Week 55

This week was a good week. There wasn't a whole lot of teaching though, but there was a heap of service. We tried to catch up with Wendy this week, but we just couldn't catch up with her. We also did a little bit of less active work, and then preparing Daniel for his baptism and planning that out.

We got the opportunity to watch conference on Saturday and Sunday. One thing cool about the Saturday afternoon session, Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita talked about being ambitious. He then talked about Elder Cowan. Elder Cowan was transferred to this mission. He trained Elder Iino, who then trained me. Elder Cowan was a great missionary. I didn’t get to serve around him for a very long time, but he was one of those missionaries that everyone wanted to be like. Everybody loved being around Elder Cowan because he just made everyone so happy [and] always made us laugh. He was always the members’ favorite missionary because of the way he served.

Something I noticed about conference this month was that they all taught the basics, which they might have always done, but I just noticed it a lot this conference, I watched the Priesthood Session first, and I loved Jeffrey R. Holland’s talk about home teaching and our duties that we are assigned. And I also loved Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s when he said that the lord didn’t just say Stand back I will handle this, he said come follow me. Then Eyring was great. I loved what he said about giving back to help the future Priesthood. I have set some goals for what I am going to do with that. I also noticed that they all talked a lot about when God calls, will I hear? We all pray pretty regularly, but are we in tune with the spirit and heeding the promptings the Lord gives us? Just like what happened [to] Juan A. Uceda, he didn't pay attention to the Lord’s prompting, but the Lord heard his prayer anyways and sent another prompting to the other boy that ended up saving his life. I also like when Elder Bednar was talking about the Joseph Smith translation that says, ”Ye know me not.” As we make the Savior our mark and as we become more like him by doing what he asks, we begin to know him personally. And that is a couple of my thoughts on this month’s General Conference.

I love you all, and I hope you have had a great week because I sure did. I will let you all know how Daniel does this week. Talk to yous next time!

Elder Newman

This is what a lot of the birds here look like.

This Kangaroo has a little joey in its pouch, and it also has an itch.