Conference was fantastic!

Hello! Conference was fantastic! We could go the Saturday Sessions if we had investigators going. The way that President said it to us during a conference, it sounded like we really had the choice to go, but luckily we had investigators in both sessions anyway, and we went to both. But nobody was allowed to go the Priesthood Session because it didn't get over until ten o'clock, so could you send me those talks please? That would be fantastic!

We had I think 13 investigators that had the opportunity to attend the conference, and the parents of the two families, Junior and Juana, and Kartel and Kenya were blessed to be able to attend the session where President Monson talked about the Temple and Eternal Marriage! What a blessing! They don't broadcast conference in our building.

We have to go to the stake center in a place called Gazcue to watch conference. It's in Spanish, but the Church broadcasts it in English and other languages depending on what channel you turn to on the TV, so the English elders go downstairs and watch it in English with a few other people who speak English. It's a big blessing! We are hoping that we can have the privilege of baptizing the family of Junior and Juana the 16th of April with their family, but we need to wait and see. They are going to pull out some money this week I think, and then The Lord is going to help them out through some other people so they can be married. The only thing is that that would mean that one of their daughters would only have been to church one time. I sent President an email about it, so we may still be able to get them all baptized the 16th. They really want to get baptized this day because Juana is having surgery later that week and wants to be baptized before that.

I have been asking around about Elder Richardson when he was here, but I haven't been able to run into someone who has showed me a picture of him yet. There's one member who's got a bunch of pictures, but there weren't any of him I don't think. I'm going to keep asking though. (Elder Richardson is now Brother Richardson, a young husband/father in our ward who served in Jeff's mission a few years ago. He (Brother Richardson) is a tender mercy in our lives! He lets me ask any questions I have about the area and tells me things about what Jeff is probably doing and seeing. We love that guy and are so grateful for him and his sweet wife in our ward!)

Well, today we are going to play basketball with Elder McBride and and some other elders and then go to a huge mall called Megacentro where they have Tacobell! We're going to take a picture of me and Elder McBride together so that we can match our moms when you and Elder McBride's Mom went to lunch together! (Elder McBride's mom and I are great friends. We served in a RS Presidency together when the boys were little. She and I met for lunch last Monday so it's fun that our sons are having lunch together this Monday - in another country!) My ankle is doing great, I haven't had any problems with it (knock on wood, we're playing ball today). But don't worry Mom, I brought my brace to wear. A little bit of sports medicine knowledge for you that Mr Hayward the training coach (tell him hi for me and Go Hawks!) told us is that once you sprain something like an ankle like I did, it's never 100 percent again, so it will always be a little bit different, but I can hardly even notice it. It's only when I go hiking and stuff that I can feel it. (One year ago our family went on a trip to Nauvoo. Jeff sprained his ankle pretty badly the night before we flew out. We were reminiscing about that trip yesterday which made us think of his injury and trip to the hospital. We wondered how it is holding up with all the walking that Jeff does. Sounds like it is doing well!)

Dad's package hasn't gotten here yet, but Grandma´s sure did! Haha, thanks Grandma! We love the food! I'm sure that Dad's package está en camino, that means on the way. I love you all so much, thank you so much for your love, support, and patience with me in my life. You all have been a big influence on me in my life!

I loved the words yesterday in one of the talks, I can't remember who, but they talked about how the night is darkest just before the dawn. That sometimes some of our hardest trials are just before our biggest triumphs, the highest points of our lives. I loved that talk. It's just like the football analogy I used a few weeks ago of the running back that gets stood up. His highest moment of opposition can be right before his highest triumphs. When he's driving his feet, being stood up by a pile of defenders, it can sometimes feel like he's not making any progress, and sometimes he is even driven back. But I can promise you that it's all worth it when he gets into the endzone, when the team comes out victorious. Sometimes we have moments like that in our lives, where we just feel like we're giving it everything we've got, and that we're just not going anywhere, and we just don't know if we can go on. We just don't know when our trial will end, but in these times, if, like the runningback, we just keep moving our feet, I testify that the endzone is closer than you think. Remember who's pushing you and who's blocking for you, the very angels of Heaven. Jesus Christ can overcome that pile of defenders, and He is pushing you!

I love you all and thank you so much! The two pictures are from the bridge at the edge of our area. Our area is on the right hand side of the river. And that's some awesome food that we get to eat every day! (New pictures are on the blog!)

Love you! Elder DeSpain

P.S. We had interviews this week and President told me that you wrote him a letter asking if you could donate some money to the mission marriage fund. I guess I was wrong, haha, he said that there actually isn't a fund because it would be too hard for the president to do it, something about how sometimes there's a rich president, and sometimes there's a poor president. Haha, but he said thanks to you for offering.