Giron Week 19

We preached the gospel this week. And we watched conference! This week was pretty normal, not a lot of huge progress or losses. We are planning an activity to raise money for Lizhet and Rubeiro’s wedding. ($40 to be precise) and they are doing super well. Our other investigators testimonies aren’t quite as strong, but we’re trying to get them there. I leave November 3^rd (97% sure) and it doesn’t seem like anyone else will be ready for baptism before I leave, but I know that’s not the important thing. I really wish I could be here for Viky’s baptism, because she is super awesome. Speaking of awesome did you guys watch conference? So much spiritual knowledge and goodness that my brain couldn’t contain it all, it was dripping out of my ears. Wasn’t it cool that they gave talks in other languages? The Latinos were like “wow I must have the gift of tongues, I understood that whole talk and no one translated it.” I really liked Elder Christofferson’s talk on responsibility and how we are responsible for our actions and that we can’t avoid the punishments of sin,. I loved how he said that resenting gravity won’t save you from falling off a cliff. I think elder Klebinget’s comments on whole hearted obedience were really good too, when he said that you can’t watch a bad movie and feel good that you didn’t watch a really bad one. I also liked his comments on the relation between physical wellbeing and spiritual confidence (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Elder Christofferson also had some interesting comments that helped lead up to Elder Hollands talks. He said that it is God’s will that we are free from sin and poverty, and that we need to take responsibility and go to work. You guys already know that Elder Hollands talk on poverty and charity was super good, I thought it was cool that fasting was talked about so much. It was also cool that the first three talks on Sunday focused so much on the prophet. Another cool theme in multiple talks was time management. Tons of super cool things to apply in my life, I just hope I can remember them all. In other news I got a haircut. My companion said my haircut makes me look like I’m 16. Well, he didn’t actually say that, but that would be the closest English translation. My companion is super cool. If you take a letter out of his last name, it means horse. And get this…. His first name is Rider. I hope you all enjoy October, I made Jack-o-lantern out of granadillas (fruit) to celebrate.

Love Elder Downing