General Conference

Hey Ya'll!

This weekend was so uplifting with conference! For those of you unfamiliar with General Conference, every 6 months we get to hear from the Lord's Prophet, Apostles, and other general authorities! It is amazing how personal each message is even though it's given to the entire world. I especially loved how President Uchtdorf open the Conference by sharing how by living the gospel our life will be better and God will use us to make the lives of others better. And then how Sister Oscarson followed that by reminding us that we need to lose ourselves in the service of others and that we shouldn't focus on what we can get out of church and other activities but instead ask ourselves, "Who needs me today?" I'm excited to get the written version of the talks soon and study them even more!

You know how we're told that people are constantly being prepared to hear the message of the restored gospel? Well, this week we found someone who has been preparing to receive it for the past five years and is now on date to be baptized next month! It was amazing how the Lord has had a hand in his preparation. John had cancer and almost died five years ago and since then has been trying to learn more about and get closer to God. He has been searching for a church but each one he went to just seemed like it was missing something. The day we found him we had knocked on all his neighbors doors but moved on without knocking on his. Then later that night we were walking back to our truck and had the feeling to go back and knock on his door. He answered and was so excited to meet with us again! He later told us that he had gotten home only shortly before that and so if we would have knocked on his door when we were there earlier we wouldn't have met him. I know that the Lord was guiding us that day and made sure that we were sent to him when he needed us. As Elder Rasband said in Conference, "Everyting is by divine design". There is no such thing as coincidence. John loved Joseph Smith's testimony and has been reading the Book of Mormon since!

On Thursday we went and had lunch with Sister Schempp. She is awesome and has recently started to get into photography and the violin. She let Sister Condie play around on her violin and asked if she could take a few pictures of me to practice. I, of course, agreed and did a little mini photoshoot before we had to get back to work. We then arranged for us to come back today so that she could practice some more and we could get our pictures taken! Being a model is hard! I have a new respect for them! It was so much fun though and I'm excited to see how the pictures turn out. 

Before conference on Sunday we taught our other John who is preparing for baptism next month the Word of Wisdom. He has been chewing tobacco for over 40 years and I was amazed at how much faith he had that he was willing to try and give it up for the Lord. We promised him that as he did so and relied on the Savior that he could do it and he would see the blessings come into his life. I'm so excited for what lays in store for him as he continues to keep the commitments we leave him! 

I love this gospel so much and know how much it can change a person's life!

I love you all and hope everyone has a great week!

Sister de la Cruz