General Conference

Dear Family,

So we had General Conference! Oh how I love Conference. I will be honest, Conference in the mission has its ups and downs... downs because, well, its in spanish. I dont get everything that is said and lets be honest, its always better in our native language. Ups because we have the opportunity to recieve revelation for ourselves and for our investigators. I can definitely say that we recieved some wonderful counsel from the Lord personally and for others. What a priveledge it is to listen to the prophet and the apostles, to hear what the Lord wants us to know as a church. This conference was focussed a lot on the family, and for good reason. I have seen on my mission some wonderful examples of gospel centered families, and temperal families. There is such a difference in our happiness temperally and spiritually when our family is united in the gospel and when we have our focus on our Heavenly Father and what he wants for us. I know that when we keep our goals on the eternal perspective, but live every moment like it will affect our eternity, we are blessed with the knowledge of what God wants for us and our families and we never lose sight of the goal or waste a moment of our lives. Not easy, but possible. 

We have an investigator named Porfirio. He is amazing. He comes from an indian family and very poor circumstances. He likes to learn, to gain knowledge. We have been teaching him about the gospel and we gave him a Book of Mormon the first time we met him, and now, 2 weeks later, he has read the entire book except Alma. He started in Helamen, read to the end, then started in 1 Nephi. He has told us that he knows its true. He always has questions and tries to understand everything that we teach him, but he isnt one of those people that wants to know everything right now, he will ask a question and we will teach a principle, he told us that he cant learn everything in one visit... he is amazing. He has come to church the past three weeks and was in 2 of the Conference Sessions. He has a baptism date for April 25th. We are thinking about moving it up a week. 

So, crazy story, (not sure if I should share it, but hey here I go...) this last monday we decided to visit a less active member, he lives really close to our house, (the map is important here... oh how to explain... okay, so work with me...) so we walk up our street till we hit a 4-way, then we turn right and walk to the next 4-way then take a left and in that street is where the less active member lives... so we headed out, but after our first right turn we contacted a lady outside her house and started talking to her and she invited us to come see her plants and stuff so we gladly accepted. We entered her house at about 6:30, and left at 7:30. At this time it was dark and when we left I saw a little girl crying pretty fiercly at the entrance of our street, but on the other side of the road. I wanted to go see if she was alright, but my companion tells me, "no hermana lets cross the street", so we crossed the street as we got nearer to her there were a bunch of men and an ambulance showed up... we headed to the house. The next morning turns out that about 6 houses from our house and 2 houses from the house we were at a man got shot in his home. yeah, pretty scary, but we also learned that the man who had the gun was circling the block a couple times in his car, and each time parked in front of the less active members house to see the other street. It was really interesting to see how the Lord can protect us. We were definitely guided by the Lord that night. I know that he is with us always, and that he has an influence in all things when we allow him to guide us.

We were able to go to a museum today. It was so cool they have evidence of a people who lived here about 600 years before Christ. It was like we were watching the Book of Mormon come to life... It was amazing to see the maps and earns and so hear the story of how these things were found. 

Bueno, this last week wasnt too adventurous, but we did have some wonderful experiences and some not-so-wonderful experiences, the important thing is that we accept the not-so-wonderful ones, and embrace and focus on the ones that were wonderful. 

Sorry yall this letter is going to be a little short. I love you tons and promise to have more to say next week. You are all in my prayers. I hope yall have a wonderful week! Stay close to the Lord and all will be well. 

Love, Hermana Eardley