Week 41

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Wooo!  General Conference!  Those 6 months flew by. Sadly, for the first day, we were only able to listen to it in English, the video didn't work.  We even missed the talk by Elder Holland! Elder Holland of all people!  We also missed the talk by Elder Ochoa who is totally from Guatemala and is the area president.  Yep.  I've heard him speak on multiple occasions.  Anyway, the next day was better. We got the video feed working and we even got to watch the first session with President Brough, just to amp up the spiritual power in the room.

I felt like all the talks were incredible.  They made it really clear what families have to do to avoid the growing evil in the world: have daily scripture study, family prayer, family home evening.  I specifically loved the talk by Elder Utchdorf of gratitude, the talk by Elder Oaks on the Priesthood and Elder Bednar's talk, as well as many others.  Wow, what a great 5 sessions.  Now I'm rather distraught that once again we have to wait another 6 months.  Why can't these things be more often?  In all, I'm very grateful that we have living prophets and apostles to guide us in these days. That's such a great blessing.

Something weird is happening with my accent in Spanish. I've now had multiple people tell me I sound like a Brazilian. Not sure how that happened, but I'll take it I guess. Still got a ways to go though...

We had a rather frightening adventure this week.  We got a suspicious call from an unknown number who told us that her sister was in the hospital in our area (the caller was from the United States and who knows how she got our number) and that she wanted us to go and give her a priesthood blessing.  We took a member with us and, sure enough, the person really did exist.  After talking with the receptionist, we were allowed to enter.

It was unlike anything I'd seen before.  There were flickering lights dangling from the ceiling, flaking paint, and large rooms full of dirty beds with no dividers between patients.  We went to the gynecology section of the hospital (which made it even scarier) and found the woman.  When we began talking to her, I was incredibly glad we came.  She was pregnant and her baby died.  She was far from home and didn't have anyone to visit her.  I was grateful for the service we were able to perform by comforting her and giving her a blessing.  I was grateful to be used as an instrument to bless someone else.