Zone Conference, Icebergs, and Birthday Cards!!!

Hello everyone!!

This week has been so busy!  We had our zone conference on Thursday, which was amazing.  President and Sister Revillo are so inspired, and I learned so much from them.  A big part of the conference was about what we need to do as missionaries to achieve our goal of baptizing converts and establishing the church, and it was so powerful!  Usually at zone conferences, when it's lunch or short breaks, it's a great time to take pictures with all your missionary buddies.  But because of everything we needed to get done to help with the mission business, we were running around so much that I was only able to get one picture of us.  And it was while we were waiting for a last minute thing to print so we could distribute it to everyone haha.  We're very involved with helping organize and format and print and distribute all the papers and stuff that the missionaries get, so it's kept us running.  It's busy and sometimes stressful but it's fun :)  I've figured out the secret is just to keep joking with your companion and keep things fun :)

And I got everyone's birthday cards!!  Lol 2 months later...oh well, I was excited to get a big stack of cards in the mail, so thank you all!!  There are replies on their way to you :)

We had the neatest lesson this week with one of our part member families.  Justin is 11 years old and hasn't been baptized yet, even though his mom, Rose, has been a member for a long time.  Justin is super amazing and I love teaching him (he's so smart and even though he's young he's super spiritual), but Rose is completely inactive in the church and we weren't sure what her concern was.  When we taught them last week, we had originally planned on teaching about the Plan of Salvation, but after a couple of questions and a couple of things she told us we realized that that wasn't what she needed.  So what basically ended up was that we had no plan for what she needed and we weren't sure what to say.  But I can really testify of the power of the Spirit in guiding you in what to say.  There's an example in Preach My Gospel that likens concerns to an iceberg; you can only see a part of it but you don't know the whole thing.  But that lesson was so spiritual, and I felt like everything we were saying was being guided.  Our question, our teaching, our scripture references--it was amazing.  We were so united and it was so powerful, and when we left the appointment Sister Consulta said that we didn't just see the whole iceberg; we smashed it with a hammer and got right to the core haha.  I love being able to feel that guidance and know that what I'm doing is not just my efforts, but that Heavenly Father is really helping me.

You were born with the ability to change someone's life.  Don't ever waste it.

Alma 19:36  And thus the work of the Lord did commence among the Lamanites; thus the Lord did begin topour out his Spirit upon them; and we see that his arm is extended to all people who will repent and believeon his name.

I love you all!!  Have a great week!!

XOXO

Sister Pectol