CONFERENCE TIME

OI. Conference was AMAZING, I agree with you there, Sam. I don't know exactly how to describe this past week. I feel like I'm going through my own sort of conversion, and that there's a ridiculous amount of opposition. The adversary does not want me to find out for myself all the things I'm teaching. It's super tricky because I felt like I knew everything before I came out! And now that I'm here, I'll have these super spiritual days where I'm on fire all day long, and then the very next day I'll hit a "low" and start worrying about my testimony and questioning myself. But no need to worry, I can promise you that those times are just temporary--very temporary--and knowing that, I make it through just fine. I remember talking to returned missionaries who say that a mission is a roller-coaster. I always took that with a grain of salt, but here I am! It's amazing though. I'm learning so much through all this. I'm learning to rely on the Lord, and I feel like now more than at any other time in my life I have a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father. I'm learning all of this just like a brand new investigator has to! It's impossible to describe, and it's wonderful. Brother Wood said to our district that during his mission, he felt like he was going through a personal conversion whenever he brought an investigator through. It literally seems to go like this: We find out for ourselves how to come unto Christ, then we go out of our way to find people who need help finding Christ and walk with them through their conversions. I'm satisfied to speculate that we do so much more than just call from a high spiritual place--if that were the case, then the church wouldn't have any problem with doing something extremely general in place of missionary work. But it's a personal work we do with each individual investigator, which requires us to make the journey of conversion with each of them. That's unspeakably significant. Isn't that how the Savior works with us? He personally suffered for us, and knows each of us. When we build real relationships with investigators, we can personally know them, and know what their going through so we can help them. I guess I don't have much experience in the matter. I'm still in the MTC!! But somehow I know that this is what it's like.

Conference was definitely a highlight! Just like dear ole Sam said, it was like a feast! I felt like everything shared was personally relevant, whether it was something I could apply to myself, or something I could explain to loved ones who might need help. Story: President Monson, on Saturday morning announced the new temples and talked about his experiences in dedicating the other temples. I LOVE how he talked about Kyiv, and how he told us about the cultural celebration they had. I choked up thinking about a temple that close to Russia! I felt pretty stupid getting worked up over something that seems so small, but I feel like I have a connection to the Russian nation, and I don't even know them yet!!??!?!! I just thought about how awesome it is that more people are recognizing the church in that area of the world, now. And how fitting it is that the Ukrainian people would hold a celebration in a PALACE to commemorate that great milestone. That just blew me away, for some reason.

And of course, priesthood session was TEH BOMB. I felt so empowered, being able to bear my testimony through song! It was such an amazing experience, and there was power in singing about missionary work. Elder Nelson's (?) talk about missionary work was so awesome because it made me realize how badly I want all my brothers to serve full time missions. I want it so much that it hurts sometimes!! I saw the three of you there with Dad, faithfully following him to come and listen to the prophet, and I felt so proud of my li'l bros. Dad says Caleb wants to start studying preach my gospel. I'm so impressed by my little brothers! They're miles ahead of me. Do everything you can to get ready for a mission!! That means listen to Mom and Dad!!! You will never ever ever regret it. You owe it to these two to serve honorable missions and make them proud. I can't even begin to think of any way I can pay back our parents for devoting their ENTIRE LIVES to us, making sure that we have the Spirit in our home, and making sure that we make the right decisions. You have no idea how important that is until you're off on your own! And of course, more importantly, you owe it to our Heavenly Father! Think of everything He's done for you, all the preparations you received from him before you came to this Earth! Get out there and make our parents proud, boyz!! I love you all to pieces! I can't tell you how happy I was to see you! You're all making me proud, and you'll all be much better missionaries than I could ever be, because you're starting early. Don't give that up!
one minute left. Funny story: Brother Shelyakin heard us all practicing russian really quietly, and he said "speak up! If Lenin whispered like that, there would have been no revolution!!" Then he started imitating Lenin and saying "Dear comrades!" in russian. HAHAHAHA.