MISSION CONFERENCE 2

The second week of the mission conference. It was great. There were a lot of great trainings on lesson plans and teaching people not lessons. That one is my favorite. Some people think that we are just here to share a certain number of messages and then you are supposed to get baptized. That is not the way it works. I love this training and I have tried to follow the guidelines in it for most of my mission. I love teaching to people's needs and following the spirit to know what to share with those I teach. Sure you have to still teach the lessons but you do it in such a different way. I love that we are able to have the Holy Ghost to be with us to guide us because when I try to teach by my ability it never goes as well and the spirit is not as strong.

We were told to get to know our investigators more and to teach to their needs. Asking inspired questions to find out what they already believe and what they are looking for. Sometimes people don’t join the church because they don’t have a spiritual witness others it is because they dont understand why we have baptisms for the dead. People also have questions that seem never to be answered because it is not in one of the missionary lessons. We have been advised to always teach from the lessons but for a foundation. We are here to answer questions and to help people understand that this gospel is for them and not just some church.

On to another topic. President Saylin shocked the mission when behind the pulpit during our meeting this past Thursday. He was standing and giving a few closing remarks. You can always tell if he is about to share something that he knows he is going to get a reaction out of people because he gets this grin on his face and just seems gitty. As he spoke he said; "I haven't been feeling good to lately as you and neither has most of the mission. Sister Saylin also hasn't been feeling too good this past week. But she hasn't been feeling too good because there is going to be another addition to the Saylin family..............................." A long pause. The whole mission instantly went silent and started talking quietly amongst themselves. The first thought that went through my mind was; "AWESOME!!!! That is so cool. They are both 42 and they are having another child!" They still have a year and 3 months left on their mission. They will be on their mission when she delivers. That will be so cool. Nobody knew about it and they are so excited for #7.

Also another cool thing to mention. You may have seen him in the news a little bit. But the man who found the cure for AIDS is in our ward. He actually gave us a really great referral that we are going to teach tomorrow. Brother Packered is a nice guy. Elder Born who I replaced here has a picture of Brother Packard roping an alligator with an extension cord. WELCOME TO TEXAS!!!

Last P-day we had a zone activity. We just had fun at the church and went to a field and played rugby. I love that sport. it is so much fun. Especially when you are around people who at least kinda know how to play.

President Saylin came to church on Sunday and totally scared us. He knew he shocked us too.

We went to a Chinese baptism this week. It was really cool. The young man who was baptized is from mainland China. He just moved over here over a month ago I believe and was only taught for 3 weeks before he was baptized. From what was translated to me from Elder Williams he was in China and before he left his teacher gave him a ring. On the ring it has a few letters on it and she told him it stands for Choose the Right. Then when he came here to the U.S. it helped him in his conversion. What are the chances! There are so few members in China. I believe only about 1,000. And they have the most population of any country in the world and the teacher just happened to be a member who just happened to give him a CTR ring and then he just happened to join the church and to be in a place where there was a Chinese branch close by with Mandarin Chinese speaking missionaries. To many coincidences. I love the gospel!!

I hope that you all have a great week. I wish that I had time to send you all a personal email or letter and talk to you one on one. I hope that you all have a great week and for those in Washington I hope that it snows again. I miss snow. I wish I could see more of i but it has been since I was in Friendswood 1.

I love yall and have a great week.

ELDER MARR