Hey Mouritsens!
Conference was unbelieveable. Saturday we watched it at Brother Baird's house with Elder Otto and Elder Buttars. I have never looked forward to listening intently and taking notes as much as I did this time. The Priesthood session was great, but yes I had the same feelings that I missed sitting next to you. I wondered what you would be thinking when Elder Nelson asked all the missionaries from around the world to stand up. I hope that you, mom, and the girls would stand up at that comment as well, because of the missionaries you have been in my life, in helping me hold to the rod. For some reason I loved the talk by Elder Patrick Kearon which was about following the commandments with EXACT obedience, with no actions of rebelliousness or laziness. He told the story of wearing flip flops instead of shoes while out camping in the desert. Because of this decision, he was stung by a scorpion. "Disregarding what we know to be right whether through laziness or rebelliousness always brings undesireable and spiritually damaging consequenses." I don't know if it was his English accent or what but I just loved that talk. I also loved Elder Holland's all about gratitude. It seemed so different compared to his normal blunt, penetrating and powerful words. Maybe he was told to tone it down... I don't know. haha
It also seemed like some major topics from conference were agency, the Holy Ghost, and the living prophet. On Saturday, two Elders gave the same 14 points about the prophet. Being missionaries, and being out in the middle of a lot of the world's problems, we tried to guess what the major topics would be because of the things we've seen. Our guesses were: Chastity, Family, and the economy. Those are some of the obvious ones we've seen. But as we listened to conference, we realized just how much more this world needs. There are SO many people that we talk to who believe there is absolutely no need for organized religion. I can't remember who it was cause I don't have my notes with me right now but there was one talk all about the necessity of organized religion. It also seemed like there were a lot of talks which were trying to give people hope to exercise their agency and repent of their sins through the atonement of our Savior. From talking to so many different people, that is a serious issue it seems with most because of all the heartache and guilt they hold on their shoulders. If they only knew the reality of the atonement and the power that it entails.
This week we taught Chris Jordan. He's got an issue with smoking so we proposed a way that we heard previously to dip one of his cigarettes in milk, let it dry, and then have him smoke it. A guy in the ward said that he did it on his mission and it made the smoker extremely sick but he never smoked again. Well, Chris smoked it and it didn't work for him for some reason... Kinda anticlimatic but he set a goal to stop smoking by December. We'll have to come up with another way to get him to quit sooner :).
It's so crazy how much people open up and tell us their whole life's story. On Thursday I started talking to a lady in the line at Wendys and she ended up sitting by us and telling us about her ENTIRE life. We were there for like an hour and a half! That night we were on our way home and we found a lady who was sitting on the curb in a park. We stopped and started talking to her. Her name was Michelle and she told us that she was there because it's where God had sent her. She spends most of her day praying and allowing God to lead her steps. She told us her life story as well. We sat there for an hour and a half just listening to her as she cried and told us that she still can't find the perfect man for her. It was crazy. I don't know what it is about us, maybe the black name tag has super powers or something that makes people open up.
Well we just got transfer news. Cichy is headin' outta here and I'm staying around. Sad, yet it has to happen sometime so it'll be cool to see who the new companion is. Maybe I'll send a quick letter or something letting you know what happens.
Sorry this is such a short and lame email. We have a lot to do today because Elder Otto and Elder Wesche are going home. Wesche is from Farmington so if you want to go to a homecoming from somebody who served in the Arizona Phoeniz Mission it's this Sunday at one o'clock. The address is 1395 S. 200 E.
I love you guys so much. Thanks for all you do!
Love,
Elder Mouritsen
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment