March 13, 2011

Another difficult week. We only taught 5 lessons to non members the whole week and we didn´t find new investigators until Saturday. However, we did manage to get one person who had not gone to church for almost a year to attend the stake conference Saturday, and Ruben did receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and immediately following his ordination went to the hospital to give his son a blessing. He was interned last Monday because of an infection caused by a catheter which he carries permanently with him due to serious kidney problems. A terrible situation but a great opportunity for Ruben to use the priesthood.

I thoroughly enjoyed stake conference this weekend both the Saturday and Sunday sessions were great. The Sunday session was a sattelite transmision in which Elder Larry W. Gibbons, Silvia H. Allred, Elder Russel M. Nelson, and President Thomas S. Monson spoke. I wanted to share with you some of the notes I took, but I forgot to bring them. Briefly a little of what I remember: Elder Gibbons talked about attending the temple frequently, which he explained can mean different things for different people based on how far away the closest temple is. He also explained that we as human beings spend whatever money we earn. It doesn´t matter how much we make we always spend it all. He used Donald Trump as an example. He then explained that we treat time in the same way. We always find a way to occupy all of our time filling our schedules with things to do whether they be important or not. For these reasons it is important that we always put the Lord first in our lives because if we don´t we won´t have enough money left over to pay tithing, we "won´t have time" to read the scriptures and go to the temple, etc. We must "sacrifice the firstlings of our flock" (or our time and means), not whatever is left over. Sis. Allred spoke about the people of King Benjamin and how many of the next generation that were little children when King Benjamin gave his address fell into disbelief and iniquity. She explained how parents can prevent the same thing from happening to their children. Elder Nelson spoke about the family as well but started off by explaining that a carreer or ocupation is only a means to an end, not the end itself, and that our primary goal in this life should be to become the person God wants us to be. He also explained the things parents should teach their children so that they remain in the path that will lead them back to their Heavenly Father. President Monson told a story about a batallion in WWII that was isolated and surrounded by their enemies but was later rescued by their allies. He told us that we as members of the church must rescue the "lost batallions" of the elderly, the widows, the handicapped, the sick, and the less active. He talked about several principles that we should understand and put into practice. 1. duty 2. never being satisfied with mediocrity 3. love for thy neighbor/fellowman 4. knowing that people can always change (I think the mission has helped me a lot to understand this principle). It was excellent!

This weekend they celebrated this really crazy festival called Carneval in the town where I live. I received notice that your packages did get here. I will receive them Wednesday. My guess is that they were just sitting in the Mission office for a long time. Say hi to Tom for me and tell him I miss him a lot.

I love you guys and am so glad to have you as my family,

Brett