We are seeing miracles all around us. The hand of the Lord is ever present with His missionaries. There are some lows, of course, but there are some beautiful things happening. The most incredible thing is to tell you about Robert. Have you ever watched a person's countenance completely change in front of your eyes? I would say that is Robert. I especially noticed it in the last couple of days. Not that he was dark but maybe heavy in spirit. His face is almost glowing. Not only has he agreed to let his little girl be baptized with her mother, he has been asking more and more questions and we have loved teaching him with the Sisters. We have covered quite a bit in a very short time. On Sunday, after church, he texted all of us and said that they are thinking of moving to Utah. Wait! What? He asked where we all lived and where they should look. We told them that Utah is way more expensive for housing than New York, but way less on utilities and taxes than New York. They started looking (but also found that it's a little out of reach right now). And then, after dinner, he texted all of us and told us that he has been reading everything the Sisters send to him, and he's been listening to conference talks to and from work every day, AND basically, he believes everything and wants to be baptized. ARE YOU KIDDING US???? We are so excited. We are putting the after burners on and the Sisters are pushing forward and Robert will be baptized with Katie and Mary on March 25th. And guess what? They want Mike, Elder Jolley, to be their baptizer. We are so excited and so very honored. What a sweet blessing they are in our lives and this little Rome Ward.
We had our Zone Conference on Mike's birthday-the 7th and it was amazing-as always. Our darling Rome Sisters brought a little gift for Elder Jolley to show that it was his birthday and Mike was such a good sport to wear his sash and crown. (I think the Sisters still giggle about it.) We love these Sisters and they love us. We feel so very blessed to work with them.
We and the Parks were in charge of table decorations and we went with a St Patrick's Day theme. We had cute Leprechaun hats and gold coins, and our bags of Lucky Charms which were a huge hit. And, of course, the Elders couldn't not wear the hats. After lunch we had a planking challenge with whoever wanted to join in. The missionaries gathered around and started the planking. As they planked, they sang, "Called to Serve" with great gusto. The missionary that won, did so with a bloody nose a minute into it. What they will do for the title of winner. 
President Gentry really hit hard on using members to help the work move forward. Did you know that when missionaries knock on doors or find on the street, that 1 in 45 will be baptized. If they are a social media referral, 1 in 20 will be baptized. But is they are member referrals/introductions, 1 in 5 will be baptized, and if the member brings them to church, 1 in 4 will be baptized. That tells us how important it is to have members help our missionaries! Afterwards we all gathered outside in the cold to have photos of our Zone but first, we had the chance to join in the "Hoorah for Israel" cheer. If you don't know that story, it's awesome. Brigham and Parley were leaving on their mission from Nauvoo, and they were so very sick-like everyone else in Nauvoo. They decided to stand up in the back of the wagon to give their families one last goodbye and cheer them up. They lifted their fists into the air and shouted, "Hoorah, Hoorah, Hoorah, for Israel. We stand in a circle and do that same cheer, not every Zone Conference, but often. And it's just so cool to join with 75 other missionaries in this tradition.
After Zone Conference, we grabbed some ice cream to celebrate Mike's birthday and then off we ran to the church for our Relief Society Birthday celebration. I promised pictures of the cute decorations and guess what? I didn't take any! Not sure what went wrong because you know that I take pictures of everything. OOPS! But I do have pictures of the coffee filter flowers. They turned out so great and add such a breath of color to a cold and dreary world.
We had a great turn out and everyone loved playing a getting to know you game and then sharing their favorite thing with everyone. Our refreshments were amazing and looked so pretty (too bad there aren't pictures to share with you). We had mini fruit pizzas, lemon bars, a cream cheese bacon dip with crackers and toasted baguette, fresh fruit and fruit dip, and a pretty pink punch. It was a great evening and I was happy to fall into bed at the end of the day.
Our Young Women had a karaoke night and had a blast singing off key. Our own Sister Taylor has a beautiful voice and she showed them how it is done. Unfortuately, they were singing with her-at the top of their lungs-and yup, you guessed it-off key. It was a riot. At one point, the Bishop came in to hand out ice cream sandwiches which were then actually used as microphones. We have some darling YW.
Our Book of Mormon class was great. Studying about Faith, Hope, and Charity in Moroni 7 is always a good thing to talk about. We had 12 of us in attendance and it is always more energetic with more people.
We also had the chance to go to Liverpool for dinner with our office couples and Elder and Sister Park. This was Elder and Sister Koyle's last dinner with us. They have been in the office for 23 months and we are so sad to say goodbye. Elder Koyle was over finance and took care of all our rent payments, utility payments, and making sure that our missionaries have money on their food and fuel cards, and Sister Koyle was the referral secretary and the party planner. She's the one that set up all of the lunches for Zone Conferences, the Senior Couples Retreat, any time they have Mission Leadership Council, and any other thing there needs to be food for. She would order all of the supplies that the mission or missionaries would need. They will be sorely and surely missed. We love them. The good thing for us, they only live about 2 hours from us-in Burley Idaho.
We love our missionaries. I have said it over and over and will probably say it for the rest of my life. They are the best part of our mission. They are strong and valiant, smart, and we love them.
Our District
Front L_R Elder Ryan Zimbauer, Mike, Marjean, Sister Jackie Erickson, Sister Emree Taylor,
Sister Abby Zimmerman, Sister Rose Schurig
Back L-R Elder Bryan Winn, Elder Austin Alvi, Elder Elijah Paopao, Elder Tavo Scholes,
Elder Zander McFarland, Sister Monica Park, and Elder John Park
We are excited to look forward to this week and what might happen. We have some family coming to visit so chances are, we might miss a week of blogging. We do know that great things continue to happen. We love being missionaries here in New York. We love our Savior and we are so thankful to have the health and the ability to be on this mission. We love you all. Thank you for your support, your love, and your prayers. We feel it. Have a wonderful week.
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