“la conferencia general”

Wow what a crazy week full of miracles and goodness!!! We have been doing a lot of finding this week, from searching for souls to save, to general conference tickets for our investigators! It’s been so cool….

So finding people this week has given me ample opportunity to practice my shmoozing in Spanish… which is not as smooth as I am in English. One good experience was in this sketchy trailer park where we knocked on a catholic lady’s door and started talking to her. My trainer started off introducing and stuff and then just stopped talking. (which meant it’s go time for Hermana Carter) I then started talking about God and how He loves us so much to give us the plan of salvation. I then invited her to be baptized at the door and she said yes, If, she came to know these things were true! That’s the first time I’ve ever invited anyone to be baptized at the door and it was awesome. One bad experience would be when we went to contact this referral, when we knocked at the door this lady didn’t open the screen door to talk to us. She just peered at us with her beady eyes. I tried to introduce ourselves and soften her up by asking where she came from…. nothing let up. When I went into religion she said that she was catholic, and I asked her what God meant to her in her life. She replied “Jesucristo”…. then I got a little nervous and stumbled on my Spanish and then laughed. (pretty blatantly haha… woops) FINALLY my comp jumped in to save me! This lady was not prepared to hear the gospel haha. But at least we got a good laugh out of the experience!!

This week we have also been searching for tickets and people to go General Conference, so they can hear for themselves the divine power of a Prophet of God. We had some miracles pull through. We had the luck of recieving 7 tickets for the sunday afternoon session, where we got to take the Chavez Family and their fellowshippers!! Then it worked out that we traded two sunday morning tickets for 6 saturday afternoon tickets, where our investigator Vani could go with us. Friday night I prayed so hard that they would be able to receive their answers to their questions there at conference. It was such an amazing experience because we took our investigator to the saturday afternoon conference, the whole time i was sitting their getting more and more nervous about the talk topics. From mission work, to the moral influence of women, I knew that this was not what she needed to hear. Then, Elder Holland stood up and said he wanted to talk about diagnosed depression, Chills ran down my body. Vani was recently diagnosed with clinical depression, and for the past couple times we’ve gone over, she has been in a slump. I knew that she was at conference for a reason and even though Elder Holland was surely talking to millions of people in the world, I felt like he was only talking to her. It was so amazing. We’re meeting with the Chavez family tonight and I can’t wait find out what they thought about it.

I loved conference so much! It never seems to disappoint. What I was impressed most by, was an overarching theme of how to overcome the trials of this earthly life and to find TRUE happiness. I want to strive to daily align my will to the Lord’s a little more every day. I’m arround people who fight the Lords hand everyday, and they are not happy. I found that gratitude is what really makes the difference in this path to eternal happiness. From Elder Bednard to President Monson I was overwhelmed with the need to be grateful for every moment of every day. Even every trial. I want to be like Brother Brims, who is blind and deaf, when he says, “Thank you, Heavenly Father has been so good to me” everyday!

This week I was down with a cold!! It was no fun doing missionary work with a cold. However, I have learned some interesting Mexican remedies for illness. My companion Hermana McNelly, made me this soup or otherwise called sopita. She put noodles, chicken broth, and 1/2 OF A SERRANO PEPPER WITH THE SEEDS. It was so spicy I could barely breath but I loved it because I could taste it! There is also this tea called Canela, which is just water and cinnamon sticks boiled. It smells like christmas and worked pretty well!! Those Mexicanos are so smart.

Hope all is well, and remember to be happy!!