THERE"S GOING TO BE ANOTHER TEMPLE IN COLORADO!!! AAAAAAHHHHH!!!
I may or may not have had a little freak-out session in my seat when President Monson announced it. (Ft. Collins) Thankfully I was surrounded by missionaries who know I'm from CO, so they weren't alarmed.
Anyway, holy cow. I love conference. I loved Elder Robbins' talk about "being" and "doing". Also President Packer's talk about letting go of offense and hurt feelings. President Bednar's and Uchtdorf's talks totally blew me out of the water. Those talks in particular were ones that two of our investigators desperately needed to hear, but dang it, neither of them came. Actually, one came but left, telling me he'd be right back.( Thou shalt not lie, Beto! Jeez louise.) Point is: I loved that both of those talks made it abundantly clear that while revelations can and do come in the form of dreams and visions and hearing voices, it is in fact quite rare and we shouldn't expect our answers to our prayers to come all at once, or else, like President Uchtdorf said "we'll be waiting forever on the road to Damascus."
I had the chance to talk to a Korean-American history buff who is the son of an evangelical pastor and who lives up to his namesake, Paul. He had a lot of interesting things to say about the history of the Bible and how certain things had been changed, either for mere translation's sake or for more selfish, insidious purposes. I just kept thinking "yes! yes! yes!" So I told him about the Book of Mormon and how it addresses those things that were changed or taken out of the Bible and even examines them more completely. We also talked about where and when our conviction about Jesus Christ came from. I don't know how closely he had listened to President Bednar's talk because he seemed a little unsure of his faith in the Savior because he had't had a defining "aha" moment when he knew for sure that Jesus Christ is the Savior. I told him I hadn't either, but like Elder Bednar had just explained, we don't necessarily need those moments. It is by the small and simple things we do every day that help us to find faith in Christ, like reading the scriptures, praying, and attending church. Each of those positive experiences build our conviction, our testimony tiny bit by tiny bit, almost imperceptibly until we're bathed in the light of truth without even realizing it. Cool. He seemed to really like what I had told him, and he wanted to know more of what they had said that he missed, so hopefully he'll go back and listen or read the talks again. Sometimes I love the internet.
One of the elders in our zone is letting my companion and I borrow his copy of a compilation of C.S. Lewis' more famous works and I love it to death. If we have time or energy at night, we'll take turns reading to one another. In the first two chapters of Mere Christianity, he completely rips apart the arguement that there is no real right and wrong, only individual perception. Read it, it's good.
This week for our investigators has been a little.....rough. We've started over reading the Book of Mormon with them. Every time they have a fear or doubt or are just feeling lazy and acknowledge that they should be doing more to be closer to God, the answer is 9 times out of 10, to read the Book of Mormon. Mom, you mentioned the YouTube video of Elder Holland's talk a few years ago about the Book of Mormon and how Joseph Smith couldn't possibly have actually written it. I love Elder Holland. Man. Heavenly Father's just so smart. If we just decide to get over ourselves and listen to what the Holy Ghost is telling us, we'll understand that God's there, He loves us, He has a plan for us, He wants us to take care of one another, and to use the resources He's already given us.
Maybe I already shared this story, but it's been on my mind a lot lately....so, when I was in 3rd grade, I had a really hard time following directions. We did an activity one day were we were making "Ants on a Log." The directions were written out on the board and we had all of the materials on our desk. I didn't want to take the time to read the instructions so I went and asked my teacher if she would show me how to do it. She shook her head and pointed back up at the screen. I went back to my desk, grumbling about how she didn't want to help me, but started anyway. I followed the directions and every so often would look over at my teacher to make sure I was doing it right. She would usually give me a thumbs up or if I had made a mistake, she would point back up at the screen. I finally understood why that particular experience had stuck with me for so long and I realized that that's exactly how Heavenly Father works. He's given us scriptures and prophets and families to work with so we can know His plan for us. We can use that direct link to Him as a reassurance that we're doing things His way. He'll give us reassurance and encouragement but almost always refer back to the directions already posted. Love Him.
Anyway, gotta run soon. Read and reread those conference talks. They're totally worth it. Be good!
Love you more than all the conference talks on service!
Allison
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