"What Is Said Is Not As Important As What We Hear And What We Feel"

Dear Family,

How are y'all? I loved the pictures Jed! Your baby has BLUE eyes...who'da thought(Editorial note, Jed's wife Katie has blue eyes.)? Pictures are always welcome to my inbox :)

HAPPY HUMP WEEK! ...last week... I've passed my half way point, weird...time sure does fly. Three out of the four Sisters in my apartment came out to gether, Sister Lund my companion, Sister Pond, who was in the MTC with me, and Me. So we all celebrated hitting our nine months together. It was fun :)

On Monday last week,  I was having a rough day, and all I wanted was a nice stack of letters to be sitting in the mailbox for me. When we checked that night, I had not a letter, but a large envelope waiting for me. I got the new ensign from Sharlan that day with all of the conference talks. So I got 42 God-sent inspirational and personal letters in one large envelope. So my personal study, lunch and dinner and after planning hours have been consumed with studying all of the new conference talks. They've really been speaking to my heart this week, and they were very much needed. I encourage y'all to read them. Because they were written and prepared for you. Thank you Sharlan, you always know when to send things :)

My favorite talk so far has been Elder Bednar's The Windows of Heaven. His words have always seemed  to hit home with me, I just "get it" more when I read what he's prepared. One of my favorite parts read:

"We may need and pray for help to find suitable employment. Eyes and ears of faith (see Ether12:19) are needed, however, to recognize the spiritual gift of enhanced discernment that can empower us to identify job opportunities that many other people might overlook—or the blessing of greater personal determination to search harder and longer for a position than other people may be able or willing to do. We might want and expect a job offer, but the blessing that comes to us through heavenly windows may be greater capacity to act and change our own circumstances rather than expecting our circumstances to be changed by someone or something else."

What I read was:

"We may need and pray for help to find [people to share the gospel with]. Eyes and ears of faith (see Ether 12:19) are needed, however, to recognize the spiritual gift of enhanced discernment that can empower us to identify [teaching] opportunities that many other people might overlook—or the blessing of greater personal determination to search harder and longer for a [person or opportunity] than other [missionaries] may be able or willing to do. We might want and expect a [baptism], but the blessing that comes to us through [trusting and waiting in faith] may be greater capacity to act and change our own circumstances rather than expecting our circumstances to be changed by someone or something else."

It was really powerful to me to be able to personally apply something that wasn't exactly related to me in this way. Personal Revelation for ya. Don't wait around for something or someone else to change you. Be the change first.

Right before Elder Bednar's address, Elder Halls his talk General Conference:Strengthening Faith and Testimony stated :

"...Another said, 'I have never before felt so profoundly that a talk was being given to me.'This is possible because the Holy Ghost carries the word of the Lord unto our hearts in terms we can understand.When I take notes at conference, I do not always write down exactly what the speaker is saying; I note the personalized direction the Spirit is giving me. What is said is not as important as what we hear and what we feel. That is why we make an effort to experience conference in a setting where the still, small voice of the Spirit can be clearly heard, felt, and understood. Oh, how we need general conference! Through conferences our faith is fortified and our testimonies deepened. And when we are converted, we strengthen each other to stand strong amid the fiery darts of these last days."

What an experience it has been to study the Conference talks so much more than I feel I ever have before. How's y'alls study been going? I promise that conference talks, and those especially given this last conference were not prepared, given or should be taken lightly. Study them out and apply them to you.

We had a Zone meeting this week down in Eagle Pass, so we got up early and made the commute down. Before the meeting I smashed my brains out taking the Spanish Test again for the bajillenth time, and I do feel better about it. I decided to stop focusing on the score that I get on it, and only ask what I can do better on when the AP's call me this next time. If it's stressing and making me panic so much, it's not worth knowing the score. I'll just focus on improving. Probably could be a good metaphor for life. Don't focus on the score, focus on the improvement.

But anyways, Zone meeting was awesome, I got to see basically all of my favorite people since they're all down on the border as well :) I also had to do a role play in front of them all. We'd been practicing how to be bold in correcting false doctrine that people say in lessons, and I was companions with one the Sister's I live with, Sister Clark. I think I gained a fever that day, because my brain was a little loopy. it's gotten colder here and been raining a bit, so biking in it hasn't been the best way to keep sickness away. But anyways, we role played using 3 Nephi 11 and talking about the when Christ gave his Priesthood to Nephi and his other Apostles. We aced it. I think I was a little tired and short tempered from the fever and the drive and Spanish testing and then three hour meetings, and so I got straight to the point with being bold. Sister Clark said we killed it we did so good. If only we could always be as bold as we are in role plays. It's so much easier to "say what needs to be said" when everyone is expecting it of you right there, as opposed to your investigators who are just confused and stubborn.

But I do think that I am being more bold, especially in Spanish. I got a little pumped with a Less-Active couple who were making excuses about not reading their scriptures. Sister Lund and I had been practicing using Subjunctive (difficult grammer things you don't even think about or need to use in Engish) during our Spanish Study, and so when the opportunity to throw some out was seen, I did it. I was so proud of myself. I said "Dois Quiere que lean su escrituras" and Sister Lund gave me a pat on the back for doing it while whipping out some scriptures to help them understand. IN SPANISH. Yesssss!

So this week, Sister Lund and I have been doing some reevaluating of our area. We've been having really slow progress with a lot of our investigators, but we've been really hesitant to let them go for now since we've been really struggling to find people. We've been talking a lot about letting people go being an act of faith. Man. Faith is hard stuff. Our usually three hour weekly planning session turned into more than three hours planning session as we had a break down talk it out hour. We've decided to be more organized in our planning and try to schedule things out better. We've also started doing inspirational member visits. Which reminds me...

I found a SUPERAWESOMEYOUGOTTAWATCHIT video on the mormon messages dvds that you mailed me. You should go and find it. It was a KSL Special to go with the Youth mormon message "Daytons legs." You should find it. Because it will rock your world. I'd post a link...pero, I can't find it right now. Sorry.

Well, family. That's about all. Take care for the week :)

Love, Hermana Montgomery