Apr 10: Just laugh

Life sure has slowed down since entering the office… ok so I am starting to feel bad about my april fool's joke. Fortunately, I am not spending my remaining month in the office, thought mom, you sure did a good job at making the office not look so bad. I am impressed. I thought about saying office elder, but that seemed too unbelievable for that last few months. I am grateful to state I am still in the field. I repeat I am still in Sampaloc with Elder Acob.

We had zone leader's conference and then zone conference this last week. They are always so edifying. I am especially excited about conference this week. How I love to learned from our inspired leaders. That takes a lot of work. I am studying the scriptures topically now, but earlier today read about Captain Moroni. He sure was a decisive, hard working, noble leader who really made a difference. That is all I want, to make a difference, return more talents than I was given, magnify whatever the Lord gives me. The mission is quite the refiner for those who are humble and hard working. Ben, I am more excited for you than you can imagine because I know what trials are ahead and what learning opportunities. Just remember that the Lord expects everything of you. If you go into it thinking you can still do the things you want, you will find the mission much hard, because the Lord will replace blessings with chastisement. I have had some of that on my mission, but nothing big. I am so happy you went through the temple. The blessings we are promised there are enormous. My last thought would be shyness is an inner prison that will keep you from doing things you want to do and should do. We must learn to get outside of ourselves, serve others and love them, then are we truly free. Self-mastery is freedom!

Shayne, the sister of Che, is already a convert. She loves reading the Book of Mormon and her testimony has really been strengthened by normal members joining the lessons are just sharing their testimonies. She has now accepted a baptismal date. Precious, a non-member who has been coming to church for months now because her boyfriend is a member, was sure pressured last Sunday. In coordination we were discussing upcoming baptisms and since we just started teaching Precious again, we put her down as a prospect. Well, she always attends so since she was their, they started asking her about her concerns. Then one member told the story of his friend's conversion. Bro. Rolley, a councilor in the Bishopric, told a story from his mission. It lasted a while, but since then, Precious has been busy and is not coming to her the lessons although she is at the church everyday and all her friends are members. Her main concern is her family. She could be baptism tomorrow if she wants because of church attendance and living the Word of Wisdom. She just has not yet the faith to act.

The Hidalgo family is another funny story. I told you how we got them to church. Well, Sister Hidalgo came again, while the family hopeful attended church in their province. But she still attends mass. The latest news is she is scared to develop her seeing/prophesying ability. She is so smart, studies the scriptures like no one else I have seen, but just does not seem to connect with everything we teach. We are now working on some other families. This is such a good area. I love it here.

I hope you just laugh at my April fool's joke. It was pretty lame. It still has hard to imagine Tyler has a daddy and big-daddy-o as a grandpa, but I am so proud of you Tyler and Katie. Families have never meant more to me. I sure love you all.