AI has come to the mission, Wedding Bells, Missionary, Operation Get It Done-ford, Mission Prep

 AI (artificial intelligence) has hit the mission. Someone created an AI called “Holly”. I don’t understand it, but somehow she can gather the referrals for our Zone and separate them according to District. As each companionship responds to the referral, “Holly” deletes the name from the list. She will remind them and other things that I don’t know. Anyway, technology is being used to further the missionary efforts.  Each morning, the Elder in charge of  "Holly" says "Holly, go fetch", and she collects all the data for referrals.  Then the Elder says "Good Dog", and then all the missionaries have access to the new referrals for the day.  Amazing!  A Miracle!

One of our young adults from our Temple Prep class, Amy, received her mission call a couple months ago.  A couple of weeks ago, she and her family flew up to Provo and she went through the Provo City Temple for her Endowments.  Amy left this morning with her parents, and flew up to Provo to enter the MTC this week. This is the only picture I was able to get from the family.  I wish I could have gotten a picture with her missionary attire and her name tag.  She's so excited to serve.  Her sisters said that she's been packing her suitcase ever since she received her mission call.  She's serving in the Gilbert Arizona mission.

We have an engagement in the YSA ward!  Frank and Beatrice got engaged last week.  Frank is in our Bishopric, and Bea is a Gospel Doctrine teacher.  They are both amazing young people.  We are so happy for them.  There is hope for the YSA's!  

Our mission president posted the following letter on the Senior Chat.  The sister that wrote the letter is from Japan.  The mission president wanted her to get her Driver's License to help with the driving with her companions.  I thought I would share this with you as an example of one of the many ways Senior Missionaries serve and help the missionaries.

"Dear Seniors, I am amazed at your efforts and goodness and love with and for our missionaries. Here is an excerpt from a letter to me from one of our sweet young missionaries. THANK YOU for loving and caring and lifting and building these young people. It IS worth every effort. I feel so honored to be part of such an amazing team!

“Successes: Getting a driver's license. I owe it all to Sister/Elder Hardy for letting me use their computer, Sister/Elder Page for fighting the DMV with me to get the permit, Sister Christian for helping us for 3 days with driving, Sister Pollock for teaching me how to parallel park, Sister/Elder Carlson that helped me with taking the driving test, that one YSA member that let us use his car, Sister/Elder Phillip for helping with the letterhead, Sister Murakami for being patient with me, Sister Thomas and Sister Finau for helping me study for the written test, and President/Sister Merritt for being supportive and signing the letterhead.”

You are probably wondering what "Operation Get It Done-ford" is.  Well, our Stake President's last name is Dunford.  He implemented a program in our Stake with the missionaries.  In the past, a Dinner Calendar would be passed around the ward to help feed the missionaries.  The missionaries would go to their home, enjoy dinner and conversation, leave a short message, and head out.  The new Stake "Love, Share, and Invite" program is more missionary minded.  Instead of a Dinner Calendar, it is a "Lesson Calendar".  The missionaries bring a little white booklet to the family. This booklet has blank pages for the members to write down their goals.  The missionaries will follow up with them throughout the week. After a brief dinner, where conversation is directed to the members and learning about them (their conversion, temple experiences, testimonies etc), they are then invited to practice a Role Play with the missionaries practicing with the members so that they can be prepared to talk with their friends.  The goal is to get more referrals from the members and to help them feel more comfortable talking with their friends about the Gospel.  The Lord continues to help missionaries and members know how to find and share with their friends.  

Our Mission Prep class was pretty small today - we only had three youth show up!  But it ended up being a good experience for the three who came.  We were discussing "Questions of the Soul" and how we can find answers to life's questions in the Book of Mormon.  We had some discussion and then decided to role play some of the questions that our friends might ask.  We had a set of Elders come to help us out. So with the Elders and these three students, they took turns either  being the missionaries or the "Friend" and asking some of the "Questions of the Soul".  As they practiced this, I began to be aware that the two most quiet of the three students were actually speaking up and participating and asking very good questions.  It was a blessing for them to have a small group; where they would feel comfortable speaking up.