in the world would be baptized. I'm just kind if sad that I'm starting to learn that in the last 25% of my mission.

Yesterday was also a great day. We planned a zone meeting where the individual districts had small meetings, and then we met together as a zone to have a training. The missionaries here got really excited, and Elder Treausre and I are trying to realize a rather ambitious goal: make the Zion Zone. Lofty? Yes, but when we shoot higher we perform higher. D&C 97:19 will come to describe our zone:

And the [zones] of the [mission] shall honor her, and shall say: Surely Zion is the [zone] of our God, and surely Zion cannot fall, neither be moved out of her place, for God is there, and the hand of the Lord is there;

Today we went to the Museum of the Expeditionary where can be found many interesting artifacts and stories from Brazil's involvement in World War II. It was really pretty cool. We weren't allowed to take any photos inside, but I got a couple outside with a plane and with a tank. You'll get to see those soon. On a side note, did I ever tell you that when people see Dad's photo in front of Air Force One in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum, they think he's a pilot? If you want, I can lie and tell them he is.

We will be having another zone leader council on Friday. I'll be sure to pass on the great things we learn there.

Until next week,
Elder Floyd