April
7, 2014
Hello,
Everyone!
Wasn’t General
Conference the BEST! I think one of the huge wins of the mission is how much
you gain an appreciation for General Conference. It is like a mix of a huge
movie coming out, or Duke in the finals of March Madness (a dream that will be
completed next year, right?). So awesome. We were able to watch it in English
as well, so that was great. We were able to really learn a lot of great things
to apply in the whole zone, but I think personally I learned a lot of good
stuff as well. We all have perfecting to do but, as we were reminded in the
conference, it’s all about love and being, not just talking it up and being
hollow.
Something I was
thinking about was the difference between the Spirit I have felt during General
Conference while on my mission as opposed to before my mission. And I think it comes
down to two basic reasons that are super important.
1. In the mission, we
are more spiritually prepared to receive revelation. We give more importance to
the talks, we honestly treasure them, we seek to apply them, and, because the
Lord sees all that, he blesses us with more of his Spirit and a higher
capability to apply. We also are studying daily, deeply, have lots of prayer
during the day, and see tiny miracles in all we do. And, after more than a year
and a half of being a missionary, I feel like my spiritual appreciation, power,
potential, and capacity have grown a ton. After a weekend like that, ya just
gotta feel like you need to share it with all the world, and now I feel like I
have at least a part of the know how to start!
2. In the mission, we
have our priorities straight. There aren’t other activities, practices, games,
shows, etc, that call for our attention and make watching conference a
´sacrifice` and pull our attention away from the talks, make us only listen
with half our hearts, or not even listen at all. It’s nice reading the talks
after, but the Spirit is special seeing the conference given tal cual. It’s
easy in the mission--in fact, the conference is almost like a little break
where we are protected by all the hard things of our sectors and just
spiritually fed. But how much harder is it to really appreciate conference when
we have fifty other responsibilities calling for our attention?
I was thinking about
these two things a lot, and thinking about how I am going to keep applying them
after my mission. Now is the time to obey with exactness and build my testimony
of these things, because after there are new temptations, distractions, and it’s
so easy to lose the clear perspective we are blessed with as set apart servants
of the Lord. So I am going to apply these things now, and after, and may we all
do the same!
I also liked something
that Brother Dallstrom said, that even though we may think we are ´just this
way` we should never think that we cannot change. We can’t give up on
ourselves, we need to improve. We need to leave our pride, our lack of love,
kindness, patience, and forgiveness, and each day BE better, because in the
end, it’s our character that will be measured. "The soul that rises with
us, our life´s star," as Wordsworth says.
Just some thoughts. We
had a fun zone activity today, ate empanadas and hiked a hill. We are working
to find some great investigators, and feeling frustrated for the lack of
progression in others! Pray for us!
I love you all! Thanks
for all your examples and prayers!
Elder Brown
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| Eating empanadas at a zone activity, then playing pelotes |
 |
| After hiking the Chiguayante hill--holding the national flower of Chile, which he did NOT pick, because that would be illegal. It happened to have fallen off its plant, so he brought it home. |
