Well for those of you who are wondering, general conference was AWESOME!! Doesn't even matter that it was in a different language, there is so much that we can learn from the living Prophet and the apostles. My two favorite talks were given by President Uchdorf (his first one) and Elder Oaks, they were amazing! Also I learned that they really do speak the words of God to specific people. We have a less active member in our ward and she is suffering from depression, it is very severe, but after our scheduled meeting with a different less active across the road fell we thought, 'well we might as well go to her' (because we had a member with us) and so Friday night, right before the conference we met with her and invited her to the session of conference where Elder Holland directed his words directly towards her, unfortunately she did not take the initiative to come even after she had committed. Story number two, we have an investigator Nestor and he recently learned that while he is breaking the law of chastity he cannot enter into the waters of baptism, and this upset his greatly. This Saturday three of his children will be baptised and he said that while he can't get baptized he will do all he can to help his children to do it because he knows that it is something that will bless their lives and help them to be better people. He practically told us that he knew the church was true, but because he can't get married to his girlfriend for another year and a half because of the law he can't get baptized. He was angry and asked why the church can't change its stance because the world has changed so much since the commandment was first declared. He was offended and during the last session of conference he brought his children and told them to go inside, but that he would not be entering the church again until he could be baptized. We stood there as missionaries and representatives of the Lord and we promised him that if he came into the conference with us that his doubts and questions would be answered. For those of you who remember the last session of conference there was not one, but two talks that spoke as to 1.The importance of the Law of Chastity and 2. Why we must be clean before we enter into covenants with the Lord. Unfortunately yet again he did not take the initiative to go in and to hear two servants of God answer his questions.
Why do I tell you this? Well for two reasons 1. God fulfills his promises to us as missionaries and to us as children of God in general and 2. To advise and plead with all of you not to wait outside, but to take the initiative and to go in and listen. If we wait outside and then complain about not recieving an answer we will just be miserable, we need to do our part and God will always do his.
Also earlier in the week we did a mini companionship exchange and I stayed in my sector and worked with Elder Garcia for the day (you might know him because he is on the front of the October 2013 Liahona) and for the morning plans my companion told me to take Elder Garcia to the only uncharted area of my sector with the instructions to "explore" and "find some good investigators" It was AWESOME!!! We went down the central road for about half an hour and came to the little populated area, the first house we knocked on, yea sure come on in, after a lesson we went to the second house, yea sure come on in. We tracked probably five or six houses and by the time we were done two and a half hours had passed. We are going back there.
I love you all and my invitation for all of you this week is to do all you can to take the initiative and to go in. If you haven't heard the conference talks go to lds.org and listen to them or read them, they will give you guidance and help you feel the sweet calming sensation that God, our Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of us. I love you all and will continue to pray for your success and happiness.
Elder Hutchins
Fun Fact about Chile
Here in Chile door bells and knocking on doors is really rare instead people yell 'ALOOO'
. Its weird.
. Its weird.
