Week 73: What a week!

Familia!

Who would've known that you could fit so much into a week...man, this week has been incredible.

Monday was a fairly normal day, but we did hear some awesome news. For quite some time we had known that Elder Holland was going to come and speak to our mission while he was down for the YSA conference at ASU, but Monday Elder Oscarson and I found out that we were going to be his personal escorts into the building...pretty cool I guess. So, we were stoked about that, but Monday proved to be a pretty normal day. And then, Tuesday came, and it still doesn't seem like Tuesday has ended. All day every day we have been running from District Meetings to working on the transfer board to zone conferences to lessons to more transfers to more lessons and finally somehow we ended up in Yuma last night and got back this afternoon. Man has time flown, but I have been thankful for every second of it.

With Elder Holland coming, I wanted to make sure that I was completely ready for him, ready to receive revelation for both myself and my area. I had been praying a lot and had written down several of my questions when Friday afternoon President Toone received a call and was told that Elder Holland had received a last minute change of assignment from the First Presidency. So, not going to lie I was a little disappointed but I learned a valuable lesson. The next day I was reading in 3rd Nephi when Christ was visiting the people in the Americas. After spending quite a while with them, He left and was to return the next day. Just as expected, the people left and told everyone about it. Special efforts were made by everyone to be there upon His return. Obviously all of us would do the same, seeking to see the Savior of the world. But as I was reading, the thought crossed my mind, why don't we do the same when we hear about church, why don't we have the same excitement when we read the scriptures or anything of that matter. Every single moment we have the opportunity to communicate with our Father in Heaven, why is that same excitement not there? As I thought about the meeting that we almost had with Elder Holland, I realized that I could find answers to the questions I had written in many more ways than hearing from an Apostle of the Lord. Saturday afternoon we had the scheduled meeting, but instead with Elder Wright of the 70. Between the things he said and the things that I have been studying lately, each and every one of those original questions I had written have been answered. I know that our Father in Heaven truly does listen to our prayers. I know that as we seek, we truly will find.

With the YSA conference being this weekend we tried to get all of our investigators to go. It was pretty much like a Mormon Oscars without the Oscar. Pretty much every well known member of the church was there. Alex Boye, Sheri Dew, Chad Lewis, Ann and Mitt Romney, you name it, they were probably there. Anyway, it was an awesome experience for our investigators. We challenged our investigators to take questions to this conference as well, and it was awesome to see as each one of them talked about how many prayers had been answered. With both of these experiences it just reaffirms the simple truth that if we ask, we will receive. I love having the opportunity to teach and bear testimony of truths that I have found in my life and then ask those whom I am teaching to pray and find out for themselves. I'm so thankful that this is a gift given to all of us. I know that Father truly does listen, and as we pay attention, He will always answer.

I love you all! Hope everything is going well!
Con Amor,
Elder Jurgensmeier