Living Prophets

Dear Family and Loved Ones,

     I’m late getting our letter off this week, I’m still relying on the laptop which really slows me down. We had a wonderful week! I think this is the first time that transfers and General Conference fell on the same week which made for a very busy and spiritually uplifting experience.

    We had a very special group of Elders returning home. They have left a big void in the mission and will be missed! Six Elders arrived on Tuesday, they are wonderful and come from Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Colorado and Utah. Despite waking up very early at the MTC for their flight into Long Beach they arrived with smiles and enthusiasm. Once we sat down for training however many of them looked very sleepy :) I overheard two of the Elders say how tired they were of eating salad bar at the MTC and how much they were looking forward to a home cooked meal . . . hopefully they weren’t too disappointed when we took them to the Sizzler to eat at the SALAD BAR. I think I would feel a little guilty if I didn’t know how very spoiled they are by the members. They will have a delicious home cooked meal almost every night. For each missionary that’s more than 600 meals they will eat during their mission lovingly and generously prepared by our members here in Long Beach! We are so blessed to have such great members here in California.

     During the rest of the week Ted had interviews, took many calls, text messages, and read letters from missionaries and went to District Meetings. On Friday we had ZLC at the mission office. Our Zone Leaders were so young a couple of transfers ago because we had many missionaries who finished all at once. Now our Zone Leaders are looking and acting very mature which is so important. The Zone Leaders have a tremendous influence on the culture of the mission. For ZLC training the Zone Leaders, Assistants and Ted went through an exercise where they listed on the white board all of the things we do in our mission (our mission culture). It was interesting to see the list when I brought their lunch to the office. The statement was made, “In the California Long Beach Mission we  . . .” The Elders then responded with some of the following observations; baptize, work with the members, are obedient, work hard, teach people not lessons, listen, follow the Spirit, etc. (the white board was full of great responses). This exercise is very helpful to find out what our missionaries are doing well and what we need to train on. There is ALWAYS room for improvement. It’s really hard to keep them focused on all of the many qualities that allow them to be successful missionaries. So, we keep teaching and encouraging them and are so happy when we see how they grow in their sacred calling to represent our Savior and do His work! After lunch they continued their ZLC talking about how to have successful practice teaching. It was a great ZLC.

     Following conference on Sunday we had a fun family dinner. Shelly planned a great menu of barbeque chicken sandwiches, cowboy beans, veggies and chips. We invited her boyfriend Ian to join us and had a great time visiting after dinner and getting to know him better.

     General Conference was INCREDIBLE! As always I was so sad when the last session came to an end and I knew it would be another six months before we would be able to hear from all of our wonderful General Authorities. I appreciated the reminder from President Monson to make sure to read and reread the talks in the coming months. It is amazing how much more I get from each of the talks with the repetition of reading and hearing them again and again. Just like the scriptures (which the words of living prophets are) the message seems to take on new meaning depending on our need and our preparation. It’s one of the ways I know that we do have living prophets today. They are able to speak to us in behalf of God. They teach us what we need to know today and have the prophetic ability to even know what we will need in the coming days so their words will not only bless us immediately but will be available to comfort, encourage and direct us over time. I am so grateful for the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, for Living Prophets, for Priesthood Authority and all of the other numerous blessings of being a member of the Christ’s true Church!


We love each of you and thank you for your prayers for us and our missionaries!

The Long Beach Buberts