The Love of God, unlike any other feeling

Wow another week down! This week FLEW by! We had Zone conference on Tuesday and to say it was amazing is an understatement. That was probably the best Zone conference I’ve ever had. The spirit was so strong and everything just hit me so hard. I don’t know exactly why, but it was everything I needed. The whole conference was based around the Book of Mormon and I loved it. Everything kind of built up when we split into our separate zones and had a training. The zone leaders asked me to share an experience I had with the book of mormon and somone I was teaching. I talked about my friend Alfred from Paris. Basically Alfred wouldn’t let us talk about Joseph Smith initially when we were teaching his wife but eventually his heart softened and he gained a testimony of the book of Mormon. Just everything we talked about in the training was so powerful. Then to top it off Elder Reed shared how we’ve shared scriptures from the BOM when we’re street contacting and how he has seen how it affects them. So that was super cool.

When we all got back together, President had a few closing remarks and that’s what really hit me. I can’t even remember exactly what he said but it was something about God’s love. We were reading in Alma 8 and Alma 10 and there was one verse we read that stuck out to me. It’s verse 5 and it says,

“Nevertheless, after all this, I never have known much of the ways of the Lord and his mysteries and marvelous power. I said I never had known much of these things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his mervelous power; yea, even in the preservation of the lives of this people.”

It made me think about how Amulek in this example didn’t realize God’s hand in his life at first, but then recognized it later on how he had seen the power of the Lord and his tender mercies. This led Amulek to have an increasing desire to preach in Ammonihah with Ammon. I started thinking about my purpose as a missionary. Why I chose to serve a mission. I have a strong testimony of the joy that can come from the gospel and I have always wanted to share it. But at Zone conference I started to see truly why I am a missionary. The answer is simple. I am serving a mission because I love my Heavenly Father. I felt his love so strongly I can’t even explain it. I felt like God was right next to me holding me in his arms. All I want is to return that same love he gives me. I couldn’t hold it in I just started bawling. I tried to hide it and be quiet haha but I’m sure some people noticed. But my emotions were just too much to keep them inside. I felt so grateful for the multitude of blessings he has given me. After President closed his remarks he invited us to write down individually what the spirit had taught us. Somehow through my tears I managed to write, “I am a son of the living God.” And reading that just made me cry even harder. I now completely know why I am a missionary. Heavenly Father loves me with a love so perfect and so pure, and I want every single person I talk to, to feel that like I have. We ended the meeting singing hymn #81 “Press Forward Saints”. The end of the first verse says, “With love of God and love of all mankind, alleluia, alleluia” which just melted my heart even more than it already was. I couldn’t sing because the tears were just streaming down my face. So I just looked up and closed my eyes a little bit and listened to the words. It was one of the most powerful spiritual experiences I’ve ever had. Then we had lunch and it was so fun seeing everyone there. I got to see all my besties and it was definitely the cherry on top.

That night I did the baptismal interviews with Draper & Xavier who are 11 and 13 year old boys. It was a lot of fun and you could see the light in them. It was cool to see how excited they were to be baptized. Thursday was a grind but the end of the day was so fun. We went to Hat Creek and met up with one of my previous companions (formerly Elder DeSpain) but now Sawyer. Lol that’s so weird. but that was super fun to see him again and reminisce on the good old days in Paris. His parents were super cool too and it was fun to chat with them.

After dinner we finally had a lesson with MIke! It has been almost a month and a half without having a lesson with him. He is like the head technician at Firestone, but it’s the biggest firestone in the country. It’s got 12 bays! Anyways, we got to sit down and have a lesson and it went so well! Hermano Guzman joined us and we talked about General Conference a little bit. Mike said Saturdays are his busiest days but somehow he was able to listen to all 3 sessions of conference! It was cool not only that he watched them all, but that I recognized God’s hand and allowed him to listen to the leaders of the church. Mike is also now engaged to Hermana Vasquez!! So that’s super exciting for them. We were planning on talking about fasting and a little bit on the Word of Wisdom but when we got there I knew we had to change it. 3 Nephi 27 just popped in my head so we decided to read it together. I told him that I had been praying a lot about this and after reading about baptism, I asked him; “Queremos invitarle a ser bautizado el 22 de octubre”. I felt the spirit so strong as the words left my mouth. He had been pretty nervous about the baptismal service before and had some other worries, but when I asked him he was completely calm and quickly accepted the invitation. I am sooooo excited for Mike. He is so beyond ready for this and I’m excited for him to see the blessings that come from making and keeping covenants.

On friday we were doing some studies at Braums and the member that does our apartment inspections walked in and basically forced us to get banana splits. At braums a banana split is 3 large scoops of ice cream with chocolate, carmel, strawbery, topping, with whipped cream and of course a cherry. It’s easily over 1000 calories. We had dinner in 45 minutes too. I ate all of it, but didn’t feel too great. Especially since I’ve been trying to lose weight so I literally only had a banana for breakfast and then now eating all this ice cream I thought I was gonna explode. We then went to dinner again with the DeSpains at Hermana De la Cruz’s house. She made us gorditas upon ‘Sawyer’s’ request. They were sooo good but I was so dang full I could only eat 3. THEN we were gonna have a lesson with Marcia and she feeds us every single time we have a lesson. So I was terrified lol. Luckily she wasn’t home so that was lowkey a tender mercy.

On Saturday this lady decided to drive off the road to get around somebody and ended up getting stuck in the mud. So we parked and ran over to help her. I think 2 dudes in white shirts and ties were the last people she would expect to get her out of the mud lol but we got her out. Don’t worry mom I didn’t ruin any of my clothes.

Sunday was a suuuuuper busy day. First we had church which was fast and testimony meeting. Yesterday there was a funeral for Hermana Merino, and then Hermano Merino bore his testimony and it was a very tender moment. Then we had Rodrigo and Camila’s baptism! It was so fun and I’m super excited for them both. Rodrigo is 10 and his sister turned 8 last week so they got baptized and confirmed together. It was a blast and so cool to see how excited and happy they were to be baptized.

My spritual thought was tied into my Zone conference experience and I hope you were able to feel the spirit while reading it. This week went by pretty fast which is good but it’s also weird to think we’re half way through the transfer. I know I’ll probably get transfered so it’s kinda sad to think I’ll only be in Rowlett for 3 more weeks. But who knows, maybe I’ll stay. Apparently a ton of missionaries have gone 4 transfers here so maybe 🤷‍♂️ But I hope you all had a wonderful week! Don’t forget to ponder on your thoughts and feelings you had during General Conference last week and apply them into your daily life. Recognize what the spirit taught you and let that experience nourish your testimony as you act upon those feelings. I love you all so much and know that you’re always in my thoughts and prayers. Muchos besos! And remember, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good