General Conference!

I HOPE YALL HAD A FANTASTIC GENERAL CONFERENCE WEEKEND!

General conference was one great highlight of this week. It's always a
pleasure to hear from the leaders you look up to everyday. It also
helps when you feel special when apostles visit you and tell a story
and then share it in General a conference. For example, when President
Nelson came last January, he shared the experience of those two little
girls coming to him and pleading that they want to be sealed (this was
his priesthood session talk). One thing he shared with us and didn't
say in his talk was that he was the one who performed the sealing
ordinance for the family. What a neat talk! However, we need go back
and watch the Saturday morning session. The whole mission responded to
a plea for volunteers to help flood victims Saturday morning, so we
worked right early and right up until the Saturday evening session. I
hadn't realized how much the water rose until we worked on a house
Saturday. There was a creek in the backyard, about 20-30 feet down.
During the rain storm, it had risen that entire distance and more to
flood into the house 4 feet. The coast guard had come In a boat to
rescue the residents inside.

We had some other great moments this week, and the best one came when
we finally got in with an investigator. She has a crazy
schedule driving for a school, but when we tried again this week, she
came right out to meet us and we sat down on her porch. She gave us a
friendly reminder that we're probably not going to convert her, but
she appreciates what we do. In my mind I said "that's ok because it's
the spirit that converts, not us" but we thanked her for her comment
and started sharing the Restoration. She's met with missionaries
before, but they didn't give her a Book of Mormon. So as we testified
and taught, the spirit came. And you could just tell that it was
softening Helen's heart, because she began to make connections and ask
questions. She told us she's grown up going to different churches, but
she's never 100% fully agreed with any single one. But she's never
gone to one of our church services. By the end of the lesson, she just
looked at us and said " I don't know what's different about this time,
but it just makes sense. You've opened my eyes and I've got some
figurin' out to do." It was awesome! We gave her a Book of Mormon and
she gladly accepted. It was wonderful knowing that even though people
may have their beliefs, once they feel the spirit nothing is
impossible. It was legit!

and we have this other investigator who's about to get baptized. The
missionaries down here have been teaching her for almost two years.
There is a family in the ward who has really fellowshipped her and
prayers have softened her mom's heart so she can get baptized now.
She's legit and comes to young women's and stuff, and honestly all
I've done is just teach her a little bit so I don't take too much
credit but she's planning to get baptized on the 30th of this month.
It's gonna be a great service! We just pray it will go through!

Some of my favorite talks of general conference was:
Ballard's
Bednar's
Gong's
Holland for sure

Of course I loved all of them and still have a session to watch but
these ones I'm most excited to listen to again before next conference!

Love y'all! Have a wonderful week!


Love,
Elder Blackburn