South Africa Johannesburg Mission: In "Impressionable" Zone Conference

September 2016 Zone Conference focused on the Book of Mormon. We kicked off a 100 day reading by every missionary in the mission, concluding on Saturday December 24, 2016. A mission wide fireside/devotional will occur as we conclude, encouraging a sharing of the impressions made throughout this special reading and writing (on every page). Please join with us as families and friends of the South Africa Johannesburg Missionaries.

Each missionary received a hard copy with a special paper cover with their name on it. This way they will not get mixed up as easily and this copy provides a place to write on each page, signifying that the impressions in their copy are personal and from their hearts and minds. Hopefully this will be a keepsake and a future reference.

Here is the schedule of reading for each day. We invite families and friends to join with us in the assigned daily reading. All the SAJM returned missionaries have been invited to accept the challenge to read along with fellow missionaries. Many have accepted the challenge!

President Dunn kicked off the conference with a pre-conference study session. We all watched the documentary: A New Day for the Book of Mormon. It can be found on BYUTV.

http://www.byutv.org/watch/90be2679-e6eb-4039-afa1-fee5477b0c20/a-new-day-for-the-book-of-mormon-a-new-day-for-the-book-of-mormon

We hosted two days of zone conference, with the Roodepoort, Soweto and Vaal Zones coming first and the Bedfordview, Benoni, Centurion and Johannesburg Zones coming on Day 2.

Our great senior couple, Elder Larson uses this time to inspect all the vehicles with help from other senior missionaries and the area office fleet employees.

Sister Wells and Sister Larson help with so many details of a zone conference. First, they get supplies and publications ready for pick up. They also help set up and serve and clean up lunch for over 70 people each day. We could not do it without their support.

After two hours of study and discussion we took a healthy snack break!

Sessions began again after the break- One session had a focus on"Questions of the Soul" with answers found in the Book of Mormon. Elder and Sister Black who serve in our Nelspruit area facilitated one of the sessions.

We enjoyed having some guest presenters in various sessions this time. They did a great job. Elder and Sister Card offered the next session on Questions of the Sul and did a wonderful job as well.

Natalie and Jim McCullough were special guest visitors for this conference. They did not sit back, instead we engaged them as presenters and speakers in all of our sessions.

They both helped us teach new and innovative ways to journal and share impressions. This is perfect timing for our 100 day challenge of reading and writing in the Book of Mormon. Thanks to everyone who helped out and shared their testimonies and insights.

After checking out all the mission cars, Elder Larson put on his apron and came to serve missionaries lunch!

After lunch we started gathering zones for pictures. They are shown in the next post with all the names identified!

The AP's offered a session entitled: "The Most Correct Book". Elder Dube and Elder Dean prepare well and engaged missionaries in a great discussion on how to more boldly teach and testify of the Book of Mormon.

President Dunn's session offering entitled: "Teaching in Tandem" which focused on the importance of more effectively teaching with their companion.

We enjoyed all the special guests we had join us. Elder Ace and Jennifer Robison are humanitarian missionaries, but took a day to be with us. They always offer so much energy to anything. Our missionaries love serving with them in Sebokeng.

Jim and Natalie McCullough were able to connect with Richard and Kathy Black during the conference. These two couples raised their families in the same neighborhood in Salt Lake City, Utah. So fun to have them together here in South Africa.

Our final session had an opportunity to answer questions that missionaries had submitted throughout the day. President Dunn had many of the zone leaders answer these compelling questions.

We also had all the departing missionaries bear testimonies at the final session of the conference. We invite everyone that will be leaving before our next conference in December. We ended up having 15 departing testimonies over the 2 days. Lots of our missionaries will be going home on the November transfer, as well as those going on or before the October 4th transfer.
(Elder Rokatoarison, Elder Ratsimbazafy, Elder Mapenda, Elder Pickup, Elder Bergman, Elder Manuma, Elder Di Ruscio, Elder Phiri, Elder Dean, Elder Dube, Elder Laminie, Elder Smalley, Elder Mamhere, Elder Nonumwar)