'Smores

During the morning of zone conference, we divide the missionaries into three parts and rotate them through three classes. President Sloan teaches doctrine, the Assistants train from Preach My Gospel and the office staff teaches about health and welfare--a general topic with which we take much liberty.

Sister Ward will address health and medical issues in the mission, which generally means she tells the missionaries once again not to drink tap water and to wash their hands. Despite the fact that she says this to them every six weeks, 19-21 year old young men still think they're immortal and immune from pests. They're not, and we have the test results to prove it. Yuck. But she cheerfully repeats the same message every zone conference.

Elder Ward tells them to be wise with the Lord's money. Elder and Sister Curtis tell them to keep their apartments clean and be kind to their landlords.

Sister Sloan and I teach whatever the President wants us to teach. Smile. Listen to people. Listen to the Spirit. Don't murmur. Have a 72-hour kit. And so on.

By far the most popular part of our class is the FOOD. Each time, Hermana Sloan demonstrates how to cook a simple, inexpensive, nutritious item, and then she allows the missionaries to sample what she has cooked. So far she has shown them how to make toasted cheese sandwiches, French toast, bean burritos, taco soup, egg-in-a-basket and this month. . . SMORES!



As the zone leaders announce which group will be going to which class first, you can almost hear the rejoicing from the missionaries who get to go to Sister Sloan's class first. President Sloan gets a little jealous, and has threatened to come up with his own snack food to accompany the spiritual feast he provides.

The truth is, the missionaries will endure just about whatever health and welfare stuff we want to throw at them as long as Hermana Sloan feeds them.