SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!! What a pleasure it is to be writing you this fine Monday morning. I hope you are all doing well! I´m doing great just in case you were wondering. So I´m gonna start off talking about General Conference, because I just can´t wait, man you don´t even know, every conference I have watched here in the mission, has made me love Conference more and more each time. It´s just so amazing how inspired the messages are. I would also love to hear some of your thoughts about conference, so if you would send me some of your conference highlights. I would appreciate it a lot. So I´m just gonna share a few of my favorite parts. In Bonnie Oscarson´s talk she talked a lot about service, something she said really hit me, it was something along the lines of, without service our lives are without purpose. She also said the reason we have a church is to form a community of saints. When I think of the word saint, I think of a holy person who is dedicated to blessing the lives of others, and we are saints in these latter days, so we should be devoted to doing exactly that, blessing the lives of others. She also mentioned something like this, that God obviously wants to help, and serve us, but sadly, because of His plan, he can´t come down and help someone every time someone is in need. So we need to do him a favor and do it for him. This reminds me of a few scriptures that I would like to share.
Mosiah 2:17
17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.
Matthew 25:35-40
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
So you all gotta serve. I also loved Elder Holland´s talk, he talked about our potential to be perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect, but he explained something very important to us. He related it to a primary song, "I´m trying to be like Jesus" the key word there folks is TRYING, we are not perfect, and in this life we will never be perfect, we will always make mistakes, but we need not to feel bad, or discouraged about that, as long as we are trying we are chillin.
I also noticed that the Book of Mormon was talked about a lot this conference, and I´m not going to share a specific talk about it but I encourage all who have yet to receive a testimony of the church, or who are struggling with their testimony, to read the Book of Mormon, ponder and pray about the book, and I testify unto everyone of you, that you will know as I know that the book is true, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church upon the earth. I invite all of you to accept the Prophet´s invitation to read the Book of Mormon every day. It will change your life, as it has changed mine.
Now I´m gonna share very quickly a few things that went down this week, because I´m out of time. First, we had a gun fight right outside our apartment; Second, we helped one of our investigators hit on a girl on the bus, he got rejected; Third, we found a guy in the street, and we started talking, and he said the words I feel like there needs to be a restoration of the gospel, because it just isn´t the same anymore. We pulled out the pamphlet that said the Restoration. His mind was blown. Well I´m out of time, I love you all! BYE!!!!!!!!!
Elder Keaton Jorgensen
Argentina Mendoza Mission