I mean how could this week not be good, we had general conference! Which was simply incredible, if you haven’t had a chance to listen to all the messages yet, I would urge you to look over them.

Teaching a New Family

This week we met a family that was previously taught and had the wonderful opportunity to teach them. They were very receptive to the message. The father of the household had a recent leg injury within the past ten days and he was recovering from a major surgery. At the end of the lesson, we had the wonderful opportunity to give him a priesthood blessing. This is one of the few times that I have given non-members a priesthood blessing. It was a good experience, their son was very curious and asked a lot of questions haha. When we did the blessing he was asking about the oil and got up nice and close to see it. The family said that they have never seen a blessing like this before, but they truly appreciate it.

Spirituality Lesson

We had a lesson with someone we found on the street a couple weeks ago, and he was pretty cool. It was probably more of a spiritual discussion rather than a lesson. He loves talking about philosophy and theology. His faith lies in science and the way that the universe functions. He was raised Catholic, but he finds it difficult to believe in the divinity of Jesus. He said he has a hard time believing in the writings in which he is walking on water or raising people on the dead—his reasoning for this lies on how these acts defy the laws of science. He shared that he believes Jesus was a guy that lived around that time and instituted great teachings that have helped people and did a lot of good. As you might imagine we talked a lot about faith with him. He shared that his faith is laid upon the foundation of the evidence of science that can be tested and proved. He loves spirituality and how it can elevate you to be a better person. He was sharing some of the teachings of Buddhism with us, and how he uses meditation to clear his mind. There was this bracelet of rocks that he showed us and he talked about how each different color symbolizes something. He said that it helps him refocus as he thinks about each rock’s purpose throughout the day. And ultimately they could just be rocks, and don’t have much other meaning, but for him if it helps it’s good. It was cool talking to him, I definitely learned a bunch of new stuff. Our teachings about the after-life in the Plan of Salvation didn’t really stick with him, but he was particularly curious about the premortal existence. As not any religions really teach that.

For those that may be interested, here’s a few of my notes from general conference:

• Avoid being passive when it comes to serving & sharing the gospel.
• Worship is much more than just attending church.
• God is the source of eternal truth, turn to him rather than turning to other sources.
• Use other resources to enhance your guidance and direction as you turn to God.
• It doesn’t have to be perfect, you just need to try; He will make the difference.
• If you knew you could do it perfectly, you wouldn’t have to trust Him.
• The Heavenly Priesthood will unite with the earthly priesthood.
• Joseph Smith is a part of the Heavenly Priesthood and is not far from us. (President Gill’s testimony at MLC was on this very subject but he was incredibly more specific and shared how it pertained to this mission specifically)
• Study the Book of Mormon in a way to understand why each writing was included for us today.
• Obedience before understanding.
• “Are you too busy to eat lunch?” Spiritual nourishment is necessary.
• Spend less time talking and more time listening in prayers.
• Read less, ponder and savor more scriptures.
• 2024 to 2034 decade will be momentous, comparable to the years 1820 to 1830.
• These will be days never to be forgotten
• You are the gospel message.
• Your compensation is becoming all that He is.
• Avoid speculation or personal interpretation when teaching doctrine.
• Learn from the stories of the anti-Christ’s in the scriptures.