Progress

I love conference.

Seriously, I can't believe I ever didn't listen to every single talk. You learn so much, not just from the talks themselves but from the Spirit and from patterns in the talks. Things that stood out to me: multiple people talking about The Living Christ and how we should read it. I might go about memorizing it like a lot of other people. Elder Uchtdorf's talk in the morning session was my favorite, about fear not making us love to be obedient was my favorite. I've noticed that. Willingly being obedient and humbling ourselves to accept and act on correction makes the blessings and joy of repentance and obedience really obvious.

Also! A wonderful thing from the last talk, from Elder Cook, that trials do not mean that have lost favor with God, or that we're having blessings taken from us. They're just the next step in our progression. God needs us to be stronger, so He'll give us a burden to carry or push against, like resistance training in athletics. Eventually we become strong enough not only to carry the burden, but to do other things. We develop spiritual strength and skills that contribute to our eternal perfection. We all make mistakes, and God gives us a way to notice and correct them, and increase our strength. What a blessing!

This week was an interesting week. We had exchanges at the beginning of this week, and I was doing spanish work. Sort of. We talked to a lot of people and most of them weren't actually spanish-speaking. While not a lot of them were interested, we did have a lot of good, friendly conversations with people that hopefully brightened their days some. We even met a guy who used to live right next to where the elder I was with was from! I say this a lot, but it really is a small world.

I was promised that we'd be able to find this week if I changed something small. It was a specific thing, something that had almost nothing to do with why I felt we weren't able to find very well, but like Naaman, I did it (albeit grudgingly) and we met a sweet old lady named Marie who lives right next to the church! It was right between conference sessions. She was raised Christian but hasn't gone to a church for a long time, has nine kids, and has had a couple deaths in her family recently. What a blessing it is to be able to share the gospel with her! We're meeting with her again on Wednesday, I hope it goes well.

For district meeting this week we all shared a section of Preach My Gospel that has made us better missionaries. I was thinking on it, and chose to talk about the "Bear Testimony" section in chapter 11. When I was in the MTC, someone told me that my testimony sounded like I was just stating facts. At the time I didn't get it, and thought I just had to put it in different words. Eight months later I see that I not only had to know the doctrine intellectually, and have a testimony to some extent, but to be as effective as I needed to be I had to start on the path of becoming instead of just knowing. That was talked about in conference too, and it helped me see where I am and where I'm going. The plan of salvation is cool that way.

God answers prayers! I was really hoping and praying that there'd be a talk that somehow was like a magic bullet for my problems. It's silly I know, but it worked! There totally was one! So if you didn't experience something similar, it's alright. Studying the words of the prophets helps us receive revelation and strengthen our testimonies, and can be done at any time of the year! They're inspired men (and the talks by women are inspired too!) and their counsel is for us.

Thanks for supporting your missionaries! make sure to watch the church's Easter video:
"The Prince of Peace: Find Lasting Peace through Jesus Christ."

"Rather than resisting evil, He suffered. Rather than compromise, He suffered. Rather than rejecting any of us—though every possible provocation to do so was laid upon Him—He suffered. He outlasted all these provocations. He conquered the forcefulness of force. He defeated all the pressures that push humanity toward enmity and discord. He absorbed the terrible poison of vengeance into Himself and metabolized it by His love. He broke the grip of death. "

Elder Adams