General Conference is pretty much one of the best weekends of my life, here on the mission. I just love listening to all the people talking and giving great counsel, and telling me that I need to be a better person and knowing that they are absolutely correct in everything.
And, like you, mom, I cannot even begin to think which is my favorite, or which I learned more. I will admit, I absolutely loved Hermana Elaine Dalton´s talk about father´s love their mothers. For two reasons. 1) I have seen time and time again, women of my age and those that are still growing beat themselves up for not being pretty enough, smart enough, cool enough, witty enough. It´s never enough what they have. And they think this because they do not truly understand that they are daughters of God. And in today´s society it is incredibly difficult to develop this identity. But when we truly understand that we are worth every moral, every standard, it is then that we can be truly happy. And we feel beautiful every day. And because we as women think so much about how others view us, the way a father treats his wife is crucial. Because they are the example. The women of today need to know that they have worth and that they will one day have a husband who will treat them like the daughters of God that they are. Which means that the men need to step up to the plate and treat the lady´s like the daughters of God that they are. Do not use and abuse. I will smite you with the word of God if I see you doing it. And don´t test me, I´ve got three Books of Mormon in my bag. 2) My dad has been an amazing example to me of how I should be treated. And while I haven´t always been treated the way my dad treats my mom, my husband will need to talk to my dad and take lessons. Because I love the way my family functions (as dysfunctional as it can be sometimes). And one thing that is never lacking is a stable, pure, Christ like relationship between my mom and my dad. So, way to go Dad. You have been a great example for me. He also treats me very kindly, so thank you for that to. Love you! I love you too Mom!
Well, how´s that for a soap box? Hmm, interesting. Anyways, loved General Conference. It was fun because I went in with about 5 other United State Native Elders to watch the Conference in English. I love America. These Elders are great, but I will admit, we made comments about the ability to stay still of the Primary Chorus. Loved it.
As far as this week in teaching goes. We almost had a baptism this weekend. We have an investigator who has had all the lessons, and just needed a little push to be ready for baptism. Many people feel the need to be 100% sure of everything and know everything before getting baptized, but this just isn´t going to happen. I don´t know everything and I´ve been a member my whole life. So we go over, have her try on the baptismal clothes, she says she feels like an angel, And then accepts the invitation to be baptized this weekend. I´m elated. We call her the next day.......and she wants absolutely nothing to do with the church, she wants us to come over, take our books back, she never wants to talk to us again. You confused? So am I. I have no idea what happened in those 24 hours, but it´s been rough trying to get a hold of her just to ask her what happened and why she changed her mind. I may never know. Whenever we call, she cuts the line. What are you going to do? I don´t know, I´ve been praying a lot though. It´s too bad she didn´t make it to any of the sessions of Conference this weekend. They sure would have helped her feel more prepared.
Other good news is that we were talking to another investigator who just hadn´t caught the fire yet. But when we went to talk to him this week he told us that he had been talking to his Pastor in Peru. He was talking to him about us, and our religion, and how he feels like there is something here, but he´s not really sure what to do. And what advice does this Pastor from Peru give? That it is important to do the will of God. And as long as you are sure it is the will of God, you need to follow it. Now, Raul was telling this story, and he was using flowery language, that was a bit advanced for me and my native spanish speaking companion. So we were just nodding our heads and going "uh huh" for a while. Until he stopped talking and looked at us expectingly like we were supposed to respond. Uh..Wait, what? Oh, you want to be baptized. Okay. You only have friday´s free so you can´t be baptized on the 15th (saturday)? No problem, we can have your baptism on the 14th, it´s a friday. Score. The good news of this story is that he went to the Priesthood session saturday night without us. Yes he has a testimony. Now he just has to work with his boss to get work off Sundays. Pray for him please.
That has mostly been my weekend. General Conference was the absolute highlight. And pretty much took all our day. We have studies until 11, General Conference was from 1-3 and 5-7, it takes an hour to get there. Which means we stayed at the stake center for lunch. Which means for 2 days in a row we had from 11 - 11:30 to visit people and from about 8-9 at night. We didn´t have many lessons in these two days. But I am very spiritually edified. I hope you all are too. I know that President Monson is a prophet of God. And his words are direct counsel to us from our loving Heavenly Father whose soul purpose is to guide us back to him. That is the goal and purpose of this life, and we have the scriptures and living prophets to help us do it.
I love you all, keep on the straight and narrow. You will do great things.
Hermana Reed
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