"The will of God comes to be understood as we council with each other with a humble attitude."

With Elder Menendez at Zone Leader Conference! (All pics courtesy of Sister Prince's blog)

Here is Popayán Zone...all smiles!

Que hubo familia bien o qué?

Good opening liner right there, very Colombian! 

I hope everyone recovered well after the freezing temperatures last week, good to know it has normaled out a bit! And that picture dad sent me was a little shocking, Cody's beard is out of control. Is that real or some Instagram edit feature type thing, haha, unbelievable. Also that quote Haley posted was just inspiring, I so agree. Christ should reflect in all of us, and I think it is so great Haley posts things like that for all of her friends to see. What an example! Sounds like everyone is doing great!

For us this week it has been pretty crazy! We had the opportunity to go to Cali for another ZL Conference and also took advantage of the trip for Elder Menendez to say goodbye to a few old friends in Valle Grande (he also served there.) So I also had the opportunity to see a few old friends as well which is always great. That was Wednesday and Thursday was the council which was amazing. We had a great debate on what we all thought was some of the things that were keeping us from being the best mission we could be, or the main difficulties we face as a mission. We got it down to like 4 things we wanted to focus on. 

1. Obedience

2. Leadership (impact leaders have to help the missionaries)
3. Proselyting (or abilities like teaching, finding, planning, etc.) 
4. Ánimo (or excitement and willingness mixed, that word doesn't translate very well) 

We split up and thought of a plan to figure out what we wanted to do to get better in every category. With so many great minds thinking of ideas we came up with a pretty great plan. I am coming to understand another important way revelation is received, through council! It is done all throughout the church in every ward, stake and even the general leaders! I used to think why does President Prince need us to make decisions, I now understand that the will of God comes to be understood as we council with each other with a humble attitude. 

After getting back late at night Thursday we had interviews with President on Friday! Those are so great... I let him know about a few of the goals I have in this last quarter of my mission. I also asked his guidance on a few things I have been studying lately and that have been on my mind. I felt a lot of prayers being answered and as he gave me advice and answered my questions I felt grateful for inspired leaders who the Lord gives us to guide us. 

We also had a great 2 on 1 chat with my comp and President about the goals we want to set as a zone and how we can continue working towards forming a stake here. We came up with some different things we can try to get us to the next level! The Spirit was really strong and I felt so grateful for such a wonderful time in life the Lord has blessed me with to be able to focus all my time on something so meaningful and rewarding. 

Saturday morning we helped the senior couple in our mission around to all the missionaries houses to inspect and help the missionaries with some health conditions. That took a while but it was worth it because President took us to a fancy lunch afterwards that was delicious, it was like a Colombian On the Border haha. 

That same night we had the first session of the District Conference! It was the first time the missionaries were invited to the meeting! And then on Sunday it was the District Conference session 2 and it was amazing. I feel like the messages were perfect for what we wanted the members to hear. We want real growth here and the only way to achieve it is if the members and missionaries work hand in hand bringing souls to Christ! The other good news is that despite the lack of proselyting time we had 10 investigators come! The Lord is really blessing us in our area right now. 

We had to postpone the baptisms of Christian and Ana Maria because of the problems with the confirmations on Sunday, but both are doing great and are ready for this week!

That's it! Thanks for all the support Love you all!

Elder Eliason