Stake Conference

This weekend was the Friendswood Stake Conference. We had THREE investigators there! One of them of course was Chuck who has come pretty regularly since we started teaching him and he absolutely loves church. But, he said he didn't care for stake conference because he said it felt too much like a board meeting and that none of the speakers had enough time to talk. We also had a former investigator there who we've been picking up. He's been struggling with A LOT so he reached out to us because he wants that really strong moral compass in his life. He had just told us Saturday that he didn't see himself joining any church anytime soon but a talk on Sunday made him decide that he wanted to work towards becoming a member. Our third investigator is another former investigator who's a single father and there were a lot of things said about fatherhood and how reading the Book of Mormon in the home helps you build up your household and your children. He definitely went away thinking about a few things.

Elder Foster of the Seventy came for a mission tour this weekend. He spoke to all of the leaders in the mission and their companions (e.g. Sister McCleery and I because she's an STL) on Thursday and then all the other missionaries on Friday. It started at 9 but Sister McCleery and I had agreed to join a small choir to sing a special musical number during the conference and they asked us to be there at 7:30 to practice for it. And the building is about an hour and a half away so we left Friendswood at around 6 in the morning. The conference was done at 2 and then there were a couple extra meetings for just the leaders while all the companions hung out in the gym so we didn't get back to our area until 5 in the evening. It was a super good conference with him though. He talked about the Lord's vision for us. It's amazing, when we truly think about it, how truly miniscule we are compared to the whole of God's creation and despite his creation being numberless to us we are so very important to him. "They are numbered unto me, for they are mine." ~Moses 1:37 I really like what Ammon says about this realization in Alma 26:37 Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen."

There were also a lot of thought provoking things said at stake conference this weekend. The first speaker talked about in Luke 6 how multitudes pressed forward to touch the Savior some to be healed but some - he posited - simply to touch him. So he asked "What do you need to be healed of? OR What will you approach the Savior for?" He then said "I promise ou that the Lord can heal you of anything that ails you and keeping the Sabbath day holy is the way that we can approach the savior to be healed."

I'm sorry this email doesn't have much about what we did this week. I feel like not that much happened but I learned so much at the conferences. The email will probably be even shorter this week because Sister McCleery is going to have a surgery this Wednesday and then she'll be in recovery for, probably, the rest of the week so I'll only be able to get out and work when I find both a member for her to stay with and a member for me to go out with. The surgery is going to be a very minor surgery so don't worry but say some prayers for Sister McCleery that she can stop being so worried. Don't tell anyone (I say to the masses of people this is going out to) but she's been having some worst case scenario nightmares. So any good prayers and/or vibes you can send this way would be appreciated.

Have safe and be fun!

God Bless Y'all

Sister Gillespie