Zone Conference & Service

 (Sister Putnam)

This week we had zone conference.  We talked about the importance of building relationships with members and how eager many members are to participate in missionary work. Afterwards, we helped an elderly lady with setting up shelves in her house.  She told us about her mission experiences and we discussed the gospel.  She brought us to meet an inactive but returning member, who is regaining her testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration.  Both these ladies are incredible people.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Rafael, and we were talking about how God speaks to us in our own figurative language; so many of us see parallels between gospel principles and the things we do in our individual every activities. I'll provide an example:  At one point I was writing a story, and I would post one page of it at a time. Because of this, I got to see readers' reactions. Sometimes, when there was conflict in the story, they would react with "oh no!" type responses. Well, one girl gave that reaction, and I told her, "Hey, it's okay, it's a happy ending!" And she said, "how do you know?" I replied said, "Because I'm the one writing it. Of course I know!" And it made me think, that's how God must see us sometimes. And the fact that I find things just like that example almost everywhere, shows me that the Lord is reaching out to us so much and that He wants us to see how much he loves us.

We also began planning a presentation that we and the elders will do on the Restoration in a week at a Community Senior center here in Lynden. We're hoping it will help the work to pick up in Lynden and also that the people here will see that we are good people.

We also worked on a hiking trail, working to make it more hikeable, and it was awesome to see the people excited to help just strangers to enjoy hikes more, people that they'd never even meet. We worked on clearing out blackberry bushes from this lady's yard, and there are blackberry thorns in the bottom of my shoe now lol.

We also painted some rocks and hid them at the famous Rock Cubby in Lynden, where people like to go to take rocks to be hidden all throughout Lynden. Each rock has a symbol and a message that we hope will lift someone when they find it.

Love you all!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam