Hello familia! (April 7)

Hi, everyone!

Hope y'all enjoyed watching conference! I know I did! It was so awesome! We watched all of the sessions in the chapel, and it was in Portuguese, of course. I was able to understand most of what was said, but I'm going to have to go back and watch a few of the talks in English to get everything. I missed hearing the actual voice of the prophet, though! I was surprised how much I missed his voice! I think it would be hard to me a member who didn't speak English, because they never hear the General Authorities speaking in their own language, but they have such great faith and such a strong testimony that the words the Prophet and the Apostles speak, no matter what language, are the words of the Lord. They are such great examples to me!

 We learned a lot this week through our mistakes! We have a lot to learn, and a lot of room for improvement. The biggest lesson I learned this week, was the importance of following the spirit. As missionaries, members of the church, and children of God, we have the privilege of feeling the influence of the spirit in our lives. The role of the spirit is to warn us of danger, prompt us to do what is right, and testify of truth. We learned a lesson about the role of the holy ghost in each of these ways. One experience in particular I'd like to share with you. We were in a lesson with an investigator, and he really doesn't learn, he just wants to debate the bible. It's easy to fall into the trap of Bible bashing, because we know that the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. But, we ended up staying there for 3 HOURS and the spirit wasn't there at all for that time. We had the spirit of contention, so there was no room for the spirit of the Lord to testify of the truth. We wasted 3 hours of the Lord's time, and we missed a lesson with another investigator who actually had potential. It was a very humbling, experience, and sister Gonzalez and I learned a lot. Yesterday, we contacted a man in the street just to invite him to conference and hear more about the church. He started arguing with us saying that the Book of Mormon contradicted the Bible. We tried to explain to him that it didn't, but he wouldn't listen. It's easy to prove that the Book of Mormon works in harmony with the Bible, because it does, but we learned our lesson and we didn't engage in the argument. We left him with our number, and told him that when he wants to learn the truth through the spirit he could give us a call. As we walked away, we felt the spirit with us, and knew that we were fulfilling our purpose as missionaries.

I love being a missionary, and I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. All of the talks from general conference highlighted the fundamentals of the gospel, faith repentance, baptism and the Holy Ghost. I know that through the gospel we can become better. We can improve. God has the patience, and He gave us the tools. We just need to have the obedience and diligence to use them.

I love you all so much and hope y'all have a wonderful week!
Sister Pennington