General Conference!!!!

Dear Family,

This week has been really good with a lot of different things.  We had the MLC with just the Zone Leaders that I learned a lot from, I finished my application/re-registering for BYU, we had our ZTM, we went to the general woman's conference, we deep cleaned our apartment, decided what to give up to help our investigators Mark and Nicola to give up smoking, and a member bought cheesecake and chocolate cake for us!  It has been a full, productive and wonderful week!

Sister Magidson and I are teaching two people who are working on quitting smoking.  They are an older couple that live in a care center. We are really concerned about them being able to quit by their baptism date.  Their baptismal date is October 18th. To help them, Sister Magidson and I are each giving up something so they have something that they can keep us accountable about.  Sister Magidson is giving up pealing her nails and she will now paint them and I am giving up Peanut Butter.  Yes I love these people so much that I am willing to give up peanut butter.  It is going to be tough but it will be worth it!

The whole mission deep cleaned our appartments and it was an all day job!  We cleaned from 10am to 7pm.  It was crazy!  But our apartment is now celestial and beautiful!  I also found a slc temple schedule from 1999.... 

We had a miracle happen!  We both decided that we had had enough for the day and went to go and buy cake for sister Magidson and cheesecake for me from the cheesecake factory.  As we ordered, a member appeared out of no where and paid for it.  Such a wonderful blessing!!  Every time someone pays for me I am just amazed at the goodness that is in people and how loving people can be with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I also almost cry every time.  The member was there with his girlfriend and we visited with them for a while.  They were so cool and so very kind.

Can you believe that General Conference is this week?!  I can't!  It really snuck up on me, but I am so so excited!!  Our zone is attending the Sunday morning session of General Conference and I am pumped!  That means that we get to go to Music and the Spoken Word as well!  Yay!  I know that General Conference is going to be exhausting, but I am so excited to talk to tons of people and uplift them.  Unlike my last General Conference on Temple Square, we are only focusing on uplifting the people that come to Temple Square and not receiving a certain number of referrals.  I like this much better because I want members to like talking to the sisters.  I like talking to them! :)  I really love uplifting people and sharing the savior's love with them.  I think as members, we often forget the happiness that we have.  President Spencer W. Kimball said, "We have all of the blessings that can make us the happiest people in the whole world, because a boy of fourteen went out into the woods to pray."  It is so true!  We have so much to be happy about.  Think about it, we live in a period of time when there is a prophet of God on the earth.  We are members of the only TRUE church on the earth and have the whole gospel of Jesus Christ because it was restored.  We know that the heavens are not closed and that God can speak to us today like he did in the old testament. If that is not something to be happy about, I don't know what is.  I am excited to get direction from the Prophet and the Apostles.

Do you have questions that you are bringing to General Conference?  If you do not, I invite you to think of things that you would like to learn more about or concerns that you have and write them down.  Elder Holland said, " If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.” I want to double testify of what Elder Holland said.  I know that this is true because I have done what he said.  I have gotten answers to many of my questions during General Conference.  I know that you can get answers to your questions as you prayerfully listen to the speakers at General Conference.

Here is one more cool promise from a Prophet about listening to the word of God.

President Hinckley said, “If we will live the gospel, if we will put our trust in God, our Eternal Father, if we will do what we are asked to do as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we will be the happiest and most blessed people on the face of the earth”

Also I have made it a goal to read from the scriptures specifically the Book of Mormon every day!  It has made a big difference in my life.

Love Always,

Sister Stephen