10 December 2007 – Monday 

Today was zone conference and so we were in our office by 8:30. As usual with Zone Conference there were a number of things I needed to hear and a lot that were more useful for the young elders. All key indicators are down from last period. I asked how they compared to last year at this time and found out that they were down. The president challenged the missionaries to spend one day working within a 30 minute walk of the chapel and try to build centers of strength. As conference went on I thought of trying to create areas of strength. That is find an area where there are 2- 4 active families that are close – one family about 30 minutes walking distance from at least one other family – and having the missionaries work with those families to find and teach people within 15 – 20 minutes of their homes. Hopefully they could then take one of the family members with them when they went out looking and teaching. I do not know if it would work but it seems like it is worth trying. 

The Kanes and the Walkers gave short presentations about their work and sister Davis talked about Toxic Shock. The president said we would be given a chance next time.  

After the conference we had a rehearsal for the Christmas program that will be next week. We ran though a part of the program where a lot of action goes on and at times it was down right hilarious. If this comes off anything like it should, it will be truly a miracle. 

After that we came back to the apartment for a quiet evening. We read from the Kitab Mormon, Mary worked on English and I kept trying to learn Indonesian.