Week 38 - General Conference, BBQ, Babies, and More!

 Good morning everyone! Well, good morning to those of you who read this as soon as this gets into your inbox. Hello to all of you who read this far later when you finally open up your email app again as well! I hope you have all been doing as well as can be. It has been another wonderful week in North Dakota for me!

The number one highlight of the week was, without a doubt, general conference. Oh my goodness, it was the best thing ever. Never before have I longed to hear our prophet's voice more than this year! Between being on my mission and the crazy state of the world, that inspired guidance, counsel, and direction was exactly what I needed. I loved how often the subject of unity was addressed! A phrase we often hear is to "be in the world but not of the world," and for my whole life I've always thought of that in regards to not being immersed in sin and other bad things. While that is definitely part of it, can it not also mean being above the worldly mindset of hatred and division? I got to study Matthew 5 this week which is Christ's sermon on the mount. In it, He teaches a higher law. As followers of Christ, we don't have the right to treat one person better than another. We have been called to love our enemies, to forgive everyone, to resist anger, and to ultimately like Christ Himself. This isn't easy by any means, but please follow the counsel of our prophets, especially now. You don't get to hate republicans or democrats, black or white, immigrant or citizen, muslim or christian. You get to love. That was without a doubt my biggest takeaway, and something I personally plan to start working on immediately. 

Something that made the conference even more special was that we had people we're teaching watch it with us! Even more incredible was the two women who watched it were people we didn't even start teaching until Friday! On Friday, we met with Urja and Kurtlyn. We had lessons with both, and they are just the most incredible people ever! Urja lived in Nepal for the first 18 years of her life and practices a very different religion from ours, so it's fascinating to talk about our similarities and differences and learn from each other. Kurtlyn is actually living in another state, but wow, the lesson we had with her over Zoom was one of the most spirit-filled lessons I've been in on my mission. I love both of them SO much already! We got to watch one session with some people the other missionaries are teaching as well, and got to go to a member's home for the last session and have dinner with them afterward. Best weekend ever!

Alrighty, let's talk about some other things that happened this week. So on Tuesday, President Howell drove out to Dickinson to do our interviews, sit in on our district council, and he took us out to lunch afterwards! We got street tacos from this BBQ place in town, and they were very yummy. The only desert they have is their version of a strawberry shortcake, where they use their house made cornbread in place of the shortcake. It was interesting, but not bad!

On Saturday we drove up to Killdeer for the gender reveal of a recent convert's baby that she'll be having in December. It was so fun getting to go and support her! Her name is Brigitte, and I've been her friend since the first time she came to church. I love her to pieces! A handful of other families from the ward were there too with all of their kids in tow. Oh my goodness, I wanted to hold all of the babies SOOOO badly! They were just too cute. I'm very excited to be a mom, let's just say that. 

We got to drive a sister down to Ludlow to drop her off to some other sisters who would take her the rest of the way to Rapid City, so that was pretty fun to just go on a road trip for an afternoon. I'm in love with the beauty of North Dakota! Other than that, I did more data stuff, we got homemade cinnamon rolls from some members, and I kept practicing/butchering the organ! It was an amazing week, and it seemed to pass by in the time it took me to blink.

OH YEAH! We also had the best freaking devotional EVER on Friday night! It was with Jack Welch, the man who discovered chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. It was insane, and beyond mind-blowing! If you don't know what I'm talking about, go look it up because there's no way that I could accurately describe even a fraction of what he taught us. 

I love you all lots and lots! Happy October, and I'll talk to you all next week!

Sister Balls