Mission Conference

We had a mission conference in Madrid on Valentine's Day.  President Jackson thought it was the largest gathering of missionaries in the mission.  We had all the young Elders and Sisters in the continent ( the Islands had a conference the day before) plus 3 of the couples.  President Jackson told us that we have 110 missionaries right now and expect to have double that come the end of the year.  We had Elder Patrick Kearon of the 1st Quorum of Seventy with us.  He is a wonderful man--a convert from England at the age of 26.  He was so kind and shook everyone's hand before starting the meeting.  He taught us how to be better missionaries, and encouraged us in such a gentle manner that we all felt like we would do anything  he asked.  He outlined steps we could take that were doable and gave us the confidence that we could succeed.  When a missionary asked him a question he would turn it around and ask "what have you learned about that?"  Often he would just say, that's correct, I really don't have anything to add to that.  When he asked them what they felt in a certain situation and they gave him a one-word answer he would ask "Is there another word to help describe it?"  It was so wonderful to be there!!!