Witnessing History

Hello dear family and friends!

It is officially October weather here in NC. We finally had a cold-snap! It is enjoyable. I think it would be more enjoyable if I wasn't in a skirt. :]

I hope you all had an enjoyable conference weekend and that you were able to learn much from the speakers. It was definitely a spiritual feast. I learned SO much. I can't believe they changed the ages for missionaries! That is so exciting! It was pretty hilarious to see the crowd's reaction when Pres. Monson announced that. We just witnessed history! Lance can go when he's 18 now!
Elder Lee heard a rumor last year that they were going to change elders' length of time back to three years and he told us afterwards that he thought for sure when Pres. Monson was talking about change and missionary work that they were changing it back. He said he was bracing himself when Pres. Monson was speaking. He's only been out 12 weeks. I would be nervous about that too. LOL!!!
I thought it would be appropriate to share a few insights and thoughts from conference:
"Life is not a race. It is a journey. Enjoy the moment!" Pres. Uchtdorf
"Anything essential is only visible to the heart. It is invisible to the eyes." Pres. Uchtdorf and Elder Gonzalez (they both used the same quote!)
From Elder Eyring's talk about removing the pavilions we have I pondered the question of what pavilions I may have that are preventing me from doing the Lord's will.
Elder Eyring also had a great quote about how we should "come to know the Lord as well as He knows us" (I am paraphrasing because I grabbed the wrong notebook and therefore cannot remember all of the things I learned from conference. :/ )
Do we have grime our the walls of our soul or are there squares in the windows that aren't quite in line within the windows of our soul?
"Are you willing to sell your soul for a nickel?" -Elder Gay
Take an inventory of your life and look for the blessings; great and small that the Lord has given you -Pres. Monson
There were a lot of other things that were so great from conference. It's a shame I grabbed the wrong study journal. (sigh).
My two favorite talks were Elder Ballard's about bees and doing service and Elder Bednar's (of course) and the connection between testimony and conversion. I can't wait until we get the ensign!

This week was another trying week in the aspect of missionary work in Raleigh. It's a good thing we had general  conference. It always comes right when I need it most. All of our appointments with investigators fell through. Daisy's mom doesn't want her out so much, Reshell was sick, Dale stood us up, and Charmaina was working crazy hours. Lehi knew what he was talking about when he said that there is opposition in all things!

There were a lot of really tender moments this week as well though. Last Monday Sis. Jacobson whom I adore took us to William B. Umstead park. The Fuquay Sisters went with us and we had a great time hiking through the trees. It was so peaceful (besides the occasional airplane that would fly. The park is literally right next door the RDU airport.) We had a great time though. Our appointment for the evening stood us up so we went home and did some area book updating since it was dark and we are not allowed to proselyte after dark.

Tuesday was a lot of fun. We went to see Dale who also stood us up. Sister Epps came with us. She is a fire cracker! Dale's aunt was home and sister epps got us in the door, set up a return appointment, and invited her to church. She is a great missionary. We went to visit less active Sister Bennett afterwards. She is a great seamstress and had a whole room of theater clothing that she has sewed. It was absolutely amazing! We had dinner with the Thaxtons afterwards. Bro. Thaxton served his mission here. He had a lot of funny stories. It was fun talking to someone who had served here previously.

We lunch with Sis. Patrick on Wednesday. She is the best person ever! She is also a great member missionary. She is going to invite one of friends over the next time we come and hopefully it will be a good result. We had a tender moment with less active Sis. Falco on that evening. Sis. Falco is a lady we have been working with for several weeks now. She has been less active for quite a while, but once we invited her to change a few things, she did it! She told us her feats of the week when we met with her and she was so excited! She is working towards getting her temple recommend again and thanked us for coming. She told us she didn't think she could have come back on her own accord if we wouldn't have come. I am grateful we get to act as the Lord's representatives and invite people to come back and change their lives. It is so rewarding.

General Conference weekend was insane. The Clements family had us over for waffles in the morning. We made a variety of waffles which included: chocolate chip, bacon and cheese (weird, right? well, it tastes good!), and banana. I absolutely LOVED the banana waffles. They were so good. They are hands down my favorite kind of waffle now. We went to the church and watched all of the sessions there except the last session on Sunday. We headed over the the Henderson's home in first ward and watched it there. I discovered that I prefer watching conference in the church building. I am less inclined to feel the temptation to fall asleep. :]

The church is true. I love you all and I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope we can all continue to develop and strengthen our testimonies and conversions of the gospel as we ponder the words of the prophets and apostles from this past conference and study from the scriptures. They will tell us "all things what [we] should do" (2 Nephi 32:3)

Have a wonderful week!


Love, Sister J