Zone Conferences Complete!

This week we completed all of our Zone Conferences, and just like last week, they were wonderful!
We again are so amazed at the testimonies and faith of these young elders and sisters. We are also amazed at their resiliency! This is hard work, and baptisms are hard to come by, yet they keep working hard and exercising their faith to find those the Lord has prepared. We felt good about our zone conferences, and had many missionaries say they left inspired and motivated to do the work, which is exactly what we wanted. I do know that there was a wonderful spirit in each one. In each zone conference we try to have a special musical number from members in one of the zones, and so this time we asked two of our elders from the 'islands' to sing a musical number-Elder Peihopa (from New Zealand) and Elder Manarii (from French Polynesia). They sang a beautiful arrangement of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", but in the middle verses you switch and sing the words to "Joseph Smith's First Prayer". So they sang in English the first verse, then Elder Peihopa sang in Mauri on one verse, then Elder Manarii in French on one, and then both back to English. It was so neat--they were both very nervous, yet excited to do it. They have never done it before, and couldn't believe I would ask them; but it was such a great experience for them and really brought a great spirit to our zone Conference. I just wanted to hug them after--but I can't!
This week on Friday we held a special mission wide fast. We prayed and fasted that we would be inspired as how to help our investigators progress, and also that we would be able to find those that the Lord has prepared to hear the gospel. We have already had missionaries call us to tell us of new investigators they have found. We truly know that the Lord accepts of our fasting and prayers, especially when 204 young missionaries (and senior couples!) unite together in it.
Fall is definitely in the air here--the leaves are turning yellow and it cools right down at night, but we have had some beautiful fall days. We drove to BC on Friday to participate in a stake conference with Elder Kim B. Clark of the Seventy. The drive down was beautiful- we actually took a little more time and took off on some different roads just to see other scenery. This is such a beautiful time of year here. I remember last year thinking fall was pretty, but we were still in such a state of shock (ha ha) that I don't think I could really appreciate it! The colors are really gorgeous! We are enjoying every bit of it, since they are predicting a harsh winter ahead!!