Zone Conference

This was our first Zone Conference with the Hathaways and it was awesome.  And they left us with a cliff hanger which will apparently be resolved tomorrow at a special mission wide Zoom meeting.  They kept referencing a bag of candy that their two sons were holding during the meeting but then nothing.....we got a message today about the Candy Zoom meeting tomorrow.  Stay tuned for more information.

The Theme of the Conference was Strengthening our Nets.  They focused on exact obedience, building member trust, and mighty miracles.  They talked about the current "culture" of the mission--words were shared like obedient, diligent, hard-working, and charity.  President Hathaway praised them for being great missionaries and promised them mighty miracles if they continue to improve.

He invited them to:

Have exact obedience

Be united and accountable

Eternally uncomfortable

and fulfilling the measure of your creation (personally this is a very important doctrine to me.)

Everyone did a great job and it was an honor to be there, to greet these missionaries who we know and love, and to be taught.

Our zone also had our interviews with the President for this transfer and I also had my temple recommend interview as well since my recommend expires this month.  Busy day.....

...but because we had to cancel Clarksville Institute due to painting in the building, we took some new roads home...

We decided to make a stop at the Lake Ft. Smith State Park.  This lake provides all of the drinking water for Ft. Smith and the surrounding areas.  It is a man-made lake that goes to 200' in some places.  It is beautiful but people are not allowed to swim in the water.  The water company set it up that way due to the ratio of water surface to depth and didn't want to have to deal with "people" pollution in the water.  You can take boats out on the water and fish, but can't get out of your boat.  

You can rent paddle boats but since we were in missionary clothes we skipped that.  We had a nice visit with the park ranger who shared facts and figures about the lake and the water.  Random stuff that is just interesting.  Plus it is always a bonus to talk to people who are passionate about their topic whatever that topic is.

The water level drops about 5' a week during this time of the year.  The rock on the right was covered on Monday but on Thursday was now beginning to be uncovered.  This will continue until late October or November when the rains begin.  No danger of running out of water, just the normal flows out of the lake.

Don't you love how water reflects!!

We stopped at Bruam's in Alma and got some yummy ice cream treats for the ride home.  A perfect end to a good day in the Arkansas Bentonville Mission. Checked Lake Ft. Smith off the Arkansas Bentonville Mission bucket list!!!