Charged up Zone Leaders

We held a final Zone Leader Council here in the mission home this week.

I am impressed with this fabulous group of charged up zone leaders all ready to welcome their new mission president!

We did plenty of training and talking and scripture study (really) but the only pictures I took were when we were out and about doing fun stuff.

Tuesday afternoon the assistants organized an ultimate Frisbee leadership activity.

Here's the missionary version of 'shirts and skins'

Ties in


Ties out


A few shirts ended up out too


First they played one handed with no talking - not easy

Then they broke loose and gave it everything they had











That is exactly how these elders approach their missionary work

A few things flew out of pockets so I ended up looking at this collection




To begin the next day we hiked up to gorgeous Maracas waterfall for a morning devotional.



It was the perfect setting to talk about "living water"



and the Savior's teachings on leadership found in the Gospel of John.












Back at the mission home we started our 'Best Practices' session. It has been an extremely helpful exercise in this mission. We look for what is working well in the zones and build upon it. It is patterned after an approach to organizational evaluation called Appreciative Inquiry - developed by David Cooperider of Case Western Reserve University.

Here's what happens:

Describe - each pair of zone leaders shares something that is working best in their zone

Dream - we discuss the ideas, build upon them, encourage one another, think about how they could be applied in other settings

Design - zone leaders write down the new ideas they have and plan ways to implement them

Deliver - they go back to their zones and do it!

Best Practices is always a wonderful, energizing experience as the Spirit whispers to each zone leader the things he needs to learn and do.

A few of the ideas from this session:

• 20 male contacts daily
  
• helping missionaries find their 'happy place'
• zone activities to build unity and excitement
• preparing to feast spiritually at zone conferences
  

After quite a few hours of delivering, dreaming and designing the elders took a break to learn, by experience, about communication and delegation.

They did this by trying to keep a bunch of balls in the air at once - first without any organization at all.

It got a little wild







Then assignments were made - each person had a specific receiver and a thrower.

Did it work better?

It was still a little crazy - but there were certainly more balls moving across the circle.









The conference concluded with a powerful testimony meeting. These fine missionaries are ready and anxious to get back to their countries and help their band of brothers continue to move the work forward in the West Indies.

Trinidad

Elders Williams, Worthington, Findlay and Duncan

Islands

Elder Cronin

French

Elders Biver, Snow and Neff

Suriname

Elders Kinghorn and Riding

Guyana

Elders Packer, Tupou, Chambers, Green, Palmer, Westover, Huntsman, Barton and Elders Marshall and Scott in the front

The rest of zone leader council

I kind of jumped the gun yesterday posting pictures of the end of our zone leader council meeting - but that Stake announcement was just too exciting!

Here is what we did for the rest of the conference.

Yesterday morning, early, we drove up to Fort George up in the mountains overlooking the island of Trinidad. The plan was to have a devotional there about establishing the church and strengthening the branches by studying the genius and dedication of Captain Moroni.

Unfortunately, it was raining. So we huddled up in a little shelter and studied.





The scriptures were wonderful - so many insights into our work as we compared it to flags, armor and fortresses. We learned about Satan's quest (represented by Amalickiah) to gain power and control over others contrasted with Moroni's desire to maintain freedom, church, and family. We saw how Moroni invites and inspires (title of liberty) rather than controls. We saw that he found innovative ways to strengthen individuals (armor) and branches (fortresses). Above all, we learned that if all men would be like Moroni, "the devil would never have power over the children of men" (Alma 48:17).

The rain let up a little so we went out to the edge of the fort and sang "Armies of Helaman"









We spent the rest of the day back at the mission home talking about 'best practices' - a tradition in our zone leader councils. We share what is working best in each zone and discuss how to build upon it. It's always electrifying.

The elders are dedicated and creative (just like Captain Moroni, I guess)

Elder Williams shared his experience with tracking continuing conversion using the teaching record


Then he had all the elders try it out












We finished with some numbers (look carefully and you will see what we think about the West Indies missionaries)



and a final check on the questions they had posed at the beginning of conference. Each elder had received ideas and impressions on these issues.



We then had the privilege of hearing the testimonies of these fine young men





"These were days never to be forgotten"
Oliver Cowdery (PGP, p 58)

Zone Leader Council - Dodgeball!

The zone leaders of the West Indies Mission are in Trinidad!

The fly in from all over the mission every four months for training.

It is a powerful, spirit-filled time.

But also very fun.

Yesterday the zone leaders learned a little about leadership through a rousing game of 'Goliath' dodgeball.



And......yes

they are equally focused and intense while doing missionary work

Zone Leader Council - Day Two

We started the second day of zone leader council with a devotional at Las Cuevas beach in Trinidad. It is an absolutely gorgeous spot!



The setting was perfect to visualize the challenges Nephi faced as he was commanded to built a boat to cross the great sea.

We read and discussed selections from 1 Ne 17 and 18 and noticed that Nephi and some of his brothers described their eight year journey very differently (compare v2 and v20).

We wondered why and then found the answer in 1 Ne 2

Nephi had "great desires to know" God (verse 16)

Laman and Lemuel "knew not the dealings" of God (verse 12)

Nephi's faith, obedience and diligent work set a powerful example for the zone leaders as they contemplated how to continue to lift up the missionaries in their zones.




Nephi's example in knowing the 'dealings of God' and remembering them led us to talk about the 12 stones the Lord commanded Joshua to set up as a memorial after leading Israel through the river Jordan.

We finished by reading about Samuel's 'Eben-ezer' or 'stone of help' in 1 Samuel 7 and took verse 12 as a theme - "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."

That is certainly the case in the West Indies Mission.

So we found the perfect Trinidad 'Eben-ezer'





"Hurrah for Israel!"



They just had to close by singing 'Called to Serve' on the beach



On our way out we found a wonderful cave looking over the sea






Back at the mission home we had our 'best practices ' session - something we have done in every zone leader council we have ever held (not that many because of our spread out mission - about every four months). It is patterned after a practice called 'appreciative inquiry'. We discover what is working well and then dream about what can happen. Each zone leader team shares a 'best practice.' They always go home charged up and full of ideas. Some of the presentations are quite creative.




"spicing up" the work








finding people to teach


reproving with love



At the end of the day, there's always time for fun





and work (consulting on Suriname transfers)



and a little friendly rivalry between blue (BYU) vs red (University of Utah) football players.

Can you guess President Robison's loyalty?

And can you believe he put these two together as zone leaders in Guadeloupe!?