April 12th 2015

Hey everyone, 

It has been such a great week. Transfers was this week, which is always a busy and awesome time. One of my favorite things about transfer week is seeing President Balli move missionaries around. It's different in all missions, but President lets us be pretty involved in the transfer process. There is a quote the President Eyring used last conference by President Packer which says "Revelation continues in the Church: the prophet receiving it for the Church; the president for his stake, his mission, or his quorum; the bishop for his ward; the father for his family; the individual for himself.” - that's true! 

President talked at transfer meeting, and often in all meetings, about how the most important thing in all of history is the Atonement, and because that is true, the most important thing we can do in our lives is repent, and then go help others to do the same. What at true doctrine! What a blessing repentance is! There is a line from Preach My Gospel that says, "Thus, as we repent daily, we will find that our lives will change and improve. Our hearts and our behavior will become more Christlike. We will come to feel great joy in repenting daily. (ch. 3, lesson 3)" In another part it says, "We should desire to receive worthily the covenants that God offers us and then strive to keep them. Our covenants remind us to repent every day of our lives." It is true and real! So how does a person repent daily? And what does that teach about the nature of repentance? What a great doctrine! 

Transfer meeting was great, we had most of the mission there. Last transfer was an 8 week transfer instead of a six week transfer, and because of that there were a lot of changes happening. Something else that is fun is that we get to take outgoing missionaries to the airport to catch their flight homes. We've had some really awesome missionaries go home in the past few months, and they have given some great service. 

I love Elder Smith. He's so awesome. The only companion I've had as long as him is Elder Larson. Both are from Sacramento! Elder Smith is super humble. He's a great missionary. I don't know if I've ever shared this, but we're from the same intake. The night before we went into the actual mission field we stayed together in a hotel room in Takapuna. He was my zone leader in the MTC! He's an awesome Elder. He went to BYU Idaho before his mission, and he is planning on going back to BYU Idaho. He's one of my heroes. 

General conference as also so good! One thing Elder Bednar talked about when he visited the mission was how important it was that there are 15 prophets, seers, and revelators on the earth today. I loved the messages that were shared, and with how much of a focus there was on the family. I just love conference. I love hearing President Eyring speak, and how often he talks about the selfless service that he has given, and the experiences he has had as a Priesthood holder. And President Monson is the same way! 

Here's another part of conference that I thought was just awesome. It was in Elder Brent Nielsen's talk, 

"Perhaps the most important lesson the Lord taught me through this process happened during our family scripture study after my sister had left the Church. Our son David was reading as we studied together Luke 15. As he read the parable of the prodigal son, I heard it differently that day than I had ever heard it before. For some reason, I had always related to the son who stayed home. As David read that morning, I realized that in some ways I was the prodigal son. All of us fall short of the glory of the Father (see Romans 3:23). All of us need the Savior’s Atonement to heal us. All of us are lost and need to be found. This revelation that day helped me know that my sister and I both needed the Savior’s love and His Atonement. Susan and I were actually on the same path back home."

For missionaries, we all attend General Conference at the local stake center and watch all the sessions there. It's weird to think that we watch them at home in our living room! It's a really fun time for missionaries because we have two days together to learn from the prophets and apostles. But I guess that is true for anyone all over the world. Conference is special everywhere. 

Some of my favorite talks were ones that were focused on a single doctrine or principle. Those types of messages are powerful. It was also cool to see the use of questions during conference. Many of the speakers asked questions as they spoke. Why would they do that? There is a whole lot of learning that can come from thinking about that! 

We're teaching a non member guy who has a less active partner named Liam and Lelani, who I think I've mentioned before. They are so awesome. Liam came to the priesthood session of general conference and the Sunday morning session. He is in the navy, and so President Monson's talk during the Priesthood session was awesome for him! He is set to be baptized on the 2nd of May, and him and Lelani are going to be married before that day. Lelani's dad is a branch president up north in a beautiful place called Opononi, and he has been a huge help to both Liam and Lelani. 

We're also teaching a lady named Carol. I met Carol for the first time when I was a zone leader, on a trade off with good ol' Critter Huffman while he was an assistant (before we became companions) and we helped to mow her lawn. The first few times we visited with her she was not interested. She gave us back our Book of Mormon and wasn't really to keen on us coming around. She is a single mother of a 5 year old son, and they are really really religious. They study the bible daily, and her son loves the bible. We've continued to visit her and she came to church around two months ago. She seemed like she enjoyed it, but we haven't been able to catch her home for two months. We went around her house at 8:30 one night and caught her home. She said that she really loved church, and that it was different than any church she had been to. She doesn't like organized religion because of how rote everything is, but she said she didn't feel that at church. She will come, but it will be slowly.

Saturday night  we picked up Elder Reeves, who is one of the senior couple missionaries in the office with us, to go with us to the priesthood session. Elder Reeves is a cool dude, and it was fun to be with him. He is from Kangaroo Island, Australia. We also have Elder and Sister Ward from Provo, Utah in the office with us. We're not allowed to go on the internet, but because they are senior couples they are allowed. So Elder Ward got online and showed me some of the stuff about the apartments in BYU. He and Sister Ward live like ten minutes away from the apartments! They go home at the end of May, so it will be fun to see them in Provo. 

Mom and dad are such good parents! It is hard to be a parent, and mom and dad have done such a good job of raising us children! They're awesome! 

This is a picture of Elder Hann from Scotland, right before he got on his plane. He had 31 hours of travel ahead of him. He has a hat with a bunch of tie pins and things on it that he let me wear. 

 

 

Love ya!