Week 23: General Conference is My SuperBowl!

Hello everyone!

Well, this week was quite awesome!  Elder Contreras put it best, "General Conference week for missionaries is like the Super Bowl". And how true that is! But first for the rest of the week, we got a good number of lessons in, and encouraged a lot of people to watch Conference. We will be checking up on them this week, but my hope is that a lot of people found it easier to watch General Conference on TV then go to church on Sunday, haha!

For myself, I was able to attend the Sunday morning session live at the Salt Lake Conference Center! This was very surprising because we only get tickets from the mission once during our mission, and usually they go to the older missionaries!  It was amazing to go and to be there live!  I also was able to attend the Music and the Spoken Word program (which I have been to before my mission) and it was also spectacular.

There were many things I learned during this Conference.  I took a bunch of notes, but I will say that one of the greatest conference experiences happened while I was at the Sunday morning session, actually sitting there in the conference center. While watching President Monson speak, it just hit me so strongly that this man is a Prophet of God, with the same power, authority, and position as all the famous prophets of days past. He speaks with God, and the Spirit testified that to me in a way like never before just watching him speak with my own eyes. It was a remarkable experience.

We also watched the Saturday morning Conference with a less active I'm working with named Frankie. He's a Navajo and a former four wheeler racer, but ever since a nasty crash a few years back he's been in rough shape, but he writes poems now, and he's shared a few with me and we talk about them; it's pretty legit!  Saturday afternoon and Priesthood session were spent in Goshen with the Sabeys, a wonderful family. Brother Sabey is the ward mission leader there. Sunday afternoon session was spent with the Davis family in Genola, who are also awesome; and we had a wonderful time talking and eating with them afterwards.

I was struck throughout the conference on themes of discipleship, love, and missionary work. The Preach My Gospel study admonition by Elder Ballard was quite solid.  I encourage everyone to take that up, and share what you find with me, I'm always on the lookout for tips to improve! Elder Holland's opening talk was of course a fireball and makes you want to get up and change your life on the spot, and President Eyring's talk on leaving a legacy is important for all of us, no matter what stage in our lives. Elder Scott spoke excellently on fellowshipping and better yet, being a friend to help share the gospel.  President Uchtdorf's talk on Gratitude is something we should hear often, if not monthly.

There were many other talks I enjoyed, but I look forward to seeing them in print and studying them again, particularly looking out for the passages I liked and took notes on, and seeing how it looks in print. But for sure, we have living prophets and apostles today, who speak with the power and according to the will of our Father in Heaven, and what a blessing it is to have the guidance! Let me know what you liked from conference too, and have a good week y'all!

Oh, and I got a haircut, as you can tell by the picture. I figure I'll never really have hair this short again, so I'm trying it out for now.

-Elder Martin

 Th view from where I was sitting in Conference

 Me at the Salt Lake Temple

With Elder Prince from the Ogden Mission (my friend from Dubai)
He went to the same session and found me when we took pictures by the north gate!

With Stephen Davis after conference, who is a boss!

Me, by the north part of West Mountain and Utah Lake