Mon, Apr 4, 2016 1:31 pm General Conference Was So Beautiful!

                                     Dear family and friends,

Okay, so general conference was so beautiful, as always. It has been so neat to testify of our living prophet and invite everyone to come and listen to his words. I know that he is called of God. I know that what he shares with us is the truth. I hope that we all got so much out of conference and that we continually go back and read or listen to these talks.

So my favorite talks were by Elder Stevenson, Elder Renlund, and Elder Holland. Elder Stevenson talked about keys and the priesthood. I loved this talk because the night before we were teaching our investigator, Karla, about how we can follow the prophet. She had so many great questions and asked how we can tell if someone is the prophet. We then taught her about the Restoration and about general conference. So then everything we had taught her, Elder Stevenson said in his talk. And Karla was able to be there to hear it all!! Such a testimony builder for me. She said that general conference was really different, but that it all made sense to her! We really love Karla, and she is progressing so much!

Karla kept the flower and note that Sister Johnson and I gave to her a year ago! 

Cendreda, Karla, Hoth

I loved Elder Renlund's talk because when he first spoke as an apostle last conference, I immediately gained a testimony that he was called of God. He said that the more distant we are from God, the more entitled we feel. The more entitled we feel to receive answers and blessings. But the closer we are to God, the more humble we are and faith filled. We understand that God gives us all in His own way and in His own timing. I pray that all of us may draw closer to God, and really understand His goodness and love. It was so powerful when he said If life were truly fair, we would never be resurrected and we would never be clean from sin. Oh, I am so grateful for Christ, for His sacrifice, and for His mercy. We truly do have so much. We have been given all we need. I pray to be more grateful and recognize everything God has already given me. 

Fun P-day at the temple! Hoth, Cendreda, Hoffman, Lewis, Yonk

Aw yeah!

Then to end, I absolutely loved Elder Holland's talk. It spoke to my soul. For those who know me, know that I am a perfectionist. I love to be diligent and work so hard, but at the same time it's hard, because I often find that I am demanding perfection from myself. And that is completely impossible. He said, "the great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don't succeed." "God doesn't just reward the perfectly faithful, God blesses all those who want to improve." This was a great lesson for all of us. To really understand who our Heavenly Father is. He is loving, He is kind, He is so good to us. We must not expect more of ourselves than God expects from us. Remember to call out to Him. Cry to Him for help, He will listen. I know that's true. There have been so many times in my life...and in my mission, where I have felt like I have lost all hope and all faith. But He is there...He is always there. We just have to raise up our voices in humble prayer, then we will feel Him near.

So this family is Grace's family. A year ago I gave Grace, the mom, a Book of Mormon at Surrey Central. Now her family is being taught and have baptismal dates. On exchange I got see them and teach them!!!

Sister Cendreda and I had the opportunity to give a training to our district this week. It was so inspired. We had prepared all of it about baptism and confirmation. We finished planning it on Wednesday morning and then we had a call from Rita. She was so depressed and wanted to completely give up. We talked to her about the Holy Ghost. "You can either go through all of these trials by yourself, or you can go through them with the Holy Ghost." We read D&C 20:37 with her. And she stayed. Because of this training, she didn't give up. It has been another rough go for her though. She just got out of the hospital with pneumonia. And so we will probably have to move her date back, but we are not giving up hope! Please say a pray for Rita!!

Models

We were walking down the street on Saturday and started talking to this young man. He didn't believe us that we could speak Spanish and asked Sister Cendreda to say something in Spanish. She said, "Te quieres bautizar?" Haha we died laughing. "Do you want to be baptized?" He was just like WHAT! We told him what it means and he was like, "well not right now".

We had a lesson with a family in our ward the other day and we just wanted to help with their daughter. She is young women's age and feels like she is losing her testimony. We taught about the Restoration. It was so powerful and so lead by the Spirit. The young woman said the prayer at the end and thanked God for the sisters because "they are my guides and the light in the darkness." Wow, that was so special for me! Teary eyes. I love being able to change lives with the Spirit.

Okay, so this talk was so perfect. It was exactly for Sister Cendreda. I admire her so much and I'm so grateful for the example she is to me. I have never met someone as brave as her. She literally has given ALL she has to the Lord. So I want to share the part of the talk that was so perfect for her!!

Elder Neil L. Andersen Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

My plea today is for the hundreds of thousands of children, youth, and young adults who do not come from these, for lack of a better term, “picture-perfect” families. …

These young Latter-day Saints enter the Church with great faith. They hope to create the family ideal in their own lives at a future day. In time, they become an important part of our missionary force, our righteous young adults, and those who kneel at an altar to begin their own families.

We will continue to teach the Lord’s pattern for families, but now with millions of members and the diversity we have in the children of the Church, we need to be even more thoughtful and sensitive. …

While a child’s earthly situation may not be ideal, a child’s spiritual DNA is perfect because one’s true identity is as a son or daughter of God.

… Let’s open our arms and our hearts a little wider. These youth need our time and our testimonies. …

… Reach out to the youth who feel alone, left behind, or outside the fence. Let us think about them, welcome them, embrace them, and do everything we can to strengthen their love for the Savior.

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

Love Hermana Hoth

Rosa and Emily say thank you thank you for the blanket

 

Dream team!