Zone Conference and Saying More Goodbyes

We love Zone Conferences. Our mission has three different ones. We attend the conference in Ossining, as it is on our Preparation day, and we don't have any responsibilities. So, we drove up to the conference and spent the day there. All the missionaries dress in their suits and wear them during the meetings. However, when it's time for lunch, they can all take off their jackets and leave them in the chapel. I liked these pictures.

Our two awesome AP's, Elder McMullin and Elder Hellberg.

Eating lunch.

Missionaries who had or will have birthdays in July or August. We sang Happy Birthday to them.

It's time to send more missionaries home. Elder Dos Anjos is one of our very favorite missionaries. He has always been so loving and kind to us. He is just a sweet, pleasant person. He has a health issue that needs to be taken care of, so he is going home to Brazil early. We will truly miss him. He only had four months left. We pray for his speedy recovery. It's not serious.

Sister Adjei and Sister Wilson are also going home on August 4th. They came to visit the temple last Friday, because the temple will be closed for the next two weeks, so they wanted to come before they went home. Sister Adjei is from Ghana and will be going to BYU to attend school. Sister Wilson is from Rexburg and she is going home to work and then begin classes at BYU-Idaho in January. Two fine missionaries.

I had to take a picture of this Primary, who came to visit the temple, or outside of the temple. President and Sister Carter took them up to the Cultural Hall and talked to them about the temple. I thought they all looked so nice. This picture was taken outside the Family History Center. This is a hispanic ward from Brooklyn.

On Friday, there was a wedding in the temple. The day before, when we were working in the temple, this man and his wife and their son went through the temple, preparatory to the son getting married. Dick got to talking to the man and found out that he was a Pack. His ancestry lines come through the Ruth Moesser Pack line, which is the same line Dick comes from. Dick says he looks quite a bit like his Grandfather Burbidge.

Family history is awesome. We have so many interesting experiences with people that we meet. It is really interesting how many of them really get excited when they find their ancestors. We've decided that working there is more public relations, because we interact with so many non-member people. Most of them have a really good experience. I even had a black man kiss me on the hand when he said thank you and goodbye.