Sisters and Elders

We went to our first Zone Conference.  For those who may be new to this whole missionary thing, let me explain.  We are in the Illinois, Chicago Mission.  Each mission is divided up into zones.  I'm not SURE, but I think in our mission there are four zones relating to the four Stakes or four church geographical areas in the mission.  We are in the Valparaiso Stake.  I don't think our zone has a name, but it covers the area of the Valparaiso Stake.  Here we are:

 Aren't we a good looking group?  Can you spot Craig and I?  We are standing on the the floor, on the left side.  Craig is standing right next to the Mission President (President Woodbury).  Sister Woodbury is in the yellow shirt, kneeling on the floor.  Craig and I are the only senior missionaries in this zone.  There are 34 other missionaries in the zone, including a "Zone Leader".  The young man in the gray suit standing amid all the sisters and the tall guy behind him are the Zone Leaders.  They are awesome!  About 1/2 of this group are Spanish Speaking, and we even have one Russian speaker.

Each zone is divided into districts of 8 - 10 missionaries.  Each district has a District Leader.  Although we are invited to district meetings, we haven't been yet.  It's not mandatory and it's about an hour away.  Each "companionship" meets with the District each week and then all the Districts meet with the Zone and the President each month.  It's all very organized.

In our little city of Rensselaer, we have had six missionaries:

The two on the left are English speaking, the two in the middle are Spanish Speaking, and the two on the right have no idea what they are saying half of the time.  As of tomorrow, the sister in the stripes and the sister in red are leaving.  We will be left with ONE English speaker, ONE Spanish speaker, and the two old guys.  Every Wednesday, the sisters give Spanish lessons.  Craig has finally mastered how to say, What is your name.  Next thing you know, he'll be teaching in Spanish.

Here are the four sisters together with our Branch President and his wife.  We had dinner at their home on Sunday.  Sister Portwood cooked a full on Easter dinner:  turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, gravy, corn, fresh green beans, salad, rolls.  Cheesecake for dessert.  Oh my!!

So, what have we been doing?

I think I've used 15 pounds of flour in the last three weeks.  This batch was for a baptism, and for some families we will be visiting tomorrow.

Last weekend, we took three friends to see "Grease" at the local college:  St. Joseph's College.  Their claim to fame is that the football scenes of "Brian's Song" were filmed there.  That was a movie from the 70's?  maybe?

You just buy tickets at the door.  No reserved seating.  $5 a seat.  Not bad for a live production.

The couple behind us had a daughter in the show.  She played Cha Cha.  We chatted at intermission.  You can also see that the theater was full.  We were on the second row.

Here are our friends.  Right next to Craig is Lynn (she is the property manager here at the apartments).  Then Stacy, our neighbor, and her boyfriend, Brian.  It was a fun night.

We had a Relief Society social last week.  Our Relief Society President worked hard to make things nice for the sisters.

You can see that the tables were set up in the same room where we have Sacrament Meeting.  There is no cultural hall.

The sad part was that only 8 sisters came and one of those was from the stake.  Even so, it was a nice night.

We have meetings set up for tomorrow with about four families that live in Wheatfield (about 30 minutes away.  So we just keep doing what we're doing and hope we can help someone.
Oh yeah, tractors are out in force and Craig is looking forward to his first tractor drive.  Should be this week!!!!