Good Morning everybody!!!!
Today was the first day in I don't know how long where I opened the door and didn't get smacked in the face with humidity and heat. So awesome!!!!!!!!!! Because it's still been so hot!! When you said 86 degrees the other week, I thought, "really? the humidity must keep it feeling like 98 degrees." But today it finally feels a bit better. Perfect to go to the field and play some ultimate Frisbee. :) I'm surprisingly good at that game these days by the way. You better watch out Will, haha.
Well, I'm doing better this morning. Doesn't General Conference just always do that though? Uplift, chasten, give hope and peace - just when you need it? :) What were your favorites? I loved so many!! I loved Elder Soares' about meekness, and President Uchtdorf, and Elder Nube's... ok, ALL of them! Plus, wasn't the music amazing!! Sometime around the beginning of my mission I decided to put playing the conference center organ sometime during my life on my bucket list. I better start practicing! President told me he knows people. Haha yeah... like the prophet!
We watched it at the church, except for one session, President and Sister Wall invited us over to the mission home. It's crazy to think I did the exact same thing for April Conference. Man, I've been in BR a long time. Very sadly, Robert and Marquetta and their family didn't come, and neither did Claudia, again. That's two conferences now!! I was really excited for her for this one because she's been coming to church lately and having such good experiences. We also had a recent good lesson with her where she really explained her fears about baptism. I was really feeling like this conference would be a really wonderful time for her to receive the answers she wants. But I guess not. Maybe next time. As a missionary, Gen conf is like Christmas. All that night before is like Christmas Eve, and then during the morning of studies, you can't focus because you just want to go watch conference!!! It's like that moment on Christmas morning when you're waiting for your parents to get up - haha. And then you're there and listening to the talks, and really enjoying them. And yet each one you hear, you realize it's perfect for someone you know, but they aren't there to hear it!!!! Ah!! So sad and frustrating. You just long for them to be there too!! Goes to show how important it is that we are where we're supposed to be, when we're supposed to be there. That's half the battle. If we do that, then we're where the blessings are going to come .
Let's see.... I again don't know what to write. MLC was amazing, one of the best I've ever been too. Plus it helped that President pulled me in for an interview after. I love the time I get with him, we have a special friendship. So at MLC we have all sorts of instructions, and then it’s our job as Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders to take that and present it to the zone at Zone Training Meeting, along with whatever they need. One thing that the mission is going to start focusing on a lot is hope. So president instructed on it in MLC, and then that is what Sis Paulson and I instructed on in ZTM. So many acronyms, I know. It was really wonderful to study. It's actually my Christ-like attribute this month and so I've been studying it a lot anyway and it was fun to study it with the purpose of instructing. Studying hope as far as staying a hopeful individual myself as well as exploring how we give hope to other people, and how that plays in with fulfilling our purpose. It was also awesome to study how the Savior offered people hope, and things surrounding that. It went pretty well, I'd say. Instructing always makes me so nervous, but it's good too. We even made bookmarks for everyone in the zone. That's dedication right there :)
Let's see, I absolutely loved it when Pres Uchtdorf said, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." Yeah! Why do we naturally tend to doubt faith first? That actually doesn't make much sense. Also, I've known that I'll still be a missionary after my full time mission, I've just tended to be sad that it'll be different. But Elder Nube's talk really helped me with that. I believe he was quoting Elder Holland's talk, "Remember Lot's wife" which is also a favorite on this subject of not looking back. I loved how Elder Nube said that in the service of the Lord, it doesn't matter where, but how. When we've learned what we need to, we move on. And usually when we move on, we don't know to where we are going, but we can know that the Lord leads us. Pretty powerful. Also, I loved how Elder Bednar talked about tithing! What neat insights he had. He talked about Law of Chastity in April. I'm kind of hoping he just goes for the main big last commandment next conference - word of wisdom :)
Random side not, have y'all watched the church's bible videos? If not, you should!! They are so powerful! The church has amazing media available. You should go watch the latest one, it's right on lds.org's home page. It's when Christ heals on the Sabbath. I think there's so much to learn in the short interchange between the Savior and the man. We actually used it in our instruction in learning about how the Savior offered the man hope, and then what the man had to do, etc.
Alrightly, I better get going and write my Presidents email. I hope you all really enjoyed conference and enjoyed the great blessing of knowing that God speaks for the issues of today. I love each of you dearly!!!
Lots of Love,
Hermana Marks
Today was the first day in I don't know how long where I opened the door and didn't get smacked in the face with humidity and heat. So awesome!!!!!!!!!! Because it's still been so hot!! When you said 86 degrees the other week, I thought, "really? the humidity must keep it feeling like 98 degrees." But today it finally feels a bit better. Perfect to go to the field and play some ultimate Frisbee. :) I'm surprisingly good at that game these days by the way. You better watch out Will, haha.
Well, I'm doing better this morning. Doesn't General Conference just always do that though? Uplift, chasten, give hope and peace - just when you need it? :) What were your favorites? I loved so many!! I loved Elder Soares' about meekness, and President Uchtdorf, and Elder Nube's... ok, ALL of them! Plus, wasn't the music amazing!! Sometime around the beginning of my mission I decided to put playing the conference center organ sometime during my life on my bucket list. I better start practicing! President told me he knows people. Haha yeah... like the prophet!
We watched it at the church, except for one session, President and Sister Wall invited us over to the mission home. It's crazy to think I did the exact same thing for April Conference. Man, I've been in BR a long time. Very sadly, Robert and Marquetta and their family didn't come, and neither did Claudia, again. That's two conferences now!! I was really excited for her for this one because she's been coming to church lately and having such good experiences. We also had a recent good lesson with her where she really explained her fears about baptism. I was really feeling like this conference would be a really wonderful time for her to receive the answers she wants. But I guess not. Maybe next time. As a missionary, Gen conf is like Christmas. All that night before is like Christmas Eve, and then during the morning of studies, you can't focus because you just want to go watch conference!!! It's like that moment on Christmas morning when you're waiting for your parents to get up - haha. And then you're there and listening to the talks, and really enjoying them. And yet each one you hear, you realize it's perfect for someone you know, but they aren't there to hear it!!!! Ah!! So sad and frustrating. You just long for them to be there too!! Goes to show how important it is that we are where we're supposed to be, when we're supposed to be there. That's half the battle. If we do that, then we're where the blessings are going to come .
Let's see.... I again don't know what to write. MLC was amazing, one of the best I've ever been too. Plus it helped that President pulled me in for an interview after. I love the time I get with him, we have a special friendship. So at MLC we have all sorts of instructions, and then it’s our job as Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders to take that and present it to the zone at Zone Training Meeting, along with whatever they need. One thing that the mission is going to start focusing on a lot is hope. So president instructed on it in MLC, and then that is what Sis Paulson and I instructed on in ZTM. So many acronyms, I know. It was really wonderful to study. It's actually my Christ-like attribute this month and so I've been studying it a lot anyway and it was fun to study it with the purpose of instructing. Studying hope as far as staying a hopeful individual myself as well as exploring how we give hope to other people, and how that plays in with fulfilling our purpose. It was also awesome to study how the Savior offered people hope, and things surrounding that. It went pretty well, I'd say. Instructing always makes me so nervous, but it's good too. We even made bookmarks for everyone in the zone. That's dedication right there :)
Let's see, I absolutely loved it when Pres Uchtdorf said, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." Yeah! Why do we naturally tend to doubt faith first? That actually doesn't make much sense. Also, I've known that I'll still be a missionary after my full time mission, I've just tended to be sad that it'll be different. But Elder Nube's talk really helped me with that. I believe he was quoting Elder Holland's talk, "Remember Lot's wife" which is also a favorite on this subject of not looking back. I loved how Elder Nube said that in the service of the Lord, it doesn't matter where, but how. When we've learned what we need to, we move on. And usually when we move on, we don't know to where we are going, but we can know that the Lord leads us. Pretty powerful. Also, I loved how Elder Bednar talked about tithing! What neat insights he had. He talked about Law of Chastity in April. I'm kind of hoping he just goes for the main big last commandment next conference - word of wisdom :)
Random side not, have y'all watched the church's bible videos? If not, you should!! They are so powerful! The church has amazing media available. You should go watch the latest one, it's right on lds.org's home page. It's when Christ heals on the Sabbath. I think there's so much to learn in the short interchange between the Savior and the man. We actually used it in our instruction in learning about how the Savior offered the man hope, and then what the man had to do, etc.
Alrightly, I better get going and write my Presidents email. I hope you all really enjoyed conference and enjoyed the great blessing of knowing that God speaks for the issues of today. I love each of you dearly!!!
Lots of Love,
Hermana Marks