MISSION TOUR- Elder Arnulfo Valenzuela & Sister Pilar Porras Valenzuela

Mexico Pachuca Mission Tour

August 14-15-16-17  2013

Elder Arnulfo Valenzuela & Sister Pilar Porras Valenzuela

Elder and Sister Valenzuela Of the Seventy, came to the Mexico Pachuca Mission for a tour where special zone conferences were held. He has been assigned to the Presidency of the Mexico Area. We had four zones meet together on Wednesday for training and then on Thursday three zones. Thursday two of the zones - #42 missionaries traveled great distances to the zone conferences, so we made them sack lunches for the commute back to their areas. Tahlia who is visiting us this week has been so helpful. Tahlia and Sister Valenzuela frosted  and bagged all the sugar cookies and then packed all the little lunch bags (Tahlia picked out Spiderman party bags because we couldn't find brown paper lunch bags) with the PB&J sandwiches', chips, cookies, apple, and candy.

When would you ever expect a General Authorities wife to come downstairs in the morning and help with stuff like this? Awesome!!
After each zone conference Elder Valenzuela interviewed missionaries who are serving as "trainers" and our assistants as well. What a special privilege for them. We had on Friday morning training for all the Zone Leaders and then the ten departing missionaries gathered at 1:00 pm- and thus began that process which will be highlighted in next weeks blog. They departed Saturday morning at 4:45 am for home. This whole departure event is emotional- I hope my nerves can handle three years of that! Ugh!!! Each afternoon/evening Elder Valenzuela and President Egbert along with selected missionaries according to area had meetings with Stake Presidents, Bishops, Ward mission leaders, and high counselors over missionary work. Training from the visiting General Authority was geared towards everyone working as a team as highlighted in the recent "Work of Salvation" broadcast.

 

 

What was highlighted these four days of the mission tour?

• Teaching about the God Head is vital to each investigator; and can not be done thoroughly if the time is not invested in this topic. Missionaries are spending between 3 - 20 minutes on this subject. He encouraged the missionaries to lengthen the time and effort on this topic.
• He reminded them that going to a home of a member, investigator, recent convert, or less active member in hopes of asking for a referral is from the days of yesterday. Only by teaching (fulfilling the calling they have- to TEACH) with the spirit will touch the hearts of those present and thus they will want to share this message with their family, friends, and neighbors and then the referrals will come in the right manner.
• He clarified what keys Stake Presidents and Mission Presidents hold. He emphasized that the keys can not cross paths- if they do the spirit with draws and the progress chokes or restricts to a stop. Missionaries key role is to TEACH and support their wards but not to fix, direct, or demand change within the ward. That falls to the Bishop-He also encouraged them to work with the ward mission leader which is a struggle for many of the wards, but when ward mission leaders exist and function, then coupled with the missionaries efforts, real progress can be evident.
• He talked about the five areas of the work of Salvation- and the four types of persons the missionaries can teach. Each plays a vital role in their work. Not only investigators, but new converts, active families, and less actives all need to be visited and taught with the spirit.  
• Sister Valenzuela is such a spiritual giant and is very well spoken. She explained as a convert herself how key quality teaching is to not having a "baptism" but a "real convert" in the church. 
• Elder Valenzuela also discussed the four paths that people take in life which was compared with 1 Nephi: 7 when Lehi has a dream of The Tree of Life. 
• President Egbert taught the basic principles missionaries need to teach to assist investigators in obtaining a true conversion. He used a "Choo-choo" train as his example and each principle a train car. If one failed to teach or use each principle; the train becomes disconnected at that specific hitch and the conversion fails.
• Tahlia and I made a Jeopardy game to touch on a few vital points...These were our six categories: Odds and Ends, Healthy Living, What to do if? , Medication/Conditions, Preach my Gospel, and Scriptures. The assistant Elder Dove helped translate- Most of the missionaries were pretty confident and would start with the $1000 option. "Go big or Go home!"- was the attitude with this game... they are so fun! Tahlia was in charge of the birthday basket where the July, August, September birthdays could pick a gift. Options in the basket were cleaning solutions/scrubby (not popular- go figure), socks/candy, toothbrush/pen, toothbrush/toothpaste, candy/pens, microwave popcorn, or hand-soap/candy.

We were a little short on time to our second zone conference and so we were unable to take many pictures of the missionaries. My apologies- as the Missionaries were not permitted to bring their cameras to the zone conference as instructed by Elder Valenzuela. So I'm posting the very few I got before his arrival- of Day 1. Compliments to all the Elders as they had fresh haircuts, pressed suits and looked handsome- President Valenzuela even commented how well they looked as representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course our sister missionaries are beautiful inside and out and are such a compliment to the whole mission. They are rays of sunshine!