October 10, 2016

Well, this has been an interesting, but really good week!  I'm glad the boys all got to see the temple and that Rebecca gave an awesome talk, I'm excited to read it :).

This week was really interesting, we had one of the coolest spiritual experiences this last Monday. We had planned on having a meeting with one of our recent converts, which is always really fun, it's been cool to see him progress in his understanding of the Gospel.  Anyway, just a little bit before our lesson was planned for with our recent convert, an investigator who usually comes to Game Night just "randomly" showed up at the building, because he saw the light on and wanted to know who was there.  Anyway, the member hadn't showed up yet, but we thought it would be cool to have him sit in on the lesson, but we can't teach, so we offered him to wait for the lesson and in the meantime play ping pong with us.  After a few minutes the member came, and we had our planned lesson.  We watched the conference talk by President Monson about the Plan of Salvation, where President Monson, testified with power and authority about the Plan of Salvation and the joy it brings into our lives.  That whole time our investigator was fascinated, and was really feeling the Spirit.  We then went through the steps of the Plan of Salvation, and what each meant, and he was just eating everything up 100%.  We asked him if he knows that these things are true, to which he said yes, and we asked him if he'll be baptized, after which his doubts got to him a bit, and he wouldn't commit.  Anyway, he had just been someone who had come to our Game Night for several years, never really been taught because in the past at some point he had said no.  But then, a miracle happened and he was able to feel the truth of the words of President Monson. It was awesome and strengthened my testimony that if we're ready to even to accept a little bit (as stated in Alma 32:28) and we won't throw out the seed, then it will grow in our hearts.  

The rest of the week was full of various meetings, President Childs came, and I translated for a couple of interviews (they were so bad, it made me realize that President Childs speaks very well and eloquently in English, and that given that I don't speak that way, I was no where near ready to translate for that.  It all worked out though in the end :).)  Conference was awesome!  We watched in English already some sessions just here and there as time permitted, and then in Russian to be there for our other investigator  Э. and a member of the church who comes less often.  I just wanted to make sure my companion could understand everything, otherwise he would get nothing out of it.  I wish we had had more time to just sit down and peacefully listen, (we watched one session on P-Day and that was probably the one I got the most out of) but we are making discs so that we can listen/watch them at home during meal times/evening hours.  

Sunday was a fairly normal day, we actually had a few more investigators than we would have thought come to church on Sunday!  We actually haven't been able to finish conference yet, in our Russian branches they Area Presidency asked us to just watch one on Sunday and the other people can watch at their own time.  Anyway, we haven't finished it yet, and we were told to "on our own tme" watch the second.  After a bit of a hold-up on Sunday, we finally got out of the church around 4 or so.  

I think my favorite talk of this conference was Elder Christofferson's, when he just testified of the love of the Savior for us.  I loved the fact that he pointed out that God's love is perfect, infinite and that sometimes the word "unconditional" can sometimes be misconstrued. I know that God's love IS perfect, but that doesn't mean he condones our bad actions.  He wants us to repent, and come unto him with full purpose of heart.  

I love you all so very much and I hope you have a great week!

Pics below:

 Elder Larson (another Elder and I in the district) are on a sugar fast, he's on it for the full mission, and I'm on it for as long as he goes until he cracks.  Just kidding, he won't crack, he played Bingham football, was a super athlete, rugby, he has all his sports discipline, hopefully it'll wear off on me :).  Anyway, I wanted to take a play by play picture, of how what I mean when I say "we slammed contiki (the name of the cookies)

 It was SUPER cold in the apartment, we had a really cold windy day, and the heaters haven't turned on yet, so I found the coziest place I could find during studies.