THE ELDER REPORT

Conference weekend is sort of like a missionary’s vacation. You wake up like normal and have the normal morning routine but you go to conference. Then after the first session you eat lunch and visit somebody for a lesson. Then you go back to conference. After the afternoon session you have dinner. Then you go to priesthood session. After that you go home and end the day. The next day you can guess how it is laid out. Also this week we had a move down in Needville that took up most of the day on Friday. So that was nice I love doing things like that. And then today is P-day. Life has been very laid back lately. It is a little nice but I want to get back to teaching people and having lessons all the time. You feel a little non-productive during conference because you are sitting there just taking notes or listening.
There were many great talks at conference but my favorite was the one by Jeffery R. Holland. His talks the past few conferences have been phenomenal. A few conferences ago he spoke on our Biblical view of the Godhead. Then I believe two conferences ago he spoke on how it is that we are “Christians” and how the Book of Mormon is very plausible in its reality of being an ancient record. Then this conference he spoke of several little things but what struck me was two things. When the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hiram, were going to Carthage jail, where they knew death awaited them, Hiram read a scripture from the Book of Mormon to comfort Joseph at this time. He then folded the page to show that this is what they stood for in life and whomever saw it after they had passed on would know of what they stood for. Elder Holland made the point that why would Hiram give comfort to Joseph at this time from the Book of Mormon if they were going to their death and knew that if all was a lie that reading from the Book of Mormon would profit them nothing. Also why would Hiram read to Joseph a book that “Joseph wrote?” It would make no sense. Elder Holland also gave his name and testimony for the entire world that the Book of Mormon was true. It was a powerful talk.
A funny story this week:
We receive a call from a lady who asks us if we would like to have a lesson. She tells us to bring representatives from the church and that she wants to see what Mormon Bible study is like. So we are driving with the Spanish missionaries to go to this lesson. We look up the address and drive to it. We see an apartment complex on the right and soon come to find that it is not on that side of the street but the other. It is an assisted living home. We walk in totally taken off guard. We ask the receptionist were the person is. She calls her to the desk. She is the lady over activities at this home. The ladies who stay here want a Bible study so we walk into the dining room and there are a bunch of senior folks sitting there waiting for us. We had no idea that this was what she meant on the phone by Mormon Bible study. So we talked about a few things that Christ did in the Bible and afterward it wasn’t that bad but it took us all for surprise.

This week has been pretty good. The work continues even though this week it hit a little bit of a slump. Several people went out of town this week or weekend and some of our investigators have been busy which left us with little productive things for us to do. But it was a good week none the less.
I am sorry this letter is so short but there is not much to update upon. I love you all and I hope that this week goes well for everyone. I hope that everything is going well for all of you individually and within your own families. Have a great week and I will hopefully have more information to update upon in the following week.