Hi!

From:elder.miller@myldsmail.net

Hey everyone, I am back to full health, and the Mission Conference was amazing!
I had 4 exchanges last week and one on Monday this week. Friday I got the opportunity to do 4 baptismal interviews, and Elder McBride got to do one in Salamanca. It was a crazy, crazy week, just jam packed with spiritual experiences.
The conference was just spectacular. It was amazing and life changing all wrapped into a 3 hour revelation-receiving session. I learned so, so, so much. It was just awesome how they conducted it and great to have the whole mission there and the CCM missionaries and teachers as. There were about 150 missionaries in attendance total. Richie Romney’s little brother was there. First, Sister Oaks spoke about companions and the importance that every missionary has a good companion. She talked about charity towards our companions and helping them and teaching and learning from one another the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then Sister Bednar spoke about companions a little bit as well. They had 3 missionary sons who went to Finland, Bolivia, and I think Brazil. She talked about some motherly advice: be the missionary our mother thinks we are- be the missionary the Lord expects us to be- and then one other piece of advice that was just dandy but isn’t coming to mind.
Then it switched to Elder Bednar and an open discussion/lesson/questions/applying scriptures/nothing like I’ve ever seen. He started with “Don’t take notes. Just write the promptings of the spirit and what the spirit says, not what we say”. He guided the meeting for the next 2 and a half hours. He occasionally directed comments or questions to President Farnsworth (just 2 or 3 times), but more often to Elder Robert C. Oaks. It was amazing to see the area of Europe’s goals in line with the Spain Madrid mission goals and how we are unified as a team. Elder Bednar taught from Doctrine and Covenants 44:1 and 2 to start out with, and did questions like “what do you observe and learn from that scripture?” He just kept asking and prying and getting more and more out of such a small window of passages in the scriptures. He later opened up to questions from us, and there were some great questions asked and answered by the spirit. It was a one on one experience with the spirit, in that they taught us better how to teach with the investigators receiving revelation through inspired questions and scriptures. As they mentioned numerous times, it was better than just preparing talks and giving them, because the revelation was received and would continue to be received, and our learning would continue long after the conference. They taught about scripture study and scrutinizing the scriptures, and one amazing activity to read the Book of Mormon for 6 months daily as many times as possible in those six months, and study the whole time about the atonement and then write about the atonement a 1 page paper on our learning and knowledge and understanding gained through diligent scripture study. It was awesome because all of this came up through elders’ questions to an apostle of our Lord. It was just amazing. It was one of the best experiences of my life, bar none.
My studies have been going amazing this week as well, ever since trying to apply what I learned. The fireside was awesome as well, and they invited the missionaries in the conference to not write anything down, just pay attention to the teaching method as they opened up the whole hour and a half to open questions from the audience of a jam packed Stake Center. I love a scripture that Elder Bednar shared in Psalms 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” Also, he shared many other inspired and amazing things. Our investigators ate it up and just loved it. We have been applying it in our lessons with the members and investigators by sharing scriptures and just ripping them apart with questions and helping the investigator receive revelation. It’s awesome.
Eva and Juan Carlos both came with Alejandro to the Fireside with Elder Bednar. Also, Quirico came, Manuel, and Aurelio the Spaniard that I talked about a while ago. So it was just awesome, awesome, awesome. Eva is just amazing and she received her answer as to the need to be baptized. She had a dream twice, in which she was just scrubbing and cleaning and trying to get out a stain from some of her clothes. Then she realized that she couldn’t get it off, only by baptism and through the cleansing power of the atonement. It was just amazing for me to hear. I am so excited for them.
Manuel quit smoking on Monday at 11ish, and we just had an awesome lesson with him a little bit after. It was one of the best lessons I have had on my mission about obedience using 1 Nephi 3:7 & 15. It went awesome and he was just on fire, then we called him Monday night, still no smoking. Then on Tuesday morning, still no smoking. Then he didn’t show up to the 7 o clock lesson we had at the church. We called and found out he had fallen in and was smoking again. So he has a couple more days to try and quit. He has got to make it more that 24 hours and quit for a life time. The 20 years of smoking is hard to break but it’s possible. So we will see what happens.
Also Ever is doing awesome and he loved the fireside. He made a promise to his member brother, a recent convert, Bernardo, that he would come to church each week from now on. He came! So that was great and we taught him and his girlfriend. The big challenge is the girlfriend Diana has got to turn into Mrs. Ortiz so they can be baptized.
Dinner at VIP’S was awesome with the Whitmore’s last week. They made us order appetizers (mozzy sticks, chicken tenders) and desserts (ice cream sundaes) and drinks (lemonades). On top of that I had ribs. It was so, so good and way out of our missionary price range. It felt like being out to dinner with parents.
I love you all so much. Good luck this week in everything you do. The church is true.
Love, Elder Miller