Great Conference

Dear Family,
Hey, I found time to write! What's new with everyone? Things are going good here. Like I said in my e-mail, our teaching pool is pretty dry at the moment so we are spending most of our time finding people. So far we haven't found anybody but we do have some referrals from a few different members. Also, we've been going out alot to the surrounding towns but the other night while Elder Conley and I were praying and planning we both got the strong impression that we need to focus our attention on LaJunta itself. So I know as we do that we will find people to teach.
Last Sunday (1-17-2010) we had Stake Conference in Pueblo. It was so good. Russell M. Nelson was there and also Jack D. Ward from The Seventy. I wanted to share a few notes I got from the conference.
One of the young men in the LaJunta ward, who is getting ready to leave for his mission, gave a great talk on missions. One of the things he said was, "Satan works as hard as we do." Meaning that the harder we work to do what the Savior needs us to do, the harder Satan focuses on destroying our worth to God.
A couple other things he said were, "The benefits of a mission go on forever," and "The decision to serve a mission will touch everything else you do in your life."
Also a young lady from the Stake spoke on how to prepare ourselves to be worthy to enter the temple. She gave us these nine steps~
1) Follow the counsel of church leaders
2) Be obedient to all of Gods commandments
3) Learn about the lessons of the temple
4) Be faithful in church attendance
6) Date those who are worthy to enter the temple (when your old enough)
7) Dress modestly
8) Pray for guidance on how to prepare for the temple
9) Fast for strength to be worthy
I thought that those were some great ideas to follow.
Elder Jack D. Ward talked about prayer, reading the scriptures and serve/rescue others. He said something that I thought was awesome. He said, "These three things brought about the restoration of the gospel. These same three things can also bring about your own personal restoration."
I had never thought of it like that before.
Then Elder Nelson spoke. It was so neat. He started out by saying, "Last night I had a revelation. It has been revealed to me that the missionary work in this area will grow exponentially as you work together. We can expect to see great things." Wow! As a missionary you can imagine how excited that made us! Then he said that before the meeting started we may have seen him waving. He said that he was waving to all the little children. He said, "I love little children!" Then he had all the Primary kids stand up on their chairs so he could see them. Then his face lit up and he said, "I know! Do you like to sing? Will you sing for me? Let's sing 'I am A Child of God.'
So all the kids sang I am A Child of God while they were standing on their chairs. It was so cute but the spirit was there so strong. The rest of his talk was mostly about children. He said, "Teach your children to~
1) Not focus on physical flaws...we all have them!
2) Understand who they really are
3) Understand the significance of the sacrament
4) Follow the Prophets and know of their importance
5) Know that all previous dispensations have been limited by both time and location,but this dispensation will flow into the millenium and fill every part of planet earth.
6) Love the scriptures...Don't ever give up!
7) Understand the importance of the restoration of the Priesthood
8) Obey and respect their parents
9) Be good citizens
And then he said to help your children gain an education. And then he said, "Please, parents...learn from your children."
It was an amazing talk. And then to top it off he said he felt impressed to leave an apostalic blessing. I couldn't write it fast enough, but what I did get was this:
He blessed us that we would feast upon the words of Christ, not be passive but apply Christ's teachings to our lives. That we would be great missionaries, the kind that would be an attraction to those we serve and those people we left back home, members, non-members, family and friends.
I loved his talk! It was such a good conference. After it was over Elder Conley and I got to go up and shake his hand. We didn't really get to talk because there were about a thousand other people who wanted to meet him but it was still cool to shake his hand.
Well, today Elder Conley and I went out and spent most of the day walking around talking to people. We really need to find people to teach. I know they're coming! We met a bunch of cool people but got no return visits.
So I told you that I'd tell you more about the hike we took to Picketwire Canyon. It was such a pretty hike. Apparently there are dinosaur tracks in a dry riverbed and there are old abandoned settlements and cemeteries and stuff. So we headed out to go see all this but we kind of got lost and took a wrong trail so we never got to see any of that! But it was still super pretty! Big canyons and boulders and stuff. In fact, we came to one spot where these two boulders looked like they had crashed together to form a cave so we crawled in and ate lunch there while we looked out over the valley. It was awesome. So cool! It took us about 3 1/2 hours to hike in because we were taking pictures but then the sun was getting kind of low in the sky so we booked it back and made it in a little over an hour. I figure on the way out we were walking at about 4 mph or so. So I think we walked about 8 or 9 miles all together. Anyway, it was a great P-day. We are going back on the 1st of February with a member who knows the trail so we can see all that cool stuff we missed!
Well, it's late...I'll let you go now! I love you all tons! Hope your all doing great! I hope you enjoy this rather large letter.
Love Ben