Conference!!

Feast on the Word...at Conference.

Dear Family,

I think Conference passes by faster and faster every time it comes. It was a great Conference! My favorite part though is reading and listening to it afterwards. There were lots of things I loved that I can't even remember all of it...

-I loved Elder Scott listing all the things that are less important than scripture study, and how he pointed his finger and told us to make time for it. So true. I've learned a lot about priorities on my mission.

-I loved Sister Esplin's talk on the sacrament, and focusing not on just the wrongs of that week, but also all the things that Christ helped you to do! That's definitely something I will be changing as a result of Conference.

-Elder Christofferson and President Uchtdorf's talks were so for the South. I especially loved the analogy about the universe and how it has not changed, only our ability to see it. I have learned a lot about ETERNAL TRUTH. So many think that truth is dependent on whatever you feel or think, I have seen many many examples of that. But that thinking totally goes against the meaning of truth.

-I hope the youth take Elder Andersen's advice on gaining a testimony of Joseph Smith. A thought that came to my mind was that the disputations about Joseph Smith have not finished. Of course Satan is going to continue to attack his credibility as long as possible.

-Elder Klenbingat: some of our weaknesses will be our companions until we leave this mortal life! Doesn't mean I should stop working on my weaknesses, but helped me to realize that for the rest of my mortal life, I will still have weaknesses.

-Elder Gadoy: choosing something bad over something worse is still not ok. Also, I learned a lot about having a broader vision.

-Elder Bednar really echoed something that I studied this week that I will share in a moment.

Our teaching pool is kind of weak! We are trying to build it, but we seem to lose people as fast as we get them. On Tuesday we talked to a young man named C for only a few minutes, and set up a return appointment. I wasn't sure if he would be there, but he was! I was on exchanges and Sister Russell was with me and we had a great lesson with him! He agreed to be baptized on October 26th and everything!

Then when we went to our return appointment two days later there was a break-up note on the door!!!

My email got cut off :( technology.. There was a lot of my email lost, so I'm going to try to remember what I said. So depressing :(

The break up note told us not to come back again. Which was sad.

Hopefully one day he can learn about the gospel again!

Missionary "Break-up" note. :(

So the rest of my email just got cut off so I'm going to have to hurry and figure out how I can tell you the rest of what I wanted to tell you. I'm going to use the voice-to-text on the iPad to see if I can try and make up for what I lost. So when we were biking in between sessions of conference we were trying to see a former investigator who had moved but said that he was going to be back in town. He wasn't there so we decided to go back because the next session was going to be starting soon. As we were stopped at a stoplight there's a man behind us on his bike, and he asked "are you Mormons?" It turns out he was someone that we had tried to contact before but couldn't get a hold of. So we invited him to a conference and he said that he might be able to come. But I wasn't sure so we just kept riding our bikes, but I felt an impression that we should definitely not let him see where we lived, because we needed to stop at our house to drop off our bikes and then walk to the church. The timing was perfect and he was not able to see where we lived because we rode our bikes a lot faster than he could! During the conference I noticed that he would just stare at me for long periods of time probably more than he was actually watching general conference. And then afterwards, we heard from the Elders that he had asked where we lived! I definitely know that heavenly father was looking out for us and making sure that we are always safe because I really had a strong impression to not let him see where we lived! So don't worry about me ;)

Sister Rendon's Picture of their hike.

Something that I have learned in my personal study this week was a lot about our purposes missionaries. A lot of times I've been asked the question "what is it that you do as missionaries?" A lot of times I tell them something like we share a message about Jesus Christ or we visit people from our congregation or we serve people in the community. But I felt like there is a better way to answer that question, so I was studying about "our purpose" in preach my gospel and the talk "Ask the Missionaries! They can Help you!", and just cried as I really thought

about what it is that we do and how we literally fulfill the same mandate that Christ gave to His disciples when He told them to spread the gospel to all the world! So next time I get asked that question, I'm going to say something like "I help people learn how to return to live with a Heavenly Father!" Or "I help people make covenants with God!" And they'll look at me like I'm crazy, but then at the same time they will feel the spirit and then they'll want to know more. At least that's how it goes in my mind ;) it was just a really great moment being able to realize truly what is the reason that I am here. It really changed my perspective about how I see missionary work.

Benjamin is still doing so great! he is probably the best convert that I've ever worked with. The other day he drove another recent convert to the book of Mormon class and afterwards he had told us that he would like to have him over for dinner sometime, because he is single and doesn't have family around. I just love getting to see people loving the gospel and trying to help others as well! He is just so sincere and I really feel like he is a family member to me.

Transfers are next week, I think that we're going to get split up. But if not we decided that we are going to rearrange all of the furniture so that we can have a change. I feel like my time with sister Evangelista has gone by so fast, I can't even believe that the summer is almost over!

I think sometimes I get doubts that I have had a successful mission. But I know that that's not true! As I have looked back on my journals I have seen that there have been several times when I feel like I'm not accomplishing very much. But now I can see that during those times there really was a lot of good happening!

Sorry I can't seem to remember what else I had said in my previous email. But just know that I am doing well and I am really happy being a missionary. I hope that you all are doing well and thank you so much for telling me about what's been going on in your lives. I really do miss you!

Love you all so much. I know the gospel is true! We share it because it has blessed our lives so much. I'm so happy that you were able to go to General Conference. And a little bit jealous ;) hahaha and please correct and misspellings I have, since this was typed by my voice :)

Love,

Sister Adams