Zone Conference

About a month ago Kyle received a call from the mission president (President Wirthlin, son of Elder Wirthlin) here asking him to train in the upcoming Zone Conference. Zone Conferences are meetings where a couple zones or groups of missionaries get together to receive training from the mission president, assistants to the president, and in this case, Kyle. We weren't able to attend all of the them just because work commitments and so forth, but we did attend half of them. It was absolutely joyous to return to Zone Conference and feel like a missionary again.

Kyle taught about why missionaries teach the way they teach [[the way missionaries teach was recently changed and Kyle's mission was the one of, if not the, first to implement it]] using something called the Results Pyramid (The Oz Principle) which was written by his mission president. It is awesome! Kyle is such a fabulous teacher--especially when it comes to missionaries. He could stand up in front of a Sunday School class and teach a great lesson, but put him in front of missionaries and he just transforms into a lean mean teaching machine. I feel so lucky to be able to witness this special talent he has.

After Kyle's training time, we were able to sit with the missionaries for hours as they did role plays over and over again. We listened to groups of four and were able to provide feedback on how they could improve their teaching. We also got to hear President and Sister Wirthlin teach and the AP's. Each conference was an edifying experience.

My personal favorite part was watching the missionaries as Kyle walked in the door. Kyle is the ward mission leader in the branch here. Those who had served in the ward or who had even just had exchanges there, Elders and Sisters alike, ran to him and hugged him with such genuine enthusiasm. (The Sisters didn't hug him haha.) Kyle was always equally as enthused. Everyone of them told me in some form or another "Your husband is the best!" I assured them that I couldn't agree more.

[[We ended up sitting with a group of Elders who had all at one time served the Syracuse wards and all knew Zack and were so excited that I was his sister. That was cool, too. I felt like I knew a whole bunch of famous people!]]

We were both taught so much from the experience and feel so grateful to have been able to have it. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than where I am right now. 

P.S. Remember the groundhogs that live under our house? THEY HAD BABIES. Sine I haven't caught a picture of them yet, here is one from google for you to enjoy.