It's been a week, alright!
Conference was fabulous. We had tickets to both the Saturday morning session and the Sunday afternoon. It was so cool to be in the conference center! We had a ridiculous amount of stress about who to take with us, since we need to take an investigator or less-active or someone, but seriously no one wanted to go with us. This week was a little rough: hardly anyone answered their door, or their phone, and most people cancelled their lessons like the day of. We did a lot of walking and driving around and saying "..Well, where should we go next?" after yet another person didn't answer their door. Or opened their door a little bit and said, "We're not religious. Good bye." But hey, one cool thing was that we knocked on a door and the lady was very friendly and said "You are the first missionaries I've ever seen!" She had moved here a year ago from guess where... Sammamish! So we had an instant connection and were totally about to baptize her but then she said she didn't want any brochures. Someday, lady. You came to Stansbury Park for a reason.
One of my favorite talks in conference was Elder Ballard's about how we need to stay on the ship of the church and wear life jackets. He is so powerful! And Elder Holland's talk was so good, he doesn't care about talking about hard subjects like depression or poverty. He just says it like it is. And Elder Bednar's was great. I never understood why missionaries all love Elder Bednar so much, but now I do. He is so great. We are totally printing off his talk and giving it to everyone ever. And I really loved the simplicity of President Monson's message: be Christlike. We are a Christian people, and we need to follow His example. That's it! I am so grateful that we have inspired leaders of the church who tell us what we need to hear. I felt like the theme of this conference was personal revelation, that we need to gain a testimony for ourselves and then ACT on it. So great.
Chinese this week: coolest experience. We went up to Temple Square and tagged along with a Chinese tour! It was so neat. I legitimately understood what the sister giving the tour was talking about the whole time, except for the brief moments that I zoned out and sort of lost it. Also, little details sort of slipped, like how many pipes are in the organ at the tabernacle. I don't know how many pipes there are, but I do know that she was talking about how many pipes there are. That, my friends, is improvement. She also included me in my companion as real sister missionaries in the tour, like asking us question about how knowing we are daughters of God has blessed us. I totally responded in Chinese, and people may have thought I talked really slow and didn't know what I was saying, but the important part was that I did say things. And I got to bear my testimony in Chinese, which is what I was called to do. Life is great. We had to go all the way to Salt Lake to find Chinese people, though. We went to a Chinese restaurant in Stansbury last week and I asked the girl at teh register where she was from-China! "Ni shuo Zhongwen ma?" (do you speak Chinese?) "What?" "...Ni shuo..." "Oh, I speak Cantonese." Cool.
One of our less actives, Ezequiel, is doing great. He has been struggling with drinking but the week before I came Sister Payne made a deal with him that if he didn't drink until November 1st, she would not eat McDonald's until then. And they are both holding to it! Ezequiel calls us every time he has a test where someone asks him to come out drinking and he has passed every time. We are so proud of him. The Gospel really changes lives, and I am so grateful for the influence it has had in my life.
Love you all, stay strong and share the Gospel with your friends. It's fabulous.
Love,
Sister Cardon 2.0
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