22 March 2015 Elder Kopischke and other items that pale in comparison.

Well, the zone conferences are over for a quarter, they are fun but busy. Employment is doing better than I can expect, meaning the Lord is carrying the load.. again. It seems when we hit a wall, the Lord opens a window and blesses more lives. Looking at it at a superficial point of view, as of now about 45 or so candidates have found work. I don't have the exact number because I had to erase one side of the chart to make more room. However as I have said success isn't measured by shear numbers, but by how each stake/ward is doing as a team. OK here it is, and I am jumping ahead, to what Elder Kopischke taught at our mission conference. If you remember when we arrived here no one was in the employment office for about 6 to 7 months. It has been suggested that senior couples,willing to serve, are getting harder to find. So I suspect that we may not have someone to relieve us when we leave. I had hoped to help train someone. We need to, with the help of the Lord, establish a working program before we leave. Fast forward to the mission conference, Elder Kopischke, is teaching the missionaries, all of them, all 230+. He says write down a question you have, anything you feel you need help with and see if it is answered today. 230+ missionaries writing down a question? Can they all be answered? Mine was, as well as everyone I asked. No fooling! This was mine "how can I get the Lords plan, regarding employment, moving according to His plan".  This is what came to me.
I applied it as a missionary for future use. The work is the same.
1.You may be a great missionary, but when you are no longer here what happens to the work?

2. We need to set a plan in place. It's the plan (Lords plan) if followed that works, not really the missionary.

3. Who will continue when you or any missionary is long gone?

The members and leaders of the stakes and wards. They will carry on, they will look after the sheep. That's the answer, the time will come when the missionary will rely solely on member referrals. The employment candidate will need the nurturing of the ward and stake leaders. The missionary will be a resource. When the members have so many referrals they will need the help of the missionary to teach new member discussions, or the candidate needs development resources or extra attention. We learned that we need to open our vision, see beyond what we see now. Anyway it was great, something else I learned is when you read in the Book of Mormon and it says I write an hundredth part, I know how that is. I couldn't write all I learned or what was said, I just have to try to remember as best I can. Now for a couple of picture to lighten the day. Every Sunday, or anytime we drive to or from Lancaster SC we pass this old 1950? or so Ford pick up off the side of the road, by a barn. I used to have a 1950 Ford pick up back in 1969. It was my first vehicle I bought myself. I paid $190.00. It ran! Anyway I wish I had this one to rebuild with Farmer.

Love to you all and keep the faith,