This will be my final zone conference post, the next zone conference
will take place in September and we will be long gone by then.
I take pictures throughout the entire three weeks, four weeks this time,
we took a break in the middle for Heather's visit. So I just put the
pictures on willy nilly and I'm going to explain them as I go. Hopefully
it will all make sense.
I started this interview session by giving everyone a hug. A "hugs"
candy that is (I found the hugs at bulk barn, so I was pretty happy)
and a warm fuzzy. The warm fuzzy's are the bright colored balls 
in the yellow bucket. I told each missionary to take a warm fuzzy and
put it in their pocket, then whenever they saw it or felt it they would
think of me and they would know how much Sister Campbell loves them
and they would get a warm fuzzy.
After the hug and warm fuzzy, I put them to work. I wanted to make sure
I allowed every missionary to have the opportunity to do my going home regiment.
I've done most of these things with the going home missionaires since
I've been here, so why stop now. There were four things I had them do,
one more, but it was optional.
I started with having them sign my apron. Cutest and best idea ever.
Then I had them sign my photo mat. The plan is to put a picture in it
of the Edmonton Temple that President has taken. I got this idea
from Patriarch Henderson, something he showed me at his house,
from his mission in California. I just improved on the idea a wee bit.
I only started this about a year and a half ago, so I'll need to take it
to the reunions to get all the missionaries to sign it.
Next, I had them sign my book and asked them to share with me
something that would help me remember them. Something that was
uniquely them. I gave everyone their own individual page.
Then I had them sign my Book of Mormon. I've been doing this
from the very beginning. Someone gave me the idea along the way.
So what they do, is find their favorite Book of Mormon scripture, underline
it and write their name in the margin. This will be a real treasure for me.
All of our missionaires, sharing their favorite scripture. If their scripture
was already underlined, they could sign their name along side someone
else or they could look for another unused scripture. Most liked to have their
very own, so they would get pretty clever at finding a unique one.
Of course I put our my table of "pantry purge". Got to get rid of everything
before I go, so I'm not leaving the new president's wife with a lot of
unused, expired food. I'd rather the missionaries use it, if they can.
I even put out some fun church pins my sister Jo sent me in a package.
They got a big kick out of them, they were the first to go.
For a treat, I made white cake and a texas sheet cake and served milk.
The texas sheet cake again was the most popular. I had to make one for
each day of interviews. So I made six sheet cakes in all, only two of the
white cake, just not as popular.
We have to break up the interviews and conferences, because they are
so large. So we started with interviews on Tuesday then moved into
a combined zone conference on Wednesday. This is their session of
fish bowl, they are armed with scriptures and ready to play.
They are all searching madly for the answer.
Lunch was appreciated and served up a little different. I "liked" it.
They had everything on the tables, we just had to sit down and eat.
No waiting in line or fixing our plates. Well done Ed North sisters!
After lunch, we took the group picture. We just took one and emailed it to everyone,
because we would be there all day if we took one with each of their cameras.
Then we took a picture of all the "sisters" in the group, yeah sisters!
We had a little extra time, so I did something that I have been wanting
to do for a while now. I wanted to get pictures of ties, all kinds of
ties. I'm still trying to collect my perfect rainbow of ties, but that's
another post.
We had a group with paisley print, a group with striped ties, stripes from
upper left corner to lower right.
And a few more of the opposite, upper right corner to lower left stripe.
A larger group had the more popular plaid print tie.
We also had some with the very handsome solid tie.
The other thing I had them do, during interviews was to voluntarily
donate a tie for my quilt. Only if they wanted to, but many of them
came through and I was thrilled.
This is what our elders do in their free time, I was pretty impressed.
They make homemade ties and then make designer labels to sew
on the reverse side. Looks just like the professionals.
Silly Elder Stephens.
We took a week off and started all over again with Riverbend and
Millwoods. I added the candy from the candy machine at the mission
home. Just not getting eaten. So I brought it to put on the zone leaders
table, see if they can get rid of it.
The apron is filling up quite nicely.
More cake,
more milk. I remembered it this time, left it in the fridge at home last week.
This is a funny story. Elder Scarlett and his companion brought a
box of cinnamon buns that were given to them by a member.
Half way through the morning, he (Elder Scarlett) decides he's
going to have one, gently heated in the microwave. Well I watch the
whole thing unfold. He puts the bun on a styrofoam plate and pops
it into the microwave. Well breads or pastries only need about
10 seconds of heating for perfection. Well he put it in and it ran and
ran and ran. It smelled really good at first and then it started to smell burned.
And this entire time I'm thinking, that's been in there for a really long time, but
didn't say anything. They're big boys, right, they know how to use a
microwave, or so I thought.
Gorgeous companion ties,
looking very dapper.
Then we moved on to Red Deer, and you'll never believe what
they had planned for us there.
They had made up a room for each of us.
This was my room, I've never had my name on the board before,
or balloons, they blew up balloons for me, lots and lots of them.
And the balloons came with a surprise,
President had his own special room, with a decorated door.
See? It was so great of them, we felt so special.
Elder Vega and Elder Kipp even brought a bunch of their own ties,
just in case some of their zone elders forgot to bring one to donate.
They are beyond awesome.
Here is some of the mail, letters and packages, for Red Deer. They
love their mail, remember that families, send letters!
Just a sampling of what they are getting in these infamous packages.
Candy, of course ties and a pinata? Who sends a pinata?
We had quite the tie cutting ceremony, they all saved the tie cutting for
zone conference, instead of interviews and lined the hall so I could cut
them all at once, they even had ties for the sisters. So Cute!
All our missionary cars lined up for zone conference
And our last and final zone conference, ever, in Grand Prairie.
Oh how we've enjoyed the past three weeks with all our wonderful
missionaries, oh how we will miss their antics.
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