Conference Love

This past week was great! Alexandra is doing awesome! He put himself on date and is keeping every commitment that we give him! He loves the Book of Mormon and says as he reads he is "hungry", he continues to want to know and learn more and more. He even told us last time that his family was asking about everything so we are going to stop by and talk to them as well this week!

I LOVED conference this past weekend. What a great opportunity we had to learn and be taught from on high through God's chosen Prophet and Apostles. Some of the talks that I especially liked were from Elder Holland and Elder Bednar.

Elder Holland talked about how as members of the church at times we face situations where we need to be courageous and courteous. There will be times when we need to take a stand and times when we need to take persecution. Taking the persecution and being courteous about it is always more of a struggle... Our first instinct is to revolt or talk back. As we are continually filled with Christ's love we will be able to though... We will see people as He does and love them unconditionally.

Elder Bednar talked about how we need a load to push us forward and give us traction. We learn that trials are needed for our progression. In D&C 98:12 it talks about how trials are given to the faithful! When we are ready to become more like God we are going to face trials... They give us the experience we need as long as we handle them by turning to Him who will strengthen us. In D&C 136:31 it says we need to be tried and chastened to receive the Glory of God. It is a must.

Something that kept coming to my mind throughout the conference and what we talked about in district meeting this past week was how as members we need to be in the world but not of the world. With our Membership in the church and being set apart as missionaries it is like being put on top of a hill as it was with Lehonti in Alma 47. Amalackiah (or satan) tried to get them to come down but when saw that it wouldn't work he moved up. Satan won't tempt us with things that are easy to overcome. For example on Mission it's easy to keep the commandments but what he can try and get us with is to maybe listen to inappropriate music or to waste time which forces us to come down from the mount and to lose the some of the power we have. We need to be Obedient with Exactness and lay down our weapons of rebellion. As we do so it will be done according to our faith.

I love you all!

Elder Farnes