General Conference Applied

Left: Rob with Ralph. As we watched General Conference this weekend, we wondered about Rob's experience: was he loving the messages more than ever, or dozing through them? We got our answer in his emails today. Here are his thoughts: "Conference was killer! It's funny, Elder Sanbakken and I were talking about how like at home you look at the clock and you're like 'UGHHHHH! When is this gonna be over? He's been talking foereverrrr!' haha. But here it's like, O.O 'It's already been two hours!? Things just started getting good!' lol. It's quite the change. I really loved how someone (I don't remember who) talked about how we need to see everyone as children of God. Like, how He's EVERYONE'S Father, so we should look at these people as such. We went and did some contacting afterwards, and met this guy who had gone to the states to take a class on Bible knowledge, or something like that. The guy knew his stuff and normally I would just turn the bashing switch on, just start going to town like, 'O, ya? Well I bet you didn't know THIS!' haha. I know I'm awful, but sometimes people need to be put in their place. But instead I just looked at him as a child of God, like I was told to do, and everything came out like clockwork. The Spirit was there and we were able to teach him and instead of being stand-offish, he was actually like, 'Well, that's a really good point. I didn't think of it like that.' Things just kinda worked out, so we're gonna see him again. I'm pretty excited for it. But the absolute highlight of the week was Jillean came to Saturday session, and during the afternoon session she was like, 'I have to go soon, cuz I wanna meet up with some friends,' and I told her to 'just stay for Jeffrey R. Holland, he always kills it,' so she did, and O MY GOODNESS! So inspired! If you don't remember it, Elder Holland spoke on the immense respect he has for a mother's love and care, and it touched Jillian and she loved it. So cool. But ya, that was my spiritual moment of the week. The theme I got from Conference was to obey, obey, obey. I like how someone put, 'It's easy to be skeptical, the hard thing is to be obedient when we don't know why we need to be." I like that cuz especially in the mission field it's like, 'that rule is 100% lame, I don't know why I'm following this.' But everything is for a purpose, you know? I also love when it talked about praying for what you need and you'll receive an answer. And to avoid all the 'loud' chatter in your head and listen to the still small voice. Sometimes I have a hard time discerning between my worldly desires and what the Holy Ghost is trying to tell me. I've been thinking a lot about the scripture in Galatians that talks about the fruits of the Spirit, and have been using it with my investigators in the first lesson when I ask them to pray. Pretty good stuff. Speaking of that, I am having like a downpour of people ready to be baptized. Lol. It came out of nowhere, but everybody is all of a sudden like on board. I don't know what happened, but it's pretty cool. I had kind of a personal revelation when I prayed that night after Saturday session, about getting answers, that told me to get back into the habit of getting in shape. So I guess that's what I'm gonna do. Right after I make myself some chicken-in-dumplings. bahaha. I finally found some of those croissants. Jillian found 'em for me, and she says she's even gonna make us Thanksgiving dinner :0. So stoked! Haha. O ya! How's Baxter!? Poor Baxter, what a good boy. Speaking of Baxter, I found like a HUGE dog. Lol. So obviously we had to challenge each other to pet it. And I won, of course, which almost cost me a finger. bahaha. I was like, 'Hey, what's your dog's name?' The dog's owner was like, 'his name is Ralph.' I continued to ask her if he was friendly, and she was like, 'I think he's bipolar, cuz his mood is always changing.' So I got a few pics with him, then as I was walking away, he jumped at my face and tried to take a bit out of me. Good thing the rope was just long enough around his neck to miss my nose. ahaha. O Ralph, what a crazy pooch. Hope all is well out there in beautiful San Diego. Thanks for the support. Sometimes it's the only thing keeping me going, so thanks. I really do appreciate it! One love Jah bless.