Mission tour 2015

     Last week was very stressful but also very inspiring.  We had our yearly mission tour, this time with Elder and Sister Zeballos.  Elder Zeballos is the first counselor in the area presidency so we have met them several times, but it was a great experience to have them here in our mission.
     We had zone conferences on Wednesday and Thursday which meant that the missionaries in Buin, Rancagua, San Fernando, and Santa Cruz attended the Wednesday conference in Rancagua, and then those in Curico and Talca attended Thursday in Talca.
     It was definitely a logistical challenge because we served a lunch of spaghetti with a cookie for dessert after the conference; 160 on Wednesday and 94 on Thursday.  A_____ cooked 150 pounds of hamburger on Monday, and finished the first batch of sauce on Tuesday.  Cooling it down Tuesday night was a challenge--we used both refrigerators, our big ice chest and finally the freezer.  She made the second batch of sauce Wednesday night, cooked the pasta Thursday morning and then two of the office elders drove the two hours to Talca to deliver it in time for lunch.  We also had to rent buses to bring missionaries to the conference location.  To accommodate that many missionaries traveling at one time would have been a real challenge for  the local system.
     The conferences were definitely worth the logistical challenges.  I spoke about focusing on Christ, President talked about spiritual conversion, Hermana Zeballos talked about being happy serving a mission, remembering who we are and who we represent, listening to the Holy Ghost as a teacher, we need to have a vision of what people can become, search the scriptures, not just study them and we should meditate before and after prayer.  Elder Zeballos told us that faith, hope and charity are important even for missionaries, and also that we can't always see what is ahead of us, but we must recognize that when we overcome a challenge, the Lord often has something else waiting for us in order to make us even stronger.  Their talks were inspiring and the messages will help us improve both the mission and ourselves.
     And I have some great pictures this week:

Standing in line for lunch.  With 160 to feed, it took a while.

Missionaries are happy about spaghetti for lunch
(or just to get their picture taken!).

In order for everyone to travel to either Rancagua or
Tupahue and arrive on time, we rented buses

Each day we organized a group picture.
This is part of one group while we are waiting for Zeballos.

The missionaries love the chance to catch up with former companions and friends.