Monday, April 8, 2013 - "Lord, I Believe!"

Hola Mi Familia! Hope you all had a fantastic week as I did. Especially with General Conference and all! Today I officially complete 14 months in the mish! How crazy is that! I can now count the months that I have left on my fingers....10! That is super nuts! This week has been full of teaching my comp the area and trying to get back into the rhythm of things after the vacations. We continue to have a hard time trying to find people to teach, but we have been committing quite a few members to talk to friends and invite them to meet with us. And we have been receiving a few references which is always good! :) Friday, we had a zone meeting with the Zone Leaders to learn of the new things they were told in their monthly meeting with Pres. An exciting announcement was made....we are now able to email FRIENDS AND CONVERTS!!! That is an exciting announcement! It will be so much easier than having to try and deal with the crappy Mexican Mail System! Also I think that I will be able to go to the temple soon! It has been exactly one year since I have gone and since Pres. made the rule that we can't go, I thought I was out of hope till I got home. But....he is letting those who haven't gone in 1 year or more go! So that will be fantastic! Tuesday night we have a neat little Family Home Evening with a family in our ward (the sister who receives the packages) and the lady who just got baptized and her son and her sister who was baptized in December and her kids as well. The sister gave a nice lesson on the power of prayer and the importance in our lives. We were in charge of the games! Hehe! We played a tie race where you have to tie a tie and untie it and then pass it on. There were two ties going in the circle and the one who received both ties had to answer a question. It was fun. For refreshment we made pizzas! They were delish! There was a sweet little spirit there as we socialized with this sweet family. I so do hope they stay strong in the gospel! This week with the Family we have been teaching, we had 2 really nice lessons. First, we taught them "Follow The Prophet" in honor of Conference and invited them to come to Conference with us. We watched a talk from Pres. Monson from a few conferences ago and it applied to something that has been happening in their family and so that was a nice little testimony of prophets. We also taught the importance of Prayer and Studying the Scriptures. It was a really great lesson! We shared quite a few personal experiences of the power of prayer and studying the scriptures. I love telling investigators that to talk to God, we pray; if we want God to speak to us, we read the scriptures. How true that is and I have clearly seen it in my life! At the end, the less active brother spoke up and shared with us a few experiences he has had with prayer and his testimony. Later, the wife and daughter also told us of how they are experiencing conversion through prayer. I always love to hear investigators talk about their experiences with the power of prayer and how they have received their answers! It strengthens my testimony every single time! The Family was able to go with us to conference and it made me happy that they were able to see more of the church and all the messages. They are progressing quite well with their baptismal date and could really be baptized quicker, but they wanted the 4th of May so that is that. The sweet lady that got baptized was also able to attend conference this weekend-all 4 sessions- and I think her testimony was really strengthened. She seemed really happy to be there with everyone and hear the messages. I think she may be my strongest convert and it makes me overjoyed to see her enjoy the gospel and what she is learning. We taught her about temples this past week and she was able to see the temple when we went to Conference. I really hope she can stay strong to reach this wonderful goal of going to the temple. Apart from the Family there aren't any really significant to mention families in teaching. We do have more, but they aren't progressing as well. Hopefully this week we can find more. I always LOVE this time of year--GENERAL CONFERENCE! It is just the best and I have been waiting for quite a few weeks for this. I did what I do many times before conference-I generated questions or problems that I have in my life and I prayed that I would find answers in the talks from General Conference, and guess what.....I received my answers! It is just another testimony of revelation and that the Apostles and Prophet lead and guide us for what we need in our lives. I felt this conference was especially important for missionaries. If you put your shoes in those of a missionary, you will recognize that many talks and things that were said were great council on how to prepare for a mission and what missionaries can do to be better! It was great and really spoke to me the whole time. I especially liked Elder Holland's talks of "Lord, I Believe!". I always love how he takes stories from the New Testament and the life of Christ for his talks! I loved the story that he told of the Young Man that said that he didn't know for sure, but that he "believed". I really loved this talk. Although I too, don't know and understand much sometimes, I too can say "Lord, I Believe" and that I have the faith and confidence that if I search for my answers, I will find them and can turn my belief into knowing! Unfortunately, English wasn't available Saturday and so we had to watch all those sessions in Spanish. However, Sunday they set up English, but I didn't know about it the first session and so watched it in Spanish, but I did get to view the last session in English. It was actually kind of cool to watch it in Spanish and have the experience that I probs won't have again after the mish. But it was nice to see a little in English; it makes a difference in how the messages are presented and everything when there is not a translator. I saw Oliver in the Saturday Session singing! that was neat! Now, just one more conference in the mish..... Well, here's to another week! Last week until transfers next Monday...we will see what happens... I love and miss you all tons! Just one more month and I will be speaking to you all again on the phone for my second to last time. ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner