The conference began with workshops taught by President and Sister Ostler. President Ostler taught the pre-mission aged young adults about how they can and need to prepare for their missions. Sister Ostler taught the returned missionaries and the girls that dared to come....how to prepare for marriage. :)
It was a wonderful experience to share together the principles that help us have eternal happiness in our lives and how we can share it with others. Some of the memorable moments were President teaching the pre-missionaries how to get the courage to do difficult things.......the secret of 1-2-3! You count to three and on three you just do it. He taught them many valuable lessons and they seemed inspired to prepare more for their missions. Sister Ostler taught about how Heavenly Father has a most incredible gift for us (Eternal life with our families) but we are like a child who doesn't open the gift because we are too busy, we need to finish our schooling, we want to have fun with our friends, or we're afraid, so we just don't accept the gift. We talked about the things that stop us from eternal marriage and how to overcome them. Everyone who was shy "threw away" their shyness because we all agreed that we couldn't let our shyness keep us out of the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom. The true test came that night after a day of games and great food. There was a DANCE. The leaders lined up all the handsome RM's and the beautiful sisters and they would dance for 30 seconds, then move down the line. They needed some encouragement to introduce themselves and start talking, and whenever we saw sisters not dancing, we pointed them out to the brothers and reminded them that they want eternal life :), and the brothers got over their shyness. It was really a fun night for all. Even the prophet would have been pleased with the way the brothers did their duty and kept those sisters dancing and feeling special. The testimony meeting crowned the event and was accentuated by the Tuco (lizard-type animal) calling out "Tuco, tuco" (which president has taught the people it is really saying "templo, templo"..temple, temple). Everyone laughed when the Tuco called out during a sister's testimony. It was the only time it had made any noise in the large ampitheater area. Imagine the surprise when President got up at the end of the meeting to give his concluding remarks, and right as he thanked the Tuco for reminding us about the importance of the temple, the Tuco (for only the second and last time that day) called out "Tuco, tuco". It was a great end to a great activity!
After the conference, President got to interview several people for their missions.
Elder and Sister Atkinson are busy preparing everyone for missions and the temple!
Afterwards, they had a meeting with all the branch and district leaders to evaluate the activity. It's just amazing to see the growth of the church on Palawan.
