What an amazing week this has been. Of course the main reason being because of General Conference and the spiritual feast that we had over the weekend. But other reasons being because of Specialised Training meeting on Tuesday AND interviews with President Cahoon. Well actually, that's really the only other reason. Between that meeting on Tuesday, and conference on Saturday and Sunday, I feel spiritually full. And I hope that I don't lose that feeling of being spiritually filled for at least 6 months until we have our next conference.
The meeting on Tuesday was good mainly because of my interview with President. We chatted for about 20 minutes. My past interviews with him haven't been near as good as this one. We first talked about all the different branches in WA and how much responsibility he has with those and we got on the topic of how I've been in the city for my entire mission (which is 17 months as of today, for those that didn't know). He asked me how I would feel serving in a particular area and I told him I would love it, mainly because of the opportunity to get out of the city. It would be so nice to not have my p-days controlled by 6 other companionships of missionaries, which is how it is as a zone leader. P-days are in no way at all a break for me. But I'm going to wait until the actual transfer comes (either this weekend or next transfer 6 weeks from this weekend) to give you any more information, because I don't want to spoil the surprise or jinx it haha. We also talked about discouragement in my interview with President. How Satan uses discouragement as one of his major tools on missionaries. Discouragement leads to a loss of faith which allows Satan to work hard on us. We just got talking about that because of some of the events of the past couple of weeks with some of our investigators. But basically he just told me to keep on keeping on. Which, after conference, that became even easier to do.
It's amazing how much we look forward to conference as missionaries. It was like we were counting down to Christmas. I've learned so much over the past two days. I still can't believe that I never watched all 5 sessions before my mission. I was missing out on so much! I'm hoping that this time next year I can go see it in person. I actually didn't realise how much I had learnt until Elder Bednar gave his talk speaking about revelation. It was then that I realised that my whole life I have been receiving revelation. Line upon line, precept on precept, that is how he teaches His children. I loved how he said that we've all received revelation at some point in our lives without even noticing it at times. All the revelation that I received over the past two days was like the sun rising over the horizon. Although, I do remember one thing that the Prophet said that was like the "light switch" revelation. When he said that a firm testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help us overcome any trial that we face in life, I instantly knew that that was true. I felt the spirit testify that to me. I didn't even have to think about it for a second, I just knew. Like a light switch getting turned on in my head. Every talk that was given over the past two days was just amazing. I really like the one about "be"ing and "do"ing. "To be? or not to be? That is actually a really good question" haha that was funny. That talk put a lot into perspective for me though. I can't wait until the conference edition of The Ensign comes out though. I'm sure that when I re-read those talks it will be like the sun continuing to rise as I continue to learn more from each talk.
Sunday was an absolutely fantastic day of conference. In the morning (6:30) we went to Kwinana and had breakfast with them and the Rockingham elders and then left for conference at 8. I don't know if you all remember the Erwee family that Elder Shobbrook and I found when we were companions, but they came to the Sunday morning session! It was so good to see them again. And they told me that I had better come over for dinner again before I get transferred farther away. I think they really enjoyed conference as well. Hopefully the spirit was able to work on them and help them understand a bit more about the gospel. But they're still probably one of the nicest nonmember families I've ever met my whole mission. So that was great. What a great session for them to see as well with the prophet speaking and everything. Maybe they'll be inspired to come to church now.
One cool experience this week was tracting on Wednesday. We knocked on the door, this lady answered but she didn't say much, so when we introduced ourselves, all she said was "oh we're Jehovah's Witnesses", and right away I could pick up on her American accent. So that lead to me asking where she was from (Seattle), then she invited us in, we met her husband and son, and we got to actually have a pretty good chat with them. She said she couldn't really pick up on my American accent until I said I was from Oklahoma. Then it was easier for her to pick up on it. She wasn't interested in talking about religion but they were still nice to us.
Well that's about it for this week. Love you all! Talk to you soon!
Love yas!
Elder Tanner
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