I loved conference!!

Hello all! I did get to see conference, and it was sweet! I loved it. It is so amazing how Heavenly Father loves us all so much and knows us all personally so that He can deliver the message that we need personally in our lives to each one of us through the same speaker. The Spirit is amazing! I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for His love and care for me. It is so comforting to know that He is there! He loves us all so much!

So for us we actually got to watch conference in English! It was awesome! We got to see every session except for Priesthood, so if you can like print those talks out for me or something and send them, that would be awesome! But we had to go to the chapel in a place called Gazcue, it is close to the CCM (MTC) and the Temple, although we didn’t pass them on the way there. But I did get my first view of the ocean! Wow, what a tender mercy of the Lord, it was sweet! I also got to the see the capitol here, like the royal palace and the government offices and all of the capitol buildings. It is pretty sweet!

Ya, you’re exactly on the money with the times. We ate like at night on Sunday because in between sessions we had to go and look for people and we spent all of our time doing that. It was great. We rented a gua gua, which is like a Volkswagen van pretty much, but here those are like their buses, and they put a lot of people in them. My companion said that one time they got twenty four people in one! We rented one of those and one of our investigators drove it, it was crazy! Stoplights don’t really mean anything here, so it was an experience!

I have not received the memory sticks you sent yet or that letter, but they could be on their way. If it got sent to the package address it could be a little while before I get it too. I don’t know for sure how that all works, but there’s two different addresses, and I think if a letter gets sent to the package address it will take a while to get here. I had some letters come from the Provo MTC that way I think and it took about a month, so we’ll hold out hoping that it’s still on it’s way.

We usually go to a store called Olé on Preparation Day, it is like a big supermarket, and we shop there. I usually just get mostly food there. But I could always use more snacks, I can never hold on to those very long, my stomach always gets to them, first, haha! (We had asked him what kind of shopping was available near where he lives. Apparently Walmart hasn't made it's way to Guachpita yet, but it sounds like there is a place to get most of what he needs!)

Thanks so much for that quote and telling me that Brother Bawden said that. I appreciate that so much. I want to work miracles for the Lord! I want to be one that runs His errands and is always about His work. I want to be one that that Lord looks to when He needs something done. We all have so much potential, and we have to learn to see ourselves like Heavenly Father does, just like President Uchtdorf said in conference.

(Brother Bawden was Jeff's Institute teacher. In one of Jeff's letters home before he left Provo, he shared two quotes that Brother Bawden had taught him that had really touched him. We sent a note to Brother Bawden telling him how grateful Jeff was for what he had taught him. Brother Bawden sent us the nicest reply sharing President Benson' quote where he says in part "Give me a young man that has read the Book of Mormon, who is worthy, who is a seminary graduate . . . and I will give you a young man that can perform miracles for the Lord in the mission field and throughout his life!" He told us he could see that in Jeff. We shared that with Jeff this week in our letter to him. That's the quote he is referring to.)

Thank you so much for all that you do for me and for your love for me! I love you so much! Oh, I want to be the kind of man that does the things that the Lord needs done and that the Lord can look to when He needs something done. I want to be like President Monson when he said that he wanted the Lord to know that Tom Monson would run His errands for Him. I want to be that kind of man too. I want to run the Lord´s errands. What a privilege that is! I am so grateful for the Lord and His trust in me and for His plan! He loves us all so much and He has miracles that He needs all of us to help Him with! He needs us, each and every one of us! I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve Him!

I am very sorry that I haven’t attached pictures, here are some for you to see. The first two are from when we made smoothies for FHE at an investigators house. Haha, the guy had to hold the blender while he turned it on and held it close to the plug because the cord wouldn’t reach to the table. This is the house that we get lunch from every day. And the only deal is that we pay her every week, but we set it up and it´s just for us two elders because she doesn’t cook for anyone else.

The next two are from the baptism of Rafi and Noelia that we had last week. It was awesome! They are a solid family. Their mom is inactive and their dad isn´t a member, but he has committed to baptism and now I think that their mom will come back to church! What a miracle! They are going to be solid! And Rafi wants to go on a mission! Their cousin is named Luisin and he also has a baptismal date, it was going to be Saturday, but President would like candidates under 18 to go to church longer before they are baptized, so that is great and he will hopefully be baptized in a couple of weeks!

I just had to send you the sweet pics we took in the MTC back in Provo. This is the ever famous ironing board trick, it´s sweet! And it seems real, haha!

(We will share pictures as soon as I can get someone to help me load them onto the blog!)

By the way, the work is going great. We are teaching some families, but not so much with Victor and Samaris lately because they are really hard to get a hold of. We are teaching a wonderful family that has a mom , two sons and two daughters. They are golden and the mom even asked us in one of the lessons if there really was peace in this life! What a privilege Heavenly Father has given me to be able to take peace to this family! She came to conference on Sunday and made some sacrifices to do it, so hopefully that family will have baptismal dates before too long! What a privilege!

The guy that I contacted who came to church is doing great, and he has a baptismal date! How fantastic! He is actually here because he was in an accident while working on another island and is here recuperating and will be having surgery tomorrow!

Thanks so much for all that you do for me! I love you!

Elder Jeff DeSpain