Hello everyone! How was General Conference for all of you?? I bet it was great. It was wonderful for me. I loved all of the speakers and their message they gave to all of us.
For General Conference we actually got to watch it live. So live here in Portugal would be a little bit later than the US. We watched the Saturday morning session at 5:00 pm here in Portugal. The afternoon session was at 9:00 pm. Sunday it was the same thing. The time difference from Utah to Portugal is about 7 hours. It’s great that we were able to watch it live except for the Priesthood session that was on when we were sleeping. We actually watched it a couple different ways. The first time was in Portuguese with English subtitles. Another time was just in Portuguese without subtitles. Then we watched it in English. I like it better in English because I can get more out of it. I can understand it in Portuguese just fine, but it’s just a lot better in English haha.
I loved all of the speakers. They all gave amazingly powerful talks. I also really liked the talks from the 3 new Apostles. My favorite of the 3 was from Elder Dale G. Renlund. I liked his story about when he was a heart surgeon. It actually was similar to the story from Elder Nelson. We need to see through the eyes of the parents or through God’s eyes. I really liked that story. Another speaker I liked was Von G. Keetch. His example about the surfers and the waves was a really great example. Sometimes things will happen and they aren’t what we expected, but when we take time to look at it we can understand why it had happened. The example is compared to God. He sees everything and sometimes we can’t see the whole picture, but with God we can.
I have really enjoyed this conference and the wonderful spirit that was present there. I hope you all got something out of it and that it has blessed your lives.
One thing that was really cool that happen this week is that we had the opportunity to have interviews with our Mission President. I was the very first one that day so he was fresh and full of ideas. What we talked about was how I can continue to be a better leader, things I can improve on and how I can help others improve. I always love having interviews with him. I feel like he is my father here on the mission. He always wants me to improve and help me with my trials. He is helping me be the missionary that I want to be.
This week was an okay week. We had a couple lessons throughout the week. During this week, all the active members who could went to the temple in Spain. We were without a couple of members for a week, but it was wonderful because they got to go to the temple.. They all had a great time there and had a blast. A member here in Santo Andre actually met a member at the temple who is from Beja and they talked about me for a bit. It was cool to hear about that and that they still miss me in Beja. I love my family in Beja!
Another thing that happened this week that was pretty cool was we got in contact with a less active whose son lived in Elder Rosenkildes (Tyler’s companion) ward in Norway. We talked with them and scheduled a dinner with them. The Mom is less-active because her husband doesn’t like the church and doesn’t want her to go. What is really cool is that she still tries to be active by paying her tithing. We got to talk with them on the phone and then we talked to the dad. He actually was pretty cool. He told us we could pass by someday and have dinner with them. This is a big deal because if we get him to start liking the church their family can come back to church and then maybe later down the road he could be baptized. There are miracles happening here in Santo André. I love this work so much. It is a wonderful time to be a missionary!!! I love you all! May the Spirit always be with you and a BIG smile as well haha.
Com muito amor,
Elder Rusnell
For General Conference we actually got to watch it live. So live here in Portugal would be a little bit later than the US. We watched the Saturday morning session at 5:00 pm here in Portugal. The afternoon session was at 9:00 pm. Sunday it was the same thing. The time difference from Utah to Portugal is about 7 hours. It’s great that we were able to watch it live except for the Priesthood session that was on when we were sleeping. We actually watched it a couple different ways. The first time was in Portuguese with English subtitles. Another time was just in Portuguese without subtitles. Then we watched it in English. I like it better in English because I can get more out of it. I can understand it in Portuguese just fine, but it’s just a lot better in English haha.
I loved all of the speakers. They all gave amazingly powerful talks. I also really liked the talks from the 3 new Apostles. My favorite of the 3 was from Elder Dale G. Renlund. I liked his story about when he was a heart surgeon. It actually was similar to the story from Elder Nelson. We need to see through the eyes of the parents or through God’s eyes. I really liked that story. Another speaker I liked was Von G. Keetch. His example about the surfers and the waves was a really great example. Sometimes things will happen and they aren’t what we expected, but when we take time to look at it we can understand why it had happened. The example is compared to God. He sees everything and sometimes we can’t see the whole picture, but with God we can.
I have really enjoyed this conference and the wonderful spirit that was present there. I hope you all got something out of it and that it has blessed your lives.
One thing that was really cool that happen this week is that we had the opportunity to have interviews with our Mission President. I was the very first one that day so he was fresh and full of ideas. What we talked about was how I can continue to be a better leader, things I can improve on and how I can help others improve. I always love having interviews with him. I feel like he is my father here on the mission. He always wants me to improve and help me with my trials. He is helping me be the missionary that I want to be.
This week was an okay week. We had a couple lessons throughout the week. During this week, all the active members who could went to the temple in Spain. We were without a couple of members for a week, but it was wonderful because they got to go to the temple.. They all had a great time there and had a blast. A member here in Santo Andre actually met a member at the temple who is from Beja and they talked about me for a bit. It was cool to hear about that and that they still miss me in Beja. I love my family in Beja!
Another thing that happened this week that was pretty cool was we got in contact with a less active whose son lived in Elder Rosenkildes (Tyler’s companion) ward in Norway. We talked with them and scheduled a dinner with them. The Mom is less-active because her husband doesn’t like the church and doesn’t want her to go. What is really cool is that she still tries to be active by paying her tithing. We got to talk with them on the phone and then we talked to the dad. He actually was pretty cool. He told us we could pass by someday and have dinner with them. This is a big deal because if we get him to start liking the church their family can come back to church and then maybe later down the road he could be baptized. There are miracles happening here in Santo André. I love this work so much. It is a wonderful time to be a missionary!!! I love you all! May the Spirit always be with you and a BIG smile as well haha.
Com muito amor,
Elder Rusnell