Elder Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor; President Russel M. Nelson; Elder Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor
We love and sustain the new First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We know President Nelson is the Prophet of God on the earth today and look forward to receiving further inspirational counsel and loving instruction from the Lord to the members of the Church and all the world through him. The announcement of the new presidency was made Tuesday morning, January 18th. We drove to Ocho Rios early enough to be able to watch the live broadcast of the announcement and following press conference before Buddy conducted the branch audit.
"The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like without It?
October 2017 General Conference"
This is a masterful and beautiful testimony of the power the Book of Mormon can have in our personal lives. We highly recommend watching it again and again.
We've had some very busy days since our last post with mission business and our Welfare Services work. We also were the go-to couple for any medical concerns while President and Sister Pearson were gone on two trips to other islands in the mission. Fortunately, nothing too serious came up, but we definitely fielded a multitude of calls morning, noon, and night and accompanied missionaries to a few doctors' appointments.
Mission Leadership Council
"We Thank Thee, O God, for A Prophet"
We attended and helped provide, serve, and clean up the luncheon for Mission Leadership Council (MLC) on Thursday. The Assistants to President Pearson (2 seasoned elders), all the Zone Leaders (presently 8), and the Sister Trainer Leaders (currently 4) attend this council each transfer. These are always amazing and inspirational meetings; we feel privileged when we are asked to help. We wish everyone could witness the power these young leaders demonstrate as they teach, train, and council together.
Buddy has been extra busy with his Mission Presidency responsibilities which include conducting audits in 6 of the branches. So far some have gone smoothly and were finished fairly quickly; others not so much, but the objective was always accomplished. Either way, he enjoys working with the branch presidents and clerks and being able to provide training during the audit process.
Once again, we recognize the value of the many diverse experiences we have had over our 41 years in the Church, and we are grateful for the Lord's preparing us to serve in so many ways in so many places.
We are looking forward to a 4-day trip to Nassau, Bahamas this next weekend for mission business. President Pearson's asking us to go came as quite a surprise, but we are eager to go to another beautiful island in the Caribbean. We don't know how much time, if any, we'll have to see much of the city and a beach such as this, but hopefully we'll at least get to stick our toes in the water.
Buddy has been assigned the responsibility to conduct the audit in the Nassau Branch by President Pearson. He will also have the blessing of doing several other Mission Presidency functions such as setting apart members for new callings, holding personal priesthood interviews, meeting with members for Patriarchal Blessing recommend interviews, and anything else that may come up.
I was checking the weather forecast for while we'll be there, and I was a little disappointed to see only 80 degrees and possible rain. When I mentioned this during Face Time calls with a couple of our daughters, I heard - What! 80 degrees sounds wonderful! Buddy reminded me; it's all relative.
We should have some experiences and photos to share next post.
Until next week, all our love...
