We had some very full days this past week which we enjoy much more than when no one comes, like most of our Fridays. It is very exciting when some of our people find employment and we had several of those this past week. We have so many that are undocumented and mainly find work through self-employment means. These we do not know much about because their phones are often not in service and they have no emails. When we do get in contact with them, we can only offer encouragement for them to keep doing what they have done when they found work before. Sometimes we have some house cleaning and child care leads that usually don't require papers as well as some labor jobs. It sure doesn't feel like we are helping them much, but for now, it is all we have.


Wednesday we enjoyed a Zone Conference in which we learned so much through the experience. What we are taught by the missionaries and President and Sister Miller is certainly applicable to us in the employment center. We are always spiritually uplifted and motivated to keep going forward with faith in the Lord's work. A special addition to this Conference was the addition of 4 young woman and 10+ young men from one of the Stakes who were on a mini mission. They were teamed with a missionary as their companion and went every where with the missionaries. They stayed in member's homes so that it really seemed more like a mission. We had 2 young women with us in the office on Thursday with the sister missionaries helping us with interpreting and making calls. They were really enjoying their mini mission and Johanna expressed the desire to serve a mission as she was so impressed with the experience. The mini mission lasted Tuesday through Friday so they really got a taste of what it was like including tracting in the heat for hours. They were wringing wet when they came into the office(church) to cool down before they went out again. It is great when leaders see how important an experience like this can be for the young people and make it happen.

Elder Avery just got off the phone with Brother Brunson who is the Agent High Councilor over Employment. We are so excited because he has caught the vision of how the stakes, wards, and us are to be working together. We have our monthly meeting next week and he is being responsible for the whole meeting. We have handouts to assist him in the presentation and hopefully a powerpoint presentation that we will look for tomorrow. Now we need to pray even harder that the Ward Employment Specialists will make a serious effort to be there so they can have this instruction and catch the vision of how important their work is. We are seeing the answer to prayers and how much our Heavenly Father oversees the work of His kingdom.

Elder Avery ordered me a new scripture quad and I have started marking it with the scriptures references in the different sections in Preach My Gospel. It is a slow process because I am also reading and studying the sections along with reading and marking the scriptures. I feel I have so much to learn and want to make more effort than I have in the past. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

With love,
Los Averys