Christmas in October!

Watching General Conference in the "English" room all alone! :-)

Hi everyone!

So this week a whole bunch of stuff happened!

Tuesday the heavens opened.. with rain! Actually this whole week has pretty much been rain which I like because summer is coming and I am scared for it. But Tuesday I decided to NOT use what I learned in scouting because I was not prepared. I did not have my umbrella. I payed the price because by Tuesday night I was feeling sick. But Tuesday night one of our investigators, Diani, invited us and her member friends over for dinner. We were super excited and she has a ton of questions about The Book of Mormon we gave her. So that was really great. I hope she continues to progress. 

Wednesday morning I woke up feeling awful. My whole chest, throat, nose, and head were painful. I was taking every medication I could because I practically have a whole Walgreens here with me that I packed haha! We had a district meeting in the morning and after we came back to the apartment to put some stuff away and I was dying. So I finally asked Elder Santana for a Priesthood blessing. Now it did not make me 100% better immediately but it helped me make it through the day. I was better by the next day. I am so grateful for the restored Priesthood on the Earth today. What a blessing we have to be able to recieve the effects of the wonderful power. I am grateful for it more everyday. 

Friday we had splits with the Zone leader and his companion here in our area. During splits me and Elder Ribeiro, the Zone Leader, went to Patrick's house. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. It was an AWESOME lesson. He had great questions and thoughts and is starting to really ponder and think about our messages. He reads all the stuff we give him and is praying too. It was really cool. Also Friday night felt like Christmas Eve because Conference was Saturday!! 

I hope you all enjoyed General Conference as much as I did. We are so unbelievably blessed to have a living Prophet and his 12 Apostles to lead and give us guidance. Hearing their words and counsel is amazing. The stake here was really nice too because they set up a classroom with Conference in English just for me!! Haha it was awesome! I was worried all week that I would not be able to understand Conference fully. But that wiped away my worries. While they were setting up the TV for me to watch Conference in English I had to listen in Portuguese to Elder Uchtdorf and I must say that I understood a good amount of it but the English is still way better. 

I LOVED Uncle Todd's talk. I felt the Spirit so strong all alone in my little classroom of English. I had brought my camera so I videoed his talk and Elder Holland's during priesthood so I can listen and watch them again!

One of my favorite things from Conference was Elder Bednar's talk. The question he asked, " Do you believe what you know?" really made me reflect on my knowledge and beliefs. I hope that we can all think about this question and by doing so strengthen our faith.

In total I took 15 pages, front and back, of notes. So if you count each side than that is 30 haha. I seriously loved Conference more than ever before. After the first 2 Saturday sessions I was telling Elder Santana and the Sisters how for the first time in my life when I want conference to take long, it goes SO FAST! It was so true too. This was no doubt the fastest conference of my life haha. I can't get over how awesome it was. 

The one sad thing about Conference was that a lot of the people who we invited to Conference AND then confirmed with them the night before, did not show up. We were pretty disappointed because some who we thought for sure would come did not. But that means we've got to work harder to get them to church! 

This gospel is true and this church is led by Jesus Christ. It brings so much happiness. I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

Now I will explain the pics!

One of them is me all alone in my English classroom haha

One is what I am calling "My 3rd foot" haha the blister is insane

The last two … So this morning after we were done cleaning and everything and about to leave to come do this I was about to walk through the door into the room where we keep our shoes and I saw the BIGGEST moth or whatever that demon was on the door. LOOK AT THAT THING!!! Anyways so me and Santana were freaking out so we made a spear and then I stabbed it and it flew away and we ran screaming and then it flew out the window haha.

PS from MARILEE- for those who don't know what conference is, twice a year our church has what we call General Conference. It is a 2 day conference where our church leaders speak to us about things like Faith, Jesus Christ, forgiveness, etc. It's wonderful guidance that helps bring happiness to our lives as we strive to live after the Gospel teachings. 

BLISTERS!!!! 

Ready for battle against the Giant Moth

GIANT Moth above the door!