Calgary Mission Conference

Elder Draper and Elder Christensen eating yummy Cafe Rio burritos. Looks like Ryan licked his plate clean!

The District is all smiles after finishing lunch. That's Ryan's companion from the MTC, Elder Davies, sitting second to the right. His first companion in the field, Elder Rudd is sitting right in the middle.

Beautiful Stacey with President and Sister Zivic, her son's mission president who served in Spain. What a treat to visit with your return missionary's mission president!

"We are as the Army of Helaman, we have be taught in our youth and we will be the Lord's missionaries..."

"...to bring the world His truth!"

Written by Ryan's overjoyed mom-

We had an awesome family just move into our ward from Texas over the summer and as we were getting to know each other I mentioned our oldest son was serving his mission in Calgary. Angi, the mother, mentioned that a family from her ward in Texas had just moved to Calgary. In the church we so often have these "small world" moments! I thought Calgary is a such big city but quietly hoped that some way Ryan would cross paths with this nice Texan family. A month went by and this morning I got a call from Angi telling me her friend Stacey in Calgary was helping serve the Calgary missionaries lunch at their Mission Conference so she wanted to know what the Ladera Ranch missionary's name was! What a kind gesture and comforting tender mercy to know that Stacey was looking out for our missionary! I asked her to give him all our love and that if she could possibly take some pictures that would really make my day. At noon she called my cell to tell me all about meeting Elder Draper and later emailed me some pictures and shared the experience she had at the conference. You can read her email below. A huge, heartfelt thank you Angi and Stacey for giving our family something really wonderful to smile about today!

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Hi Teri,

Here are pictures of your darling boy!! He was a delight. It is so funny how excited we get at any small connection to home. I told him the story and about me moving and my dear friend moving and then my friend telling me to look out for him! He was so excited (they all laughed and were excited for him) How funny I was asked to help with this lunch today and I got to make that connection! A bonus for me is that the Apostle that was there was President Zivic from the 70's. He was my oldest son's Mission President in Spain!! What a fun surprise for me! Hope you enjoy these pictures. He was in good spirits and said to say he loves you all. They served them Café Rio burritos and brownies and ice cream. They were all happy about that! At the end they sang us Army of Helaman...and then sang and thank you for the food! It was touching and sweet.

Hope this brightens your day!

Stacey