Conference

Dear Family;

 

Today was a good week. It was a great week! We are working hard still and, of course, General Conference was a big highlight. Just for your information I was thinking about the family/Davis clan a lot as Elder Holland's talk moved a long. I thought that was interesting that he was the speaker. I can't imagine Jeffrey could've written that talk without thinking about Karl several times. I go with what the Spirit was telling me during that talk and what someone said in a later conference talk--"no righteous person has to be worry about getting taken before his time"--and say that we will all be reunited with Grandpa Karl one day and that we need not worry about the vicissitudes of mortal life and just carry on as the Prophet emphasized in his talk! Mom- thanks for always being such a strong example to me. The whole conference was great! You get what you put into it and it seems to "theme" around what you got out of it and for me it was about rescuing, love, and compassion. I felt like everyone was so bold (Bednar, Uchtdorf, Oaks, Anderson) and loving (Eyring, the Prophet, Scott, and most others). I feel like the Prophet, the church and the Lord are REALLY focusing on rescuing. In everything! This was an answer to my prayers as I have been working hard on developing unconditional love for "non-actives" and church members in general. Learning not to judge plays a huge role in that. And of course, Charity. Because without it we are nothing. That was one of the questions in my head all weekend and it was answered numerous times. I think President Uchtdorf's first talk was my favorite. That one or Elder Scott's. Do you remember the Prophet talking about the most inspiring conference he'd ever been to? I think that was owed to Elder Scott. It was phenomenal. Repentance and the Atonement. Simple stuff. And the powerful hymn right after that. President Uchtdorf was the bomb though. If one doesn't follow the doctrine perfectly and you condemn them for it then you might as well call us all hypocrites! Or something like that. We come to church to be nourished, not for anything social! And President Eyring is always fantastic. I don't know about you but over the years he seems to always be about Spiritual Refinement and Enduring; (Mountains to Climb, Where is the Pavilion? and this conference.) I especially loved Elder Bednar's too. I think I tend to love boldness. When he invited us to repent I was loving that! I just knew he would drop something like that at the end haha. Elder Anderson called a lot of rioters to repentance too. Women don't have the Priesthood because God said so! I am tired of trying to promise blessings and tell people why they need to keep the commandments when they should just understand that 'Because God said so.' nothing more! I think I am turning into Elder Cut and Dry, that's why love needs to play a bigger role. Conference was so great though. It was at the stake center--8 miles from our house (we are SO isolated in our zone. I think out of 28 missionaries we bring the median center of population in the zone to the right like 4 miles.) So we had to bumb rides. But we had a great ward lunch on Sunday there and after priesthood we had lots and lots of CARNE! It was a blast. Lots of Mexican food. Mexicans love making food a part of everything. It is great. Conference was very inspiring.

 

I have some major ingrown toenails! Stay-tuned- I am getting them pulled out today so I am excited for that! Other than that-no health concerns. PS- Hermano Jenkins said the oil has helped more than anything else has! They were so happy and excited. So was I! Thank you so much. Hermana Jenkins wants to meet you know and say thanks and wants advice on how to raise children or something like that. I told her that you will be able to get great advice. Also- I got both packages! They are great thank you. The Halloween one was a blast. I ate and shared the pumpkins during conference so that was great. The Reese's are like half-gone too. I love the baseball tape that you are always rocking. Very classy. I think you would be proud of my cooking/eating in the apartment! I made an Italian salad this week! I cut up some tomatoes, crushed ritz crackers and put italian dressing. It was very good. I am also eating oatmeal on my mission. crazy huh? I remember one Monday morning many years ago where I sat in front of my bowl for 45 minutes and finally tried to sneak out off the deck cause I hated it so much. So Elder Dodd gets SO TIRED at the end of the day. I do too, but he goes to sleep like at 9:45 after planning and he drops out cold. It is interesting haha. I have been doing some fun things the past couple weeks though- clean the baseboards in the apt, wipe the shower down, make brownies, write more in my journal, sing Spanish hymns, etc. Fun stuff right?

 

Second-to-last update on the Digital Devices (Ipads and Ipods)- The Mission leaders were told at a leadership meeting that two missions in the world already have them (in Virginia and CA) and that 50 are getting them by February. That includes us. President Taylor shared that since we were one of five testing missions in the world and that we got Facebook real quick we should be one of the first 50 to get them. It will be crazy. The iPhones are brand new versions and so many things are going to be so much easier now. We will be doing two hours of online work instead of one hour now too. Facebook is getting to be pretty normal now. It is our every day thing that we do. Kind of frustrating to help members try to share the Gospel but we are doing everything we can poco por poco.

 

Did you hear about the effective immediately announcement about Stake Conference adult sessions? Every single one of them from here on out will be devoted to the work of salvation. Man things are really getting prepped up aren't they!? \

 

The investigators are moving well. Very well. We had a very great lesson with Jose and Hermano Mata about prophets and conference. We invited him to bring questions to conference, He said he already had two- Book of Mormon and Baoptism. We were chill with that! He watched two sessions at home with his wife and came out to priesthood with the whole gang. It was fantastic. I basically watched Priesthood for two hours from his shoes. President Eyring especially caught my attention; when he bore testimony of Joseph Smith in the Sacrad grove. I think it worked out very well. He said he loved it. Clemente was pretty lazy this weekend. Dezirae kind of was too. But they are coming along. Jocelyn is still super STRONG! She scared us a little last week but rebounded yesterday. She ignores her friends and classmates about what they say. She reads the BOM and we taught her the word of wisdom, plan of salvation, and law of chastity yesterday. No problems. She is still good, her mom is becoming pretty active, their dad still makes meat for us once a week, and her sister, Jennifer, wants to get baptized sometime too. Rene is moving soon. I am REALLY going to miss that man. He doesn't speak English but he always calls us; "brothers!" Very sweet guy. Mafia Lou watched conference. All good stuff I am running out of time though. Glad to hear things are going well. I got some really good laughs and nostalgia out of the last email. The Priesthood thing sounds sooooo funny. Keep it up! Love you all.

 

Love, Elder Jacob Parry