ZoneConference Week

Hi Family!

We've had a really crazy week. Mostly really good! Here are a few of the highlights:


Zone conferences (Wednesday in Kalamazoo and Friday in Mt. Pleasant) were great! President Jones spoke a lot on our missionary purpose to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." Powerful stuff. I love zone conferences. They're always a tremendous opportunity to feel the Spirit and to be rejuvenated for the coming six weeks before the next zone conference. Elder Taylor and I gave a little more instruction than usual, which I thought turned out well. Before zone conference we conducted a training meeting on planning with zone leaders and district leaders, which was hopefully helpful. We also taught about a new "simplified curriculum framework" the missionary department of the church has developed to help missionaries (and mission presidents) focus on the most important aspects of Preach My Gospel. Elder Taylor trained on the "Process of Revelation" through prayer, the Book of Mormon, and church attendance. I focused on effective teaching ("Teach People - Not Lessons", "We Invite, They Commit, We Follow Up", and "How to Begin Teaching"). It was a lot to cover in a little bit of time but I think we were effective. I learned a lot from preparing for it.

Wednesday after zone conference President and Sister Jones took us to Shipshewana.

It's an Amish town in the one sliver of our mission that crosses into Indiana.
I enjoyed the best peanut butter of my life! I'll attach a few pictures(I'm sorry the picture quality is sort of poor because I took all the Shipshewana pictures from the car).

Thursday between zone conferences we had a companion exchange with the Portland elders - Elders Sodenkamp and Valentine. I got to spend the day at MSU with Elder Valentine. I haven't really been around him much since we served together over a year and a half ago. We had a fun day. We taught a lot of good lessons (one with our investigator Ashlie, whom he had previously known while serving in Holt) and did a lot of finding. It was nice to have some students back on campus for the summer semester so there were actually people to talk to.
After a couple of awesome lessons with Ashlie this week, she has decided she wants to be baptized and we set a date for June 12th. I think she still has a lot of questions, which is great! She knows that she has felt the Spirit. She asked us on Thursday why she always feels so good when we teach and after we leave. It's wonderful for me to have continual affirmations from others who feel the Spirit because of the truth of the word. How could I ever deny the truthfulness of the restored gospel?

I get to serve with Elder Taylor!

I get to serve on MSU!

I'm a missionary!

And those are just a few of the highlights.

Have a great week! I love you!

Elder Cloward

P.S.
The pictures are all from the Shipshewana trip except this one. It's a sign on campus.