Ma's Place: Your body is a temple

A couple of transfers ago, the church changed its policy on mega-zone conferences. They used to be every three months. Now they are held every transfer along with president interviews with every missionary. Needless to say that has tripled the work of the president but it gives me the opportunity to see the missionaries at least once every six weeks.

Let me explain what is meant by "mega-zone". We have 9 zones in our mission. There are 3 conferences with 2 zones combined in each conference. One conference involves 3 zones. The meetings are held on 4 consecutive days the second week of transfer.

Now with that said, I thoroughly enjoy these conferences. Tuesday I was in Flushing. Tuesday evening I fed the sister training leaders and the two sisters they were on exchanges with.

I made garlic bread on Tuesday night for dinner. Top insert shows what was left of the
flame. (Hard to see) My bread became "garlic bread flambé". That's what you get when you start
talking instead of watching the broiler.

Wednesday in went to Plainview which is out on Long Island.

Plainview sister missionaries

Long Island Sunset

I told the sisters upstairs that I was leaving early for Plainview. This was my gift/breakfast I found outside
my door as I left. So thoughtful! And they even remembered the chocolate to go with the Special K

Thursday was the Nor'easter so our Brooklyn conference was canceled and I hibernated. It was blowing snow in the morning with a near white out. I live on a hill and the wind blows up hill so the snow was blown around my house into the driveway. I love snow days and watching the snow fall.

Ice crystals on my window.

Sisters Panoussi and Talaboc shoveling the sidewalk and steps

Elders Walker and Cahan shoveling the driveway They even cleared my car.

Friday was conference in Woodside. Today (Monday) I'm am in Brooklyn making up the canceled meeting.

At these meetings, the senior couple over housing talks about housing issues. The senior elder over vehicles inspects the cars and talks about car issues. I talk about health.

This time I focused on the importance of replacing nutrients that the body doesn't store. Our bodies are a gift given to us to house our spirits. It is our responsibility to care for these precious gifts.

I talked about meal planning using the food pyramid and shopping tips. I gave them a sample menu and shopping list and some simple, quick recipes. For example, I suggested they buy a rotisserie chicken and not eat it all in one meal but save some to add to rice or ramen noodles along with frozen vegetables for a meal. When making food, to cook extra and save for a time later in the week so they can grab a quick meal on the run.

I ended with a quote from a talk given be Elder Russell M Nelson.