I love the weekend when General Conference comes around! There is seriously no better weekend in the mission! Quoted from other missionaries (several other missionaries), General Conference is the "Super Bowl of the mission", and it's true. It's my hope and prayer that we can think of and feel that General Conference is even better than the Super Bowl!
Last Sunday we had my first baptism here in Marti of the son of an active family, a boy named Geovanni. It was super legit. I know it doesn't mean anything, but it's a really cool motivating factor when you have a baptism every month of your mission. But baptisms don't measure the success of a mission. What matters is your own personal conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and your committment to Him in His work here on the earth in those two dedicated years!
On Monday we had district capacitation. So every 3 months we have what are called zone conference, and inbetween zone conferences, president is visiting every DISTRICT and giving them another training period which is absolutely AWESOME. I had an incredible experience that day, but it's a little too personal to share, I'm sorry. I know most of you are probably thinking, well, if you aren't going to share it, then why even bring it up? Well, you just kind of do that kind of thing without thinking about it. I will share what I can in the best way I can. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the SINGLE greatest gift given to us by our Heavenly Father. It allows us SO many other blessings. It is the reason we were able to come to this earth. Without the Atonement, we would have come to the earth in vain, only to receive a body that would decay and our Spirits would remain after our death, never to receive a fulness of joy. We would be subject to the punishment of our sins. We would have to endure all of our trials and afflictions alone. It's a terrible burden that Jesus Christ took away. e usually think of repentance as asking for forgiveness of our sins. But it's so much more than that! Yes, it's asking for forgiveness of our sins, but it's leaving behind the sins, and making changes in our lives to be in accordance with the laws, ordinances, and teachings of the gospel. We repent as we start keeping the commandments of God that we hadn't been keeping before and by following Jesus Christ even more than we had before. Repentance is an amazing and basic principle. Hence, the reason it is the second principle of the Gospel!
In our weekly acitivity called "Mormon Night" Elder Spilker and I shared 3 ways to make conference more meaningful (found in the September 2011 Ensign and Liahona) 1) Know that you can receive personal revelation. 2) Don't disregard a message just because it sounds familiar. 3) Know that it will be a compass for the coming 6 months, or maybe even longer.
OH!! ON Friday, in the office, we had some down time so I did some study, which included Mormon Messages from the church's website. I don't remember exactly what they are called, but one of them is called Sanctify Yourself (I think) and talks about being worthy to give Priesthood blessings, recently featured on the LDS.org homepage and can be found using the bottom link in the center column, and another one about the power of forgiveness and I have NO idea what that one is called, but I think it was called Sanctify Yourself: THe power of forgiveness, or something like that, talking about a man forgiving the man who caused a car accident that killed his wife and three of his kids. They have VERY powerful messages!
2 sessions of General Conference have already passed by and I have learned an incredible about and felt a strong Spirit testifying of the words of the servants of God. Two messages I want to share are 1) No matter how insignificant you may feel, "You matter to [Our Heavenly Father]. and 2) When our trials and experiences burden us and weigh us down, we often feel tempted to look down and sorrow in the wake of our grief, but in the words of Thomas S. Monson "It is better to look up".
Elder Andrew Anderson LaPray
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