Conference Week

Hola familia, Im hoping you all enjoyed conference as much as I did. Really conference weekend is literally the best. It was so nice to have two days filled of inspiration and the spirit....well every day here in the mission is filled with the spirit...but wow i just love conference. This week wasnt really all that super great....but we had enough good things and small miracles that happened that it didnt seem to rough haha. This week we found a woman named Iliana. One morning we were out in the blazing sun knocking doors because we didnt have any set plans....and door after door no one had time for us. One woman opened her door but she was washing her dog so she said we could come back in the afternoon. I didnt really think much of it...but we put it in our agenda. That afternoon we came back and she opened the door and received us. I know that God led us to her. We only visited her for maybe 20 minutes...just getting to know her and everything but she is someone prepared by the hand of the Lord. She told us that she has felt something missing in her life lately and she feels like we came right and the right moment. She isnt attending any church. She has only just been going to a church with a friend...but she doesnt actually like it there...she says she just goes because its better than nothing. In the first 10 minutes we were able to commit her to go to conference and also we invited her to be baptized and she said she would like that...and we havent even taught her anything. Sunday morning when we were getting ready to pass for our investigators we were going to do splits because we had a lot of investigators to pass for....but the member who was going to leave with me wasnt home....we were worried because we had no idea what we were going to do because we didnt have time to pass for everyone...and right at that moment Hermana Deysi passed by. THat was a small miracle with perfect timing. So i went with hermana deysi to pick up illiana. When we got to her house she was all ready to go and as we walked out she told me she had read the pamphlet we left with her and that she really liked it. THen during confernece she sat with hermana deysi and after hermana deysi said that they exchanged numbers and that she is going to go to the relief soceity activity on friday and church next sunday and that during the conference some of her doubts or questions she had were answered. SHE IS SO GREAT: also hermana deysi is awesome. Her and her husband want to serve a mission if her husbands health gets better and they would be so great....also hermana deysi told me this week that she want to call president spjut to tell him to leave me in this area until after my birthday hahaha she is so funny. Also I just wanted to tell you guys a little update on Julio. Remember how worried i was about him getting baptized cause i didnt know if he was ready? haha yeah he is so great. He came to 3 of the sessions of conference. And atleast twice a week when we are contacting people around town someone will mention him and how he goes to our church and the miracle that they have seen in him. It is pretty amazing to here that people who arent church members have noticed the miracle of Julio. Also during this week....there were some moments i was struggling....not because of the hardness of the mission or discouragement or anything. But because of the poverty and situations of the people. Even though i have over a year in this country there are still some days when it just kills me. To see little kids who walk around without clothes who dont have food to eat. to see people who have to take turns which days they can shower. Sometimes it discourages me. This week we were visiting a little girl maria elena. She is a recent convert. her mom died when she was little and she lives with her older sister but her older sister doesnt even take care of her and maria elena spends most of the time in the street and she never goes to school and sometimes she wears the same clothes all week. Last time we visited her this week the three of us were almost in tears as we helped her with her homework learning how to write the letters. But that is what brings me to conference....I had so many questions answered in conference....and one of the first questions was answered in Elder Hollands talk about the poor. Elder Hollands talk touched my heart when so many days here i just spend my time thinking that i dont know why the people have to live in these circumstances. But it was a comforting talk. There were so many talks that I loved i wont even be alble to share a lot....but it was great. Also I got to watch conference in english with other gringos!!!! that was amazing. Its not that the spanish would be hard to understand.....but its just so great to hear the voices of the prophet and apostles. Also wasnt it SO cool to have the other languages at confernece??? (we did watch the ones in the spanish in spanish though) Here were the talks that stood out to me: Elder D Todd Christoffersons talk was perfect for the people here in El Salvador. Seriouslly i just want to print off the talk and send it to this whole country haha. He talked about a lot of problems that the people have here in their lives that a lot of time people here dont understand that they have the responsibility to choose their actions and God doesnt control their lives... They always say "if God wants me to i will go to church this sunday"...well obviously yes. anyways it was really great. Uchtdorfs talk was really great for our investigators. I loved how he talked about the personal revalation. Its important that everyone can gain and strengthen their personal testimony through personal revalation. During Tad r Callisters talk I was just thinking about you Mom and Dad. THANK YOU for being such great parents and for being the prime example of my life. I can tell you enough how different i would be if it wasnt for your example. Then Jeffrey R Holland. I already told you how much i loved his talk and how it touched me heart. President Monson obviously i loved. It was really simple but I loved how he talked about our simple purpose. I loved how he talked about the different paths that Christ walked and how we can all relate and we are going to pass through those different paths. Richard G Scotts talked I LOVED. Those 4 tools of family prayer, scripture study, FHE, and the temple are such simple tools. But i loved how he talked about how satan will tell us we dont have time fo those things. But I think now more than ever those things are vital for our families in this world. Those four things are no longer advice but necessary. And last of all I loved Bednars talk. I was so glad i had investigators there. When he said he was talking directly to the investigators we were all like YES! It was a perfect message. I love the way Elder Bednar teaches in his talk. Anyways im so so sad that conference is over...but yeah i learned a ton! We had 9 investigators who came and several less actives so that was really great. I dont have a ton of more time to tell you about our other investigators but maybe next week. Cambios are not this wednesday but the next! But thanks so much for your emails! I love you all! Hermana Groneman