Russell's Email 10-29-09

I have had such a great last few days, I can't even begin to tell you (I might just try to though!)
Yesterday Elder Pace of the 70 came to the mission for our zone conference and spent about 2 hours talking to us. I was really impressed and I felt really blessed to learn from a special witness of Jesus Christ.
The zone conference went really well! We had some trainings about talking to people when we go and work with members (i.e. street contacting and such with members) and President gave some return and report about how the mission was doing. We are doing well, but then Elder Pace told us how we were really doing. I quickly realized that the mission, and the companionships are not as unified as we should be. Elder Pace asked why and people gave some reasons, and then I asked him a question (I was the only person to ask a question in front of the whole group) I asked, "How do you continue to work hard when others don't put forth their best effort to meet the goal?" He talked the next hour and a half about unity and working towards a common goal and told us how close we were to reaching our fullest potential. He said our mission was in the top 90%, but with a little work, we could be in the top 99%. I want to be the greatest mission in the world, and I'm determined to do my part in working towards that goal.
After being taught by Elder Pace, we had the opportunity to go to the temple this morning. Elder S., Elder V.(the district leader) and I woke up early and rode our bikes to the temple. I got pictures of the three of us up at the temple. I'll send it next week. It was a really good session and the ride there built my faith.
We prayed that all would go well and that we could travel in safety. The wind was at our backs the whole way! We were riding down Stewart towards the mountain and came up to the Lamb intersection. We had the green light, and the turning light (so each lane or traffic was stopped except for ours) and we were the only moving things on that side of the road but cars were lined up at all three other sections. Elder V. was in the back, and as soon as he got to the cross walk on the other side of the intersection, the light turned yellow. We didn't catch a single red light, we didn't have to stop at all. It built my faith, even something as small as biking to the temple. (plus, that filled a mission dream to bike to the temple lol)
Ah, this was a great week!