Power Week

This email was sent January 26, 2009

Dear Family and Everyone,

I am doing well. This week has been a memorable experience. I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. I also have so much to say and less than 20 min to say it in. This weekend we had area conference. There was a special meeting for the missionaries before the priesthood meeting. There was about 70 missionaries in the chapel (the whole mission). Let me list who was sitting on the stand. President Henry B. Eyring, Elder Bednar, President Niel Anderson (in the presidency of the 70), Elder Johnson (the area president of the Caribbean), and President Gingery (the mission president). Elder Bednar said, himself, that this never happens. That experience is a once in a lifetime thing and will never happen again. It gets even better. They did it differently than just giving talks. What they did was they let us ask questions. They never put anyone on the spot, which Elder Bednar says drives away the spirit. I was thinking of a question but then put it in the back of my mind, dismissing it, but when they asked for a question, it came to my mind with such force that I had to raise my hand. I got to ask the second question. I asked "How do we know when the Lord is pleased with us?" Elder Anderson answered this question and stated that it was a truly inspired question. He said we know that the Lord is pleased with us by the miracles that we see and that we need to look for those miracles. My old companion and zone leader commented on how that question helped them out a lot. Elder Hillam said many missionaries needed that.

Elder Anderson also asked the congregation about scriptures that we would use to talk about the Restoration. Ha ha, what an opportunity! I am the only one that I know that has used a scripture when teaching that principle. I got to raise my hand again and answer Eph 1:10. I explained it a little and sat down. Then I thought to myself, "I just explained a scripture in front of prophets and seers." I had to check and make sure I said the right scripture. I quickly turned to Eph 1:10 and, to my relief, it was the scripture I was talking about. This is just one of the great stories I have about this amazing weekend. They are going to have to wait for another day.