Dear Elder Smith,
Hola! It is Sunday night and we are excited to hear from you tomorrow! We have been curious all week to know if you moved to a new area and if you have a new companion. Can't wait to hear your news.
We have had a great weekend. It was Stake Conference today, and our presiding authority was Elder Quentin L. Cook from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
His talk was awesome! He said it is an amazing time to be an apostle because of dramatic, almost unbelievable increases in missionary, temple and family history work. He has had the opportunity many times to make mission assignments, last Friday he made 360 assignments! He said an assignment is always made because of one of these three criteria...
His talk was awesome! He said it is an amazing time to be an apostle because of dramatic, almost unbelievable increases in missionary, temple and family history work. He has had the opportunity many times to make mission assignments, last Friday he made 360 assignments! He said an assignment is always made because of one of these three criteria...
#1) a specific mission president who will have a profound affect upon that missionary's life.
#2) a person or group of people in a particular area of the world that the missionary needs to meet and/or teach
#3) an experience the missionary will have in a particular area of the world that they will need later in their life.
That is it! He said it always comes down to very spiritual impressions in one of those three categories that leads him to make each assignment. I wonder which one it was for you? Do you have an idea?
Elder Cook spoke for about 30 minutes, and just before ending his talk he invoked upon us an apostolic blessing that we would have greater love for the Savior and for our families, a greater abundance of the spirit, and assistance in our challenges and trials. It was powerful! The spirit was strong, we were so grateful to be there.
In other news, the Olympics are over, closing ceremonies were tonight. We have loved it the last three weeks, and now we wonder what we are going to do every night! We have spent so much time watching all the events and medal ceremonies, it has been fun.
Tomorrow we are skipping school and going skiing! Rachel and George are coming too! So I won't be hovering over the computer all day waiting for your letter, but I will be thinking of you constantly and anxious to get home to check my email. I love you! Hope you have a great week.
Love, Mom
P.S. I would love to read the KILLER talk you gave last Sunday! What was your topic?