WOW the conference was awesome

October 8, 2012

Family,

WOW the conference was awesome, I thought that nothing could top the last conference, but this one was amazing. I got to watch it all, but two sessions I watched in Portuguese because the English feed wasn´t working. Oh well, it was still a super spiritual experience. Everyone got really excited about the announcement about the missionaries. There were a few young women in our ward that got way excited, and are already making plans to serve missions. The first thing I thought was ´Wow, now Autumn needs to serve a mission. Haha, I thought it was great. I think it will be interesting, there are for sure going to be way more Sister missionaries now, which is great, there´s going to be a lot of powerful Sisters coming soon. I also think it´s cool that they´re going to let young men become Elders with 18 years. I think they want them all to serve missions earlier, so that they can have families earlier. But yeah, I hope that Autumn is seriously considering a mission now, that´ll be so cool to have another missionary in the Family!

The talks were incredible this time, and it easy to see that there is a big change going on in the world, I felt like the Prophet and the Apostles were making strong stands on some things. For example, Dallin H. Oaks tore apart abortion, divorces, gay-marriage, everything! I didn´t even know he was such a bold speaker, but I gained a lot of respect for him.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, as always, got right in the faces of the members, and in particular the missionaries. Peter must be feeling pretty dumb in the Spirit World after that talk. I can get fish when I want! I need disciples who love me. It´s true, sometimes missionaries do their work on their mission, and they after, they basically abandon Jesus and ´go fishing´. At the judgment day, there is no way that these missionaries will be able to look at Jesus Christ and say that we loved him. Wow, all of us missionaries there were going crazy. Jeffrey R. Holland is the definition of a bold speaker.

And of course, I loved President Monson´s message, especially during the Priesthood session, when he talked about being a missionary that helps people change lives. I also liked that he said that we have to be on the Lord´s errand, and be a blessing to others.  Other honorable mentions were the talks of President Uchtdorf, Elder Ballard. These were that talks that were really speaking to me, I felt like.

Now I can´t wait to get the Liahona for this conference and study it. I liked what President Monson said at the end, that we´ll learn a lot more from the talks when we study them afterwards. Lately I’ve been studying more the Liahona, so that I can have the words of both ancient and modern prophets.

The conference was a good end to a truly busy week. On Tuesday, we had leadership training and interviews with the presidente. We didn´t even get back to our apartment until 6 PM. On Thursday we had Zone Leader Council in Curitiba, which took the whole day. And of course conference, which took up most of Saturday and Sunday. We just had a ton of spiritual nourishment!

This Friday, Elder Oliveira and I put on a fireside for our ward about missionary work and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I talked about the Life, miracles, and Suffering of Jesus, and Elder Oliveia talked about how we can give value to this sacrifice (Through the gospel of Jesus Christ). We had a lot of participation from the ward, and the Stake President´s family sang a special hymn at the end. It was a special activity designed to bring together the ward in unity, and I think that it worked well.

I am jealous that you got to spend the whole month with my nieces and nephews. I´m sure that even though it was hard to hear the conference, you didn´t mind, being in such good company.

It´s hard to believe that this is the last week of the transfer. Next week, I’ll probably have a new companion here in Ala 2. Time is truly flying now, I don´t know if i like it. The more I learn, the more I understand the importance of this missionary work, and the true joy that comes from it. I have the opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ--the means by which eternal life can be reached--everyday, in Brazil, in the Portuguese Language. A year ago, I wasn´t even capable of doing anything, but the Lord has really blessed me, and is making me a polished shaft in his quiver.

Tell me about your feelings about the Conference! What were some of your favorite parts! I´ll be getting a letter off to you soon, because the strike ended. I already had a letter written, but couldn´t send it, so I’ll just write another and send it with the last one, so it´ll be two letters.

Well, I love you all lots. I feel so lucky to be serving the Lord, and bringing honor to my family. I feel so blessed to be part of this family. (even though no one can pronounce my named right (: )

Love  

Elder Twitchell