Great week!! The highlight, of course, was the Mission Conference with Elder Quentin L. Cook, Elder Craig C. Christensen, Elder David S. Baxter, and Elder George F. Rhodes--truly incredible!! I really did feel like my prayers were answered and that the meeting was definitely filled with the Spirit. Elder Cook left us with three important things to remember: 1. We are "ward and branch builders," not the marketing arm of the church. 2. You succeed when you invite, regardless of the outcome. 3. YOU are the message. He also referenced D&C 31 and told us that, as verse 5 says, the Holy Ghost is a cleansing agent; if we are truly servants of the Lord, the Holy Ghost will cleanse us! He left us with an Apostolic Blessing that EVERYONE we love is being blessed by our service. He promised us that if we serve, our faith will increase. He left a blessing of health, as well.
Before the conference started, he wanted each one of us to have the opportunity to shake his hand for a "2 second interview." :) I felt such a wave of peace come over me as I shook the hands of these servants of God. I truly felt my Heavenly Father's love for me. What an incredible and memorable experience!
This week the work went great. We have SO MANY less actives in our ward that we are working with. We only have two investigators (but they were both at church yesterday-yay!!! :)), and we are eating dinner with one on Tuesday.
Bishop gave us a referral to a member whose records we don't have yet. We visited her, and she said, "Oh, you must be the Mormons my sister sent!" Her name is Patty, and she was baptized when she was eight but hasn't been to our church since she was little. In fact, she was baptized into another church since! She knows VERY little about the church....like, she didn't even know about the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith. We invited her to church, and she sounded very interested. She couldn't come because of a migraine (she has a lot of health problems), but she is very excited that we came into her lives at this time, as she is very lonely. We are excited!! It's like we have a new investigator...except she's already been baptized.... :)
Keep praying for me and for all of the missionaries---believe me, we need all of God's power that we can get.
Love you all!!
Sister Budge