Elder Matthew Horne: Meetings for days...

This week was really great, albeit extremely long. Thursday - Sunday consisted primarily of meetings. Wonderful meetings! But meetings nonetheless...

Thursday: mission tour with Elder Wilford W Andersen of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. It was incredible. We heard from Sister Anderson, President Anderson, Sister Andersen, and Elder Andersen (it got confusing). Elder and Sister Andersen are wonderful. Sister Andersen focused on enduring to the end with enthusiasm. She exhorted us to, "never trade your challenges for anything," since they show us who we are and remind us of where we are headed. Elder Andersen spoke about desire; cultivating knowledge in our minds and in our hearts, to ultimately lead us in the direction of the Savior. He also focused in how we can teach so others can do the same.

Friday: district meeting. We had an activity, where two missionaries were blind folded and had to navigate through a maze, collecting items along the way. They were guided by two other missionaries, who had to stay a significant distance away. One group however, was allowed a guide, someone to walk through the maze with them, direct them, and keep them headed in the right direction. The lesson was that as missionaries we teach others how to make it to eternal life, but the influence of members is invaluable, because they show people how to. The likelihood of them making it to the end increases exponentially.

Saturday, and Sunday: stake conference. Stake conference was great! We were able to have some investigators come (can I get a woot woot?!), which was awesome because we could introduce them to President and Sister Anderson. The speakers were great, the musical numbers were great; it was wonderful. Funny story: we got there early so we could have good seats, but we were still too far away to see the music that the organist was playing. One of the investigators that came loves music, and used to play the organ at their old church, so they were curious as to what songs the organist was playing. That's when my handy dandy camera came in extra handy dandy! If you would have looked over you would have seen me using the zoom on my camera as makeshift binoculars, reading off the names of the songs she would play. Good times. Oh, and this was the prelude music by the way, don't worry, I wasn't whipping out my camera during the meeting.

I would also be remiss if I didn't recognize the birthday of my oldest plant. Tenzin turned 1 year old this week, I threw him a nice little hoo-rah.