April 2, 2012

Heylo,
We had a great week and things are rolling along great right now. We've got 6 amazing people who are preparing for baptism for the month of April. We've been SO blessed to find these people. Things are crazy as usual being zone leader and doing exchanges all the time. I went back to Bergerac this week for a day because there's a new DL Elder Wilcox there. He's great! Bergerac is in good hands. It always feels weird going back there haha. I feel like my mission has ended and I'm touring my old cities.
Conference was amazing!! We had 6 investigators come and watch at least one of the sessions. I'm so thankful for the prophet and the apostles. When I hear them speak I just feel peace and safety. I know that they speak the word of God. Before this conference, I wrote down a list of 6 or 7 questions and concerns I had, hoping and praying that conference would help me with those things. Amazingly, every question was answered, and a few were quite specific and not general topics. For one of them, there was a talk given specifically on the subject! I know God knows us and all our needs, just as president Monson said at the beginning of conference. These men are prophets, seers, and revelators. There's no doubt in my mind about it. I'm SO thankful for their guidance and their examples. How blessed are we to have prophets and apostles and the priesthood on the earth? There is no other church or organization on the face of the earth led directly by God himself through 15 christlike men who are chosen by God, given His priesthood, who work and serve in perfect unity and love with no wordly reward or gain, but they simply do it because they love God and they love their fellow man. I love the church!
This week pray for W X. and A who should be getting baptized. W X. is pretty solid. This week she said she had a question about whether she could be forgiven of her past mistakes. She took the BoM and opened it up randomly and start reading. She opened up to 3 nephi 9 and started reading from verse 18 until the end of the chapter. She shared that with us and said that she must be and wants to be baptized. What a miracle! Apparently that has happened multiple times to her on different occasions as well. T is still doing great. The guy knows everything already somehow. He understands the priesthood, the restoration, the plan of salvation, and we've only taught him twice. He says stuff before we even teach him, it's incredible. He's so prepared. We just go and start teaching and then he teaches himself (more like the spirit teaches him). He told us the whole first half or the plan of salvation basically without us even getting past premortal life haha. He's going on a mission for sure (he's only 20). His baptismal date is the 14th.
I read this morning in preach my gospel about accountability and I don't know what happend, but between that and conference, I really got fired up. I'm stoked for the rest of this transfer and I wanna just "leave it all on the field" as they say. I hope everything is well with all of you. The church is true! Every soul has great worth, and yes, even your own (sometimes it's hard to see that). This week I was reflecting on less active members of the church or returned missionaries who come home and just turn into the same person they were before or go through the motions again. I don't ever ever want that to happen to me. The mission has shown me what the Gospel offers and now I want to dedicate my whole life to living it and sharing it. That has to be our priority in life or we will never find true joy and satisfaction. That is God's plan - He's laid it before us, and now let's live it up! (in a Godly sense). I love you all!
Bonne semaine.
Love,
Elder Tudor