Zone Conference

Our zone conference yesterday was so good. The spirit was strong. I learned so much. President Watrous is quite the spiritual giant. I remember when I first got here I always thought to myself there’s no way this California mission president can even compare to Taizhong's. However, since being here longer and hearing President Watrous speak many times, I have realized this man is amazing. His stories are great and his testimony is powerful. I really enjoyed yesterday's conference. I really enjoyed one particular talk that was given by a guest speaker. His name was Brother Vergin. He spoke about his mission and how for the longest time after his mission he wondered if it was all worth it. He talked about how he made the decision to serve, served, and only baptized 1 family of 3 people in his whole 2 years. He said after serving, he would often reflect back on his 2 years and wonder if it was actually spent well. He said he would at times think it would have been better to just continue on with school and not serve a mission. However, 40 years after his mission he saw in the Church News a new mission president who was called to serve somewhere in South America. Long story short is that this new mission president turned out to be the little boy in that family of 3 he baptized 40 years ago. That little boy he baptized on his mission, served a mission when he was 19, married in the temple, had 3 sons and 2 daughters who all served missions, worked for the church, called as a mission president, and currently has multiple grandchildren on missions (one of his grandsons is actually in my mission right now). Brother Vergin went on to say how his one baptism turned out to affect the whole world. Because that little boy was baptized 50 years ago, so many people have been brought into the gospel. Brother Vergin's point was to never get discouraged like he did. He said we often don’t realize what one person can do. It was an amazing talk and really made me wonder how the people I baptized in Taiwan are doing. I hope and pray that those people in Taiwan will stay strong in the faith and raise their family in the church. Maybe 20 years from now I'll find out brothers Wu, Xu, or Yang are being called as Asia area 70s…we'll see. Oh yeah, President Watrous also informed us L. Tom Perry will be coming to speak to our mission and the Long Beach mission at the same time next month. That will be great. I can’t wait.