#letter23

             General Conference in the High Councilman’s Room

Hello My Sweeties,

Conference came and it was great. It literally was like the super bowl in missionary life. We had all our snacks out in the high councilman's room, all watching it in English, then running to the chapel to see the talks in Spanish. It was amazing. My brain felt shot after so much technology in one day. I learned a lot about the changes I need to make in my life. How are you all going to apply conference to your lives?

I learned that I need to deepen my love for God by praying with appreciation for the Atonement. I think I got into the thought train that because I am serving a mission that my own works were helping me become more like the Savior. Yes, my works have helped, but in a different way. They have shown Him faith, which allows Him to change me. I forgot that simple truth, that it is His Atonement that allows us to come to the Father, family and friends. There is always room to improve. I am grateful that I had that humbling experience. Now I am going to try to get a deeper feeling for the atonement in my life. I am beginning to understand how much the Lord desires us to make good decisions, just like I desire my investigators to. I really want to study all the conference talks in depth before the next conference. This week we began to show the Gracias que el vive video. We saw it 5 times on Thursday, and the last time was a really spiritual experience for me. We knocked on a door, in the poorer part of Temuco. An old woman looked at us with the most annoyed look on her face from the window, but she turned out to let us in, a surprise to say the least. We sat with her and her husband clearly had Alzheimers and I thought of our days and stress when Grandpa lived with us. But it is amazing how trials help us to have empathy for others. Because I could say to her with real interest that I was sorry for her burden and that I could live my covenant from baptism to bear one another's burdens because of this experience. We sang for her and she began to cry. We sat with her and listened for a long time. Then we played the video for her and Hermana Treanor read each part out loud for her. I have not felt the spirit so strong in a long time. It testified to me that he really does live. I had to hold back tears because it was so powerful in this little house in Temuco. She didn't accept a baptismal date, but I felt so great to comfort her with the message of the Savior's resurrection.  I am learning a lot as we stopped visiting Mario and it was very hard for me. But we passed by again yesterday. I am learning how much love the Savior has for us. There is so much to learn. I hope that all your Easters were lovely. We had Easter baskets we made, my companion is so sweet. It's a great time to think of the Savior. I love you all and hope that you don't ever see dead dogs in the road like we do, because the Chileans really like to pick them up to see if they're alive and it is really strange lol.

I love you,

Dear Tori, 

My best friend Bernadette is completely in love with you. She's been to two of your shows already, and has met you twice already. You are her inspiration, her role model, and her best friend and you don't even know her. Your music is the only thing that can get her through a bad day, or a rough fight with her family, or a hard game. Listening to your music helps her sleep at night. You are the reason she learned to play the guitar. The first song she learned was Dear No One. I'm not trying to make her sound creepy, or make it seem like she has a "big lesbian crush on you." All I really want is that you will see this, and hopefully do me a favor. On October 9th she's turning 18. On October 19th she's having her traditional Sweet 18, or Debut as her and her family calls it. It would mean the world to her if her hero could send her a tweet, or a shout out saying happy birthday. I could not even imagine the happiness that would radiate off her if you could do this simple act. If you could contact me that would be beautiful! 

Absent kaninaaaaa!!!! KONYAT BUKAS! Hahahaha! Tumakas pa ko sa Socio namin para umakyat sa gym kanina. I thought you're there. Green team ka, diba? May laban kayo kanina eh. I looked around, but you're not there. Hindi ka ba player? PLAYER ka eh. If you know what I mean. Whahahaha! >:p Di ko nakita anino mo. Nageenjoy ka nanaman umabsent! Baluga! =))))) Required ba umabsent mga varsity pag tinamad sila? COOL. *sarcastic* -__-