No mom, I have received no such banner from the Youth. We went on splits again Tuesday and Wednesday, this time Elder J came here to S with Elder R and I went to G with Elder V. Elder V is Elder J`s child, but he has one transfer more than Elder R. He's from Kaysville, but both his parents are Columbian. It was a fun two days. We had some really powerful lessons together and I learned a lot from him. Elder R's been doing a lot better (homesickness) and it helped him a lot having to plan everything by himself those two days.
Saturday we had a missionary activity with the youth. We met up with them in the church at 8:00 and had them go through the regular missionary routine. They studied for an hour and then we did some practices: how to contact, how to introduce someone to the Book of Mormon, etc. Then we all went into the streets to preach. We had 3 boys and three girls show up, so we put them in pairs to go contact everybody we passed by. We have a lot of people to visit this week thanks to that. We tried to have a few lessons, but nobody was home, so we just ended up contacting the whole time. They got tired really fast because of all the walking but they all had fun.
Right after the activity, we had to get on a bus to G for the priesthood session of district conference. This district conference made a very busy week for us, since we are the Branch president's counselors. We had to rent a bus to take the members to the conference Sunday morning, so we spent a lot of time this week visiting every active member to ask them if they were going, then going back to the ones that said yes and collecting their money. And then we find out Saturday right before we left that President A still hadn't contracted a bus and was still looking, so we had to quickly look at all the options and the budget and decide. It's been kind of nuts being a counselor in the branch presidency and a missionary at the same time. I feel like I now know what it's like to work two jobs and raise a child at the same time.
District conference was great. President W spoke in both the priesthood session and the adult session Saturday night, and it was super great. The adult session the talks were on the 7 celestial habits of active church members: Family and personal scripture study every day, family and personal prayer every day, family night every week, regular temple attendance, and assisting in missionary work. It was perfect because in branch council the week before we had decided to go around teaching all the active and inactive members these 7 things. Revelation? Yep.
Saturday night we slept over with all the other Elders from our zone in the house in G. We prayed really hard that all the members who had signed up to go would go and that the ones that still hadn't payed would pay so that we didn't end up with a huge debt, and they did! Even J came and tied his own tie. I was so proud. Also, a taxi driver that Elder R and I had contacted in G a few weeks ago and invited to the church over there randomly showed up asking for us. He sat by me the whole time and already wants to be a missionary! He's an older guy, so I think that's probably possible. He really enjoyed the conference and the Elders where he lives are going to start visiting him. Also, one of the investigators I had found, taught, and invited to church with Elder V in G also came, so it was nice to see that my efforts are helping somebody come closer to Christ, even if they aren't in my own area. The Sunday session was a broadcast to 50 different stakes/districts in central Mexico. President Uchtdorf and Elder Ballard both spoke and it was perfect. Elder Ballard talked about faith, repentance, baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. President Uchtdorf talked about temple attendance, scripture study, and prayer, to go right along with the theme from the night before. It was really great. About 25 of our members came, all the faithful ones and we rode the bus home with them. They're so great! Mom, I do feel exactly the way that scripture says that you sent me--burdens made light. I LOVE IT! It's been really hard but I feel great. This could be the start of my last transfer here, so I'm going to enjoy it. Also, going along with what you told me that Bro. Stewart said about how trials help us receive revelation, it´s true. I've received a ton this week and learned a lot of cool new things to help me and the people I teach.
As far as investigators go, we don't really have a whole lot going on. We find cool people sometimes, but then we can never find them again, or we go back for the second visit and they don't want to listen anymore. But we'll find someone awesome this week, I'm sure. That's all for this week! I love you all! Thanks for everything!
Elder Pew
PS - there's a member here who saw licorice in some movie and wants to try it, so next time you send me a package, it would be nice if you could include a package of Redvines or something. Thanks!
Also, I keep trying to send pictures, but the computers are really awful in every cyber cafe we go to. Sorry.
