Conferencetasticness

Elder Hatch and I with a big ol cruise ship

Ad at a bus stop - "thousands of clotheslines with underwear that drips like a fiend"

Hey everybody!

Thanks a ton for the emails and adjusting to the Monday P-day. It hasn't really been a huge adjustment, but this last week has been kinda crazy. We had zone conference on Tuesday and then General Conference this weekend.

General conference was SO GOOD. Holy cow. We watched the Saturday morning session live at 5 PM here, and that one was so good I didn't see how it could get any better. Elder Bednar said some of the same things he told us -- about consistency and integrity. He even told us about that painting in his office. I absolutely loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk about charity, since the last few zone conferences have left my head spinning. The thing I liked the most that he said was that "love is the measure of our faith". Later on, with Elder Oak's talk basically about how God doesn't look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, it was good to remember what Elder Uchtdorf said, that of all the shoulds and should nots, if we focus on love, everything else will fall into place. Sometimes it's unclear to me whether it matters more to do something with a bad attitude or to maintain a good attitude and be OK with wherever that leads you. If I had heard the same things last year, I think I would be completely baffled and confused, but now I have just a little bit more experience with this whole "life" thing that I can see my way through the ideology down to the reality of what they were talking about. I'm still sorting through it in my head.

This conference came at a good time for me. There's been a big conflict in my brain between doing what I think is right and doing what others tell me to be right. There's also another big conflict in my brain between doing "my best" and "not running faster than I have strength". Over the last year, it's woken me up a lot inside to think for myself, and it seems like most of this kind of discussion is a semantic waste of time between oversensitive consciences. There's a lot more to be done than there is to be said, but how we feel about what we do can weigh just as heavily on our minds as the results of our actions.

I really liked Elder Christofferson's talk, as well. Merely wanting to do something isn't entirely sound rationale to do it. But still, that depends on how you define "want": I think he was talking about something like, "merely [being capable of enjoying] something isn't entirely sound rationale to do it. Having a partial understanding of our own desires confuses us.

A lot of the doctrinal debate and discussion we have needs better-defined terms. We throw around a lot of simple words that have a completely different meanings to different people.

In comparison to my experiences with previous conferences, this one was really good, and it's informing me sufficiently to help me make decisions. Before, it was like high school -- just sucking in the information to turn it back on the teacher at the test to show I knew what was going on. But, like President Monson said, learning is not just to "pour information into our minds". It's not enough to have awareness of Gospel principles. Awareness is only half of it. It's pretty easy to be like that one octopus in the Nature "Sea of Cortez" documentary I absolutely LOVED, "He's bitten off more than he can chew." It doesn't matter how much of the Gospel you can stuff into your face if you can't chew it.

And HOW ABOUT THAT ELDER HOLLAND??? I absolutely LOVED that talk.

Could somebody send me the talks in English on an MP3 cd (they should all fit on one CD) Making the CD as an MP3 CD is different than making a regular CD -- You can fit the whole conference on one CD instead of seven. Thanks a ton.

I hope everything goes well with everybody and that Dad has fun making COMPUTER TAQUITOS! Hahahaha

Oh yeah, "whitewashing" is when both companions are new to the area.


OUT OF TIME

LOVE YOU
CHURCH IS TRUE

ELDER LOBO