Easter

This conference was pretty amazing, as conference always is... especially as a missionary. I really liked the talk by Elder Eyring about coping with adversity, Elder Holland about forgiveness, and President Monsons about the plan of salvation. Elder Holland's talk probably impacted me the most throughout the conference as I felt he was really talking to me. Henry had the chance to come to Sunday morning session, after which we asked how he liked it, and his response went something like this. "He... is a man of God, and it's not just something I know by seeing him, but I can feel it, like his spirit is connecting with my spirit." So that was definitely a high point of the conference. Henry will be having his baptismal interview this Friday, and then we hope and pray that all will go well so he can be baptized on Sunday!

The real question is, after Henry... What comes next? Henry is definitely an example of the Elevator instead of the escalator principle, as all of our investigators are still down on the lower steps. The pool is getting pretty small, and we haven't found a lot of replacements. Looks like we'll be kicking it old school and knocking some doors. The other highlight of the week was when we got to go and visit a referral named Juan Vargas that we received from a member a month and a half ago. He's just the busiest guy in the world and so it took us forever to get an appointment with him, but he's actually pretty awesome. He's from Costa Rica, speaks really good english, and has taken part in many different churches. We taught him the restoration, and committed him to pray about the book of mormon. He's a really intelligent guy and I think he has great potential, especially because of the connection he has with some of the members in the english ward. He accepted a soft baptismal invite, and hopefully we'll be able to go see him again this week.

 Another highlight on the food spectrum was the Bison Burger I ate, Haha. After the first session of conference on Saturday, all the other missionaries wanted to go to Wendy's, but trying to avoid the unhealthiness that Wendy's may bring, the zone leaders and I walked over to this super nice "Whole Foods" grocery store, that is definitely expensive, but had a food court where you could get some lunch. We filled out our burger order forms, and all 3 of us chose to get the Bison Burger. Bison is actually a really healthy meat. Who knew? Buffalo Grill anyone? 

   

Tuesday was another pretty crazy day on the spectrum of food. I was on an exchange with one of our zone leaders Elder Pruitt. We went and taught hermano Cajas, who is actually doing pretty good,  but he's heading to Guatamala for 3 weeks. As we taught hermano Cajas, his son went to go and buy us some food. He was taking so long though, that Hermana Cajas decided to just make us some sandwiches so we could get out of there. During the appointment a member called telling us she had food for us to come pick up. We ate our sandwiches, left, walked toward the car, when we got stopped by the whistle of Hermano Cajas' son. He brought over a huge Pizza Box filled with pizza and breadsticks, and a big thing of soda. We headed to the member's house that wanted us to come pick up food, only to be given a big thing of pasta, and yet another box of pizza... It was pretty crazy. Luckily we had missionary friends close by that were happy to take some of the pizza off of our hands. 

   

So that was one of the funny experiences of the week. The district meeting we had on Tuesday was incredible, I really give our district leaders props. This month of April we are refocusing on consecration, and so the District meeting really focused on just that. They had everybody go up to the black board and write how many months they had left, and it's kinda crazy that I had fewer months than a lot of the missionaries there. I realized I needed to become even more consecrated, because as time winds down, sometimes I think too much into the future and what I'll be up to in the next few months. President sent out a mandate to write on a piece of paper a bunch of things we needed to do personally to be more consecrated, and then at zone conference on Wednesday we have to give him a copy that he'll review with us during interviews in May. I'm excited to get refocused, reconsecrated, and make the most of these last 5 months. 

    

This area has definitely been one of growth on my part. I still don't know what exactly to do at times to really help this area grow and be productive. The Lord really blessed us a lot to give us Henry to teach, and hopefully that can be our jump start to help Trenton become a strong area. I'm enjoying training, it's awesome, and Elder Jellen is a really good elder. I'm definitely learning a lot from him, and hopefully I'm being the kind of trainer he needs to become the missionary the Lord wants him to be. 

  

Easter is here, and now we focus our thoughts on our Savior Jesus Christ. He Suffered, He Died, and now... He Lives! I know that the church is true. I felt such an amazing Spirit during conference, and although I may not understand or comprehend everything, I know enough. The Gospel is True!

  

I love you all so much!