Thursday morning thoughts

 I have been feeling a bit of anxiety lately.  It has become a calming experience for me to look out my back window in the morning and observe what God created.  The seasons, we are still in winter.  It is gray and dreary today.  I see beautiful white snow.  I see a bird hoping from branch to branch.  This bird is crazy because usually many of his bird friends are joining him but not today...they are all choosing to hibernate.  I see a gray squirrel jumping from tree to tree.  I find all this nature very interesting and it helps to calm my soul and help me gather my thoughts to face my day. 

We got Tanners letter this week.  I think it was one of his best.  He answered lots of questions and told me what exactly a zone leader does.  It seems like to me that it is kind of like being a bishop of a ward but in a smaller way, instead of 600 people to worry about Tanner has probably 30 to worry about.  I am sure he will learn skills from this experience that he will find useful in his life forever!

I am grateful for my dad.  I just got off the phone from talking to him, I love him!

P.S.  Tanners list of zone leader duties from his letter this week.

1.1 (In response to Mom's question) - Zone Leaders do lots of things. I made a list the ither day for my journal. It includes:




• Introducting new Mis. to the residence halls & the MTC in general (after their first class)

• Giving a tour to new districts

• Giving an orientation meeting to the new mis. on their second night here. (Mostly talk about how to get along with your companion and stuff)

• Interviewing District leaders about the state & health of their district

• Enforcing residence hall standards of behavior

• Making goals for all of the foreign language elders in our Zone

• Organizing rotations to help sick or injured elders - i.e. making sure they are never alone & that their companions can still go to class (this is a bigger deal than this sentence makes it seem!)

• Planning the program for Priesthood & Sacrament meetings

• Telling Elders how to pass/bless the Sacrement

• Getting the bread and water for the sac

• Sitting up on the stand

• Checking districts out when they are ready to go

• Making sure nobody in the Zone does anything stupid

• Go to leadership training meetings

• Go to Branch council meeting

• Go to residence hall behavior meetings (by far the worst part of the job)

• Going to more leadership training meetings

• Know everyone

• Be nice to everyone

• Give advice to everyone

• Relate how I have done with all of the above to the Branch President, both in pen & in person