CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT GENERAL CONFERENCE????
Cuz like woowwww, that was my favorite general conference I've ever seen. Maybe it was because I was actually prepared, paying attention, taking notes, and seeking inspiration, aaaand also I'm a missionary, or maybe that's an everyone feeling. Without going into toooo much depth and using entirely too many words, here were some patterns I noticed as I listened and pondered:
We need to check our priorities- your number 1 priority should be God!! When we put Him first, everything else falls into place!!
Loving others is soooo important!! After every session, I have a little section in my notes to write patterns I noticed, and THIS was in every session!!!
Make covenants, and keep them. Along with this, spend time in the temple! My dear friends, the closest temple to me right now is a 15+ hour bus ride one way, and I won't have the opportunity to visit one for over a year. Please don't take for granted the temple that's 10-30 minutes from your homes!!! Go visit one for me please
The book of Mormon is sooo important in your personal conversion and is the way by which you can get closer to our Heavenly Father.
And finally... the second coming is entirely closer than we think. We need to prepare ourselves, NOW! The time is coming in which we will not be able to depend on the testimonies of other. It is essential that you build your own testimony and repent daily in order to have the spirit with you in order to be ready for what is to come. I don't know if I was the only one, but when President Nelson showed the video from the Book of Mormon videos, the spirit was sooooo strong, and I could feel the incredible importance of this gospel and staying on this path.
And also in that talk, I know I'm not the only one, but it felt like he was saying goodbye. The funny thing about prophets is that they tend to know things we don't... if that was his last time speaking, I will truly miss him. I made a goal a while back to read all his talks starting in 1984 when he was called as an apostle (ive only made it to 2005 which is the year his first wife passed away), and it has been so powerful to come to know him- who he is, what his goals are, what his legacy will be. I have a testimony that I couldn't overstate if I wanted to, that he is a prophet who has been called of God to preside over His true church in these "unprecedented" times. I know President Nelson really truly loves us as a people and has an understanding of this gospel that I can only hope to one day obtain. For his entire apostleship, his focus has been on gathering Israel, and understanding the relationship between the creation, the fall, and the Atonement. I love him and I just want to testify that to any of you that may be reading this right now.
Now for the part where I continue to talk entirely too much, but this time about what I did this week!!
I had not one, but TWO intercambios this week, so I'm like, wow hermana perez are you even my comp anymore?? Haha, anyways.
Tuesday we had a day where everything fell through, but the one shining moment in all of that was when we went to lunch in the home of an inactive member and his non member wife (or live-in girlfriend??) And talked to them about the importance of taking time to listen to the spiritual things. We used the #hearhim video which is sooo powerful, and they agreed to watch conference this weekend. I don't know if they did, but they said they would. I hope they got something out of it. I was with a sister who has 3 months less time than me in the mission and doesn't really speak Spanish like at all... so then when we were contacting in the street and this dude started trying to tell me that prophets are unnecessary and we're not followers of God, we're just followers of our prophet, it was entirely up to me to figure out what to say. I explained about how in the Bible we had prophets in the old testament to guide the people, because Jesus wasn't around to direct His church, but I don't think he really cared what I had to say.
Also something super funny happened when we were trying to visit less active families. We had knocked and rang the doorbell but no one answered... we were about to leave when a lady came up to the door with her keys
Me: oh do you live here??
Her: ...yes?
Me: awesome!! We're looking for the family Castillo, do you know if they live here??
Her: oh. no, he died.
Me: the entire family????
Her: (smirking and almost laughing) ... uh... yeah
Me: oh noo what happened?
Her: they were sick
Me: wow, I'm so sorry to hear that! Excuse me, what's your name?
Her: (very roughly) why do you want to know??
Me: just to know!
Her: uhhhhhhh
Me: ....
Her: marleny?
Me: nice to meet you, I'm hermana griffin and I'm a missionary, have you talked to missionaries before??
Her: yes but I'm very busy
And she slammed the door in our faces.
But yeah she was definitely lying about the people being dead thing, and about her name, I'm like 99% sure her name is Juana and she is the mom of the family we were looking for. But hey, that also happened to be the same day I read 2 Nephi 9:34 soooo that's her problem now!!
Thursday we had an absolutely insane day. We left the house at 8:45 to walk 45 minutes to someone's house to do service for them. We then did service for like 3 hours, changed in their bathroom and visited like 10 people. Then with a change of plans, we ended up having to walk 1hr 15min to the other side of our sector to go have lunch in the home of some super duper rich members, then we had to walk to other other side of our sector for a lesson after lunch. After that we had to go back where we started for a lesson, but that lesson fell through so we knocked doors for like an hour and a half with literally zero success, and then went to our lesson which was close there. That lesson went reeeeally well, and kinda long, so when we got home it was 9:35 and we work until 9:45 buuuut neither of us could like make ourselves do anything because we had had suuuuch a long day, so we both just kinda collapsed onto the floor and then went to bed super early. My feet still hurt from the aftermath of that day lol.
Friday was a pretty normal day, except we had a lesson in the church, which is like an hour walk away.... so we walked all the way there, were like 10 minutes early for our lesson and got all ready to share our message... and then the time came, and nothing. 15 minutes after the hour, she texts us saying she doesn't know if she can come... but we had some calls to do so we were like it's ok we can wait!! So then she's like, ok 7:30. But then she didn't come... and at 7:45 sent us a text that she's not coming. So yeah. Flaky people gotta love themmm!
Saturday and Sunday we had general conference at a church building that's like an hour walk away, and it was fun because all the missionaries were there as well as a lot of my friends from my other ward!! Saturday night on our way home this dude came and talked to us and has his bike, and started getting entirely too close to us and talking about satan and drugs and stuff... we were trying to figure out how to escape the situation when a member, still dressed up from conference, waved at us and started talking to us!! And then he walked us most of the way home. The Lord really is protecting us!!
Also, I loooove the new for the strength of youth pamphlet!! It focuses so much more on the WHY we do things instead of do's and don'ts!! And it's so direct and aplicable to us in this day with all the things we have going on in the world around us!!
That's all I have for you this week!! The church is true!! God loves you, personally!! You can do it!!
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