General Conference

I wish that you could hear the birds here. They are the beautiful songbirds! They sing all the time! One day we will have to come back here and I will take you to all of the great places that I have been to!

... I actually thought of that during President Uchdorf's talk this conference when he was talking about gratitude. We really need to be grateful for what we have, because there are MANY, MANY people who do not have anything and they are grateful for what they have.

This week has been hectic. First we took out the new sister for a night. She was great! She was so excited and nervous, but she was really ready to do anything! After a few doors we asked her is she wanted to take the lead. We had a good 20 minute long conversation with a man and she was doing so well! She was testifying and using the spirit and it was amazing! It was so great to see someone who had no idea what they were doing just trust in God and go for it. We also gave her some advice for the rest of her mission. Our number one piece of advice was to not get worried about being emotional. Everyone out here gets emotional (it doesn't matter if you normally don't). We told her that it is normal and that she should feel that anything is really wrong. I think a lot of sisters overreact to emotions out here, and then they think that they are depressed or they need to go home and satan just feeds off of that. We also told her to be exactly obedient and gave her our emails so that if she ever has a problem she can email us. Second although Sister Houtz and I were not transferred we got a call from President on transfer day that we needed to pick up a sister who's companion had gone home early. So we were in a trio for a couple of days. It was stressful and I am very thankful that it was only for a short time. I loved the Sister, but there was just too much going on with three people.

Also this week our investigators Heidi, Tom, and their children watched every session of conference. Heidi was even tweeting and facebooking about it the whole day. She also posted on her door a sign that said "We are watching LDS general conference, if you would like to come in and watch feel free -Residents of 107" (or something like that). It was great! She would get baptized tomorrow if she could, there is just a lot of stuff and people holding her back. Please pray that those road blocks will be removed.

Conference was so GOOD! There were so many talks about the atonement, and loving one another. I loved the quote from President Monson that said “Some of our greatest opportunities to demonstrate our love will be within the walls of our own homes." I think that this was one of the greatest messages that we could take and keep in our hearts. I want to challenge you all to try to practice this priniciple in our home. Also start reading Preach My Gospel! Elder Ballard's talk on missionary work was really inspiring and direct. As you read it you will learn how to be a missionary and what attributes and practices will make you more successful. Also I want to hear what you are studying! This week I have been studying Chapter 11 "How Do I Help People Make and Keep Commitments?" A lot of it is bearing testimony of the blessings and knowledge that keeping these commitments will bring them. We are to declare repentance to everyone, but we do it out of love for them and for God. We do not threaten of demean them, we just offer love and light.

I hope that you are all doing well! I love you all so much!