The Best Two Years: We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet

October 3, 2016

Hi guys!

It's been a pretty good week. I'm settling in the area pretty well, and I'm actually starting to get to know people. We taught a fair amount of lessons this past week, and we got a couple people on date

for later in the month (their names are Layla and Mya)!

What stood out most however, was General Conference. I love General Conference! It's so great to hear from our modern day Prophet, Apostles, and other church leaders. It was a great spiritual recharge. I'd like to share a few of my favorite highlights.

Alright, to start out, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (2nd Counselor, 1st Presidency) gave a fantastic talk Saturday morning to kick off the conference. If I remember correctly, he talked a lot about the Plan of

Salvation. And he asked a really good question to ponder on: "What shall we give in return for so much?"

Elder Juan A. Uceda of The Seventy (for those who don't know, a Seventy assists the Apostles) gave a wonderful talk about prayer. He told an experience where God heard and answered his prayer in a moment of need, despite him ignoring spiritual promptings that would have prevented his danger. After his experience, he had the impression (and I'm paraphrasing): "I listened to you. But you didn't listen to me." It made me think how many times I've had my prayers answered, even when I've not been the greatest at listening to God. It reminded me how merciful God is, and how perfect and reliable He is. And it was a reminder that I (and all of us) need to do better.

Another highlight was Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He spoke about potential stumbling blocks, specifically "the philosophies of men" and "looking beyond the mark". The mark, he pointed out, is Christ, and he warned about the tendency to over-emphasize or obsess over minute or unimportant details and lose track of the big picture, or "mark", which is Christ.

I enjoyed the Priesthood Session of Conference greatly, and I found all the talks inspiring, especially Elder Holland, President Uchtdorf, and President Eyring. And I found President Monson's interesting. Due to his health, his talks have been quite short recently, so it was no surprise that it was another short one. But what was a bit different was his topic: The Word of Wisdom. He didn't explain it too much, but simply reiterated its importance and promised blessings for living it. At first I thought "Its a good review, but what am I supposed to get out of this, and why did President Monson decide to use that topic in the Priesthood session? Then I thought, "Well, he is the prophet, and he obviously was inspired to teach that for a reason. So, figure out the reason." So that will be something to study. God doesn't inspire his prophet to speak on something because it will be a "nice review". Review or no, God inspires his prophet to speak on a certain topic because it is IMPORTANT. So if President Monson was inspired by God to remind the brethren of the church about the Word of Wisdom, then God must want the brethren of the church to take another look at that. And if the prophet wasn't super specific as to why he chose that topic, then it's our job, through prayer and study, to figure out why, and what it is we really need to get out of it.

A few other highlights were Elder Oaks's (Apostle) superb instruction about missionary work, and President Monson's and President Nelson's (President of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles) back to back testifying and instructing on the Plan of Salvation. President Monson's, though short, really was a well put together and beautiful story/testimony of God's Plan for us. And it was powerful to hear the prophet testify of so beautiful a doctrine.

Elder Bednar gave a wonderful talk on coming closer to Christ. Something that stood out to me was he made a distinction between believing in Christ and believing Christ. It's possible to have great

faith in in Christ but then doubt His blessings and promises in our own lives. We may generally believe that He is the Savior and that He has power to bless all of us, but when it comes down to ourselves individually, we may doubt that It'll work for us. So in addition to believing in Christ, we need to believe Him when he says He can and will help us.

And the last highlight I'll mention here is from Elder Carl B. Cook of the Seventy. He told of an experience where he was assigned to preside over and serve an area of the world which he dearly loved, but then several years later was reassigned, and he wasn't too enthusiastic about it. That really hit me, because that was my exact feeling when I got transferred. Elder Cook then told how his heart was softened and he learned to accept the call to serve somewhere else. Our callings, whatever they may be, come from the Lord, and we need to treat them that way, and trust God and his servants to put us exactly where we need to be. After pondering a lot about it, I had similar thoughts and impressions about my transfer call. This was sort of my second witness.

Well all in all, it was a fantastic conference. I noticed a theme of Repentance sort of woven throughout. That's probably something we should all pay attention to. But anyway, it was great. I'm so grateful for living Apostles, and a living prophet, Thomas S. Monson, to guide us. I know President Monson IS a true prophet of God and a special witness of Jesus Christ, and I'm so thankful that the Heavens aren't closed, and that God still speaks to us through prophets, just like He did in days of old. The Bible says God is "the same yesterday, today, and forever". It stands to reason that He'd still follow His pattern of speaking to prophets. And holy cow do we need it more now than the

world ever did before. The world's getting more and more crazy. But by looking to the prophet, and following the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can navigate through all of the madness and achieve true happiness in this life, and later, Eternal Life with our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ.

I'd like to encourage all who read this to study the General Conference addresses and make them part of your lives. As President Ezra Taft Benson said "our marching orders for [the next] six months are found in [these] general conference addresses". Jesus Christ is leading His church through living prophets and apostles. We can't take that lightly, or for granted.

Well, that's all I have for today. I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

For p-day we went to Kolob Canyon, a section of Zion National Park, with Elder Howard and his greenie, Elder Parsons. We drove all the way up to the lookout point, and then did a small hike. Here are some pictures. They don't do it justice at all!