Happy Conference Weekend

We still haven't watched the Sunday afternoon session yet, but we will sometime this week.  Our schedule went like this: Saturday at 6pm we watched the Saturday morning live. Then on Sunday at 11 am we watched the priesthood session, then at 2 we saw the Saturday afternoon, at 4 the women had their session, then at 6 pm again we saw the Sunday morning live. We did all of this thanks to our iPad in the church.  When president Eyring or uchtdorf says by satellite or Internet, that was us. We hooked the iPad to a projector and projected the video onto the sacrament room wall.  Meanwhile, we the missionaries and one Nigerian member watched the rest in English in a separate room.  General conference is just spectacular.  Our church is truly God's kingdom here on the earth.  My thoughts go back to when I was at Montserrat and I was in the Catholic Church on top of the mountain.  We believe in continual revelation from our Heavenly Father through his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7, d&c 1:37-38).  We live in a very busy world and if we are not in tune to the spirit, we will be choked like the parable of the sower.
     "7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
     "22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful."- Matt 13:

When I think about this I think about an old seminary video about being in tune with the spirit given by Élder wirthlin called" Sensitivity to Spiritual Communication, Part 3". Copy and paste the title in lds.org and find it and listen to it.  I know as we heed the promptings of the spirit we will live lives more virtuous, and if we are in holy places the spirit can speak to us and direct our path if we let him.  General conference gives us the chance to reflect, what are we doing in our lives?  Is it within guidelines that the leaders of the church urge us to do?  We can find greater light in our lives and know what the savior wants us to do to come unto him.  Let us repent of our sins and errors and do as sister Christianson, wife of one of the presidents of the presidency of the seventy, said a few months ago as they visited our mission to wash our garments in the blood of the lamb of God, quoting Isaiah.

16 ¶Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Random thoughts of the week:
We were walking this week and a random person honked at us, gave us a thumbs up and shouted " ¡mormones!"

I have seen a lot of hummers here, or maybe the city is so small that it's the same one passing by...

We were walking down a street one night and we walked passed a bar with inappropriate music and dancing and my companion touched the wall and said " this is the closest the spirit will have to this building."

It officially getting hot, 22 degrees C and sweaters!

We had a zone enfoque in Palma.  We flew there in the morning, had our normal studies in the piso of the other elders before the meeting, and I made the elders’ beds and took out their trash, very messy piso.  We had dominos pizza afterwards too!

I forgot my pin for my church card last week.  A big old brain fart came up and attacked me and I forgot my number.  I hit the PIN number wrong a few times and locked my account for 24 hours.  I had to call the mission office for my number.  I was super embarrassed.

On the flight back to Ibiza from Palma I saw little tiny boats out in the Mediterranean Sea, with long sails.  They looked like ants from the sky.

We went contacting with a member last week and I walked passed a young couple thinking that they weren't going to listen, and the members contacted them. Min fact the man knew the church and the missionaries from his country in the Dominican Republic, and the woman talked to the other elders just before.  I learned to talk to everyone.

We talked to another Italian man who spoke English.

We had a few sprinkles this week.

We went to a beautiful pueblo to go tracting.  It was a typical Spanish town with small yards and old people.  Beautiful, but they need the gospel more.

I ripped my pants while putting clothes in the washer, so today I bought some thread.

Guess what!! Go to the sustainings from this General conference and look up this name MARK L. PACE!!!!!  My mission president is a 70!  It was a jaw dropper.  I knew that he was a holy man and that he was going to become a general authority some day.

We had conf. In our small chapel. we had a few show up for conf.

Our branch prez told us a great story about how he was trying to get the members here to a district meeting ( because we are not a stake yet here in the islands, we are trying to become one in 2020) and they didn't have enough seats in the plane So he called the district
leader and said all 21 of us are going or none.  Within a few minutes the president got all the members to the meeting and back.  What a big miracle.

Well family I hope that you have enjoyed this wonderful weekend as I have.  I know as we heed the warnings of the prophets and not treat them as restrictions we will be blessed by our faith and obedience.

May the Lord bless you in your activities this week and counsel as a family in all your plans and goals. I'm still here too, only just thousands of miles away on an island in the Mediterranean Sea!  I hope you have a great week!

Con mucho amor por nuestro profeta, Thomas S. Monson,
Élder Gonzalez

Sent from my iPad, from Spain!