This was a pretty cool week :) First off, the pictures attached are of our neighbor Joe. He's kind of a crazy guy, as you can tell by the lazy eye. He's so cool though. He really warmed up to Elder Sharp and me (he's got one of Elder Sharp's extra name tags). He's so NOT even close to LDS haha. He has all kinds of Word of Wisdom problems, and just doesn't really believe in God due to his wife's death a year ago. Poor guy. We love him. We do stuff for each other all the time.
Update on Dalila and Nefi: we don't really want to baptize Omar until his mom marries Nefi. When we passed by on Wednesday, she told us she really wanted to marry him and start her eternal family. Awesome! We just gotta get Nefi on board. We just helped them move into a different apartment, still together, so we're hoping that means yes!
On Thursday, half the mission went to the mission office for a Zone Conference with Elder Lawrence E Corbridge of the 70 talk to us. It was a good conference, but was so long! It started up at 9, and ended at 4. He did a nice job, but talked a little too monotone. Staying awake was a bit of a struggle. I'll go into detail on what he talked about in a minute. He spoke again at Stake Conference on Friday and Sunday.
I sang If You Could Hie to Kolob at the Zone Conference. It went pretty well. No complaints. Except that I wish I looked up more from the podium. I thought it was funny how many people would say, "Elder Spjute, I didn't know you sing!" I would just think to myself, wait, you don't really know anything about me haha. Kinda funny.
We had MLC (mission leadership council) at the end of the Conference. As Zone Leaders, this is one of the couple things we get to do that's different. In the meeting, we just discuss with the other ZLs, Sister training leaders, APs, and President (and Elder Corbridge) what we need to do to help the mission. Very broad. That's about all we do that's different other than lead Zone Meetings, do exchanges, and make ministering phone calls a couple nights a week.
Friday was the adult session of Stake Conference. I must say, that was possibly the best meeting I've ever been to. Holy cow! At the beginning, Elder Corbridge said, "the brethren told me we should do the meeting on Saturday. I said I realize it's a Pagan holiday, but are we gonna make the parents miss out on Halloween? They told me I'd have to get creative. I responded, probably foolishly, should we come in costume? And so here we are, meeting on Friday!"
The stake choir is AMAZING. About 40 people, and they sound like Motab. I'm not kidding! The director is incredible. Right at the start of the meeting, we all sang Let us all press on, and it was so loud and powerful and harmonic. I was blown away. Then, the choir opened afterwards singing With songs of praise. Oh my word. I couldn't stop smiling for about 5 minutes! That helped an already amazing meeting become incredible. President and Sis Hall spoke together about family council, and nailed it. The stake president spoke on Sabbath Day observance, and nailed it. Then the stake patriarch bore a testimony on making the best of our time, and nailed it. Elder Corbridge spoke way more enthusiastically and nailed it. He took up the majority of the time. He spoke about how the Spirit is the Power of God. It's what we all want, and it's the biggest gift that God can give us in this life. It was a very powerful message. The choir finished up with Abide with me, 'Tis eventide.
The meeting on Sunday was very similar. It wasn't as powerful, but it was still very nice. Highlight was the choir. At the end, they sang Motab's big version of I Believe in Christ. It blew me away. I mean, wow!
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. I love you all, and don't worry, I'm staying afloat in all the rain here. Have a wonderful week! The church is true!
-Elder Spjute
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