Fruit Galore (Week 74)

 Hello everyone  I hope you all had a great week (despite daylight savings yesterday...) This week included not one, but two  trips to the temple, meeting Miguel  and Maria , and studying for zone conference which is  on Wednesday, also a lof of people gave us fruit this week!

Let's start off with the temple  We got to go to the temple twice this week! The first time we went was to go with our recent converts who went for the first time. Ramiro was there and he absolutely loved it! Hna. Nuñez happened to be in Redlands and she got to come say congratulations, it was so good to see her again  We also had Miguel come too! He's been inactive for a while, so we walked around the outside of the temple with him and answered his questions. He came to church on Sunday (for the first time in months) and he's preparing to go inside the temple for the first time on the 26th 

The second time we went with our friend Andres! He's been a part of the church for about a year and he went through the temple for the first time on Saturday! He was so happy and so many members of our ward were there to support him!

Next, we have Miguel (different Miguel than the one who went to the temple) He sent in an online request to go to church and we got to meet him this week! We gave him a tour of the church building and got to know him a bit. At the end of the church tour we showed him the baptismal font and talked a little bit about what baptism means. Right now he's preparing to be baptized at the end of the month! 

And now, Maria  The elders met her in a parking lot a couple of weeks ago and they gave her a pamphlet about the restoration of the gospel. She started reading, and she loved it! It turns out that she lives in our area and we met her yesterday. She is the sweetest lady with such a strong desire to learn about God. When we gave her a Book of Mormon, she had us write something in the front of it so she would remember who gave it to her  It was a miracle we met her because usually she's not home on Sundays.

And to finish it off: We have zone conference on Wednesday! But it's not just any zone conference because Peter M. Johnson (a member of the 70, leaders called of God to help keep the church organized) is coming! Because of this, they have given us more than usual to study in preparation for Wednesday. 

My favorite talk was "The Blessed and Happy State" by David A. Bednar. It talks about the importance of obedience. For some, commandments are a restriction, something that holds us back. But really they are they to help us grow into the person God wants us to become. We each can choose if we want obedience to be transformational (something that will change us) or not. It made me think about why I choose to be obedient. Is it because I want something from God or because I want to change? Anyways, it was a really good talk and you should read it 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

 Hna. Erickson