Monday, April 5, 2010

5 April 2010

Wow, conference was awesome. There are a lot of Americans in my district and the other branches don’t have church buildings that get conference, so everyone was at our church. I got to watch in English this time and was excited about that. The two couple missionaries that are serving as branch presidents were there and brought home-made American-style goodies. It felt like home. I really enjoyed it.

I think I’m mainly going to share with you all my personal highlights of conference; hope that’s okay. In Rocha we live in a house of four elders, including Elder Martino and Elder Carter, a Texan and a Floridian. It was way cool, though, because Elder Martino’s uncle, Elder Martino, spoke and gave an awesome talk. And Elder Aoyagi spoke of the missionaries that baptized him. Elder Carter’s grandpa, Elder Carter, baptized that man. I thought that was way cool to see how small the church really is.

I loved Elder Oaks’ talk on healing the sick. An hour before that talk I was able to seal an anointing for a sick sister. It was cool that some of the questions I’ve always had were answered.
I loved what Elder Packer said about power comes from keeping our priesthood and temple covenants. It was cool because I’ve taught the same thing to missionaries before. It was really interesting to hear something I’ve taught come from the mouth of an apostle.

Elder Eyring made me want to see the new Duty to God program. If you ever get one, I’d love for you all to send me one.

Elder Bednar was really interesting because he talked about acting. Last November he visited our mission and taught us the same principle, using some of the exact same words. He’s been preparing that talk for six months. Way interesting.

And I loved President Monson’s story about the missionary who didn’t get letters. God answers missionaries’ sincere prayers.

I also want to share a quick experience that made me feel really good and I did it because of the way I was raised. Last zone conference we had some complicated travel arrangements and the couple missionaries couldn’t go with us. I took good notes and next district meeting I gave them a copy of my notes so they’d know what our president wanted them to know. I didn’t think much of it, but they were really grateful. They felt good, and I felt really good. Little things really can make a difference.

In good news, it’s getting cooler here. I found a double wide black v-neck sweater in the house left by someone. I sewed the sides and now I have a nicely tailored sweater to protect my cold body. But I ran out of black thread doing it. Sewing kits aren’t made to edit sweaters. I’ll have to send a photo.

This is getting kind of long. Sorry folks, but honestly, you enjoyed it a ton.

I love you all. Thanks for the letters, prayers and support.

The church is true and God loves us. Take some time to look at how the Lord is blessing our family.

Love, Elder Whitaker

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