July ends with a bang!

Dear Family and Loved Ones,

The past week was incredibly busy and extremely fulfilling!  

Monday night three amazing Elders, who's missions had come to an end, joined us for dinner and a testimony meeting in the mission home.  Wow!  It was powerful to see the way that their missions had refined these consecrated young men.  We were all touched by their powerful testimonies of the Lord's work.  One of the Elders had experienced some health concerns.  He was given the option of leaving the mission a month early for medical care.  He chose to finish his mission and had three baptisms his last week, he expressed his gratitude to Heavenly Father for allowing him to be part of that miracle. Each finished strong but we let them know that their work is just beginning and we expect great things from them.

Tuesday morning we welcomed two new sisters., they are wonderful and ready to get to work. We were able to take them to Signal Hill and look over our mission. We then came back to the mission home for training and lunch. They arrived on a p-day so they had a chance to buy a few groceries (because they came at the end of the month they only had about $17.00 on their debit cards - we are learning that a lot of missionaries run short on groceries by the end of the month) and by 5:00 p.m. they were out working with their trainers.

Zone Leader training was held each day for the rest of the week from 10:00 to 4:00, in the evenings they would go back to their areas and apply the principles taught. We were given some new information at the MTC and were told to train the mission in it as soon as we could. Some of the topics were: The Role of  the Book of Mormon, Holy Ghost and Church attendance in the conversion process and asking inspired question. Ted decided to train all of the Zone Leaders, who will now take the information to their Zones.  They loved the new "Preach My Gospel" DVD.  It was filmed in San Diego and features real missionaries and real investigators.  It is totally unscripted and is AMAZING! (Riley and Shalane you need to see it, you will love it)

Ben and Mari were extremely helpful all week, especially with the meals we served each day at the Zone Leader training meetings.  If you ever want to feel like your food is enjoyed and appreciated feed a missionary.  They were all so grateful to be fed, which made our job very enjoyable.

There are miracles here every week.  This is the Lord's work.  We love Him and are so happy to be able to help His work in some small way.

We love you all!
The Long Beach Buberts