The Center of Our Faith: Jesus Christ

I can't tell you how excited I am for conference.  I thought I was excited for The Dark Knight Rises or The Avengers back home, but that's nothing compared to how jazzed I am for General Conference this weekend.  Also, for our mission, October 5th is the Return to Normal Schedule (we've been waking up at 7 for a few months and everything was pushed forward half an hour), and we get to start wearing suit coats every day!  Haha!!  October is my favorite month for a reason.

So there's a lot to look forward to.  Unfortunately, we didn't teach 21 lessons last week.  We only taught 12, in fact.  That's mostly my fault.  We worked super hard the first three days and, in my opinion, kind of burned ourselves out.  After that I got sad and sadness turned to laziness and... well, I'm far from perfect.

But I'm learning.  I guess that's a huge part of the mission: how much each missionary learns, if they choose to.  It's really amazing, when I sit down and think about it, how much I've learned over the last eight months (yeah... eight months).  Even if I came home right now, I'd be a dynamically different person in terms of work ethic, study habits, communication, interaction, courage, faith, and patience, to name a few.  But I'm not coming home right now, and I still have so much to learn.  I really just want to be proud of myself when I get to the end of my mission.  I should focus on that desire more.  Maybe it'll help me out.

Another thing that's starting to help me out: yesterday night, listening to Elder Holland's last conference talk from Anziano Modugno's thumb drive (we're getting pumped!), I realized how much I've drifted from the center of our faith: Jesus Christ.  And I got a little teary and warm inside as I realized that I really, truly believe He's the Son of God and the Savior.  It's something I need to internalize, something that should guide me rather than a happy thought bouncing in the back of my head.  I guess I spend so much time sharing our unique message with the world--that Joseph Smith was called as a new prophet, that God has a specific Plan laid out for our eternal happiness, that by following the commandments we are safe and blessed--that I forget who called Joseph, and who made the Plan come to the fruition, and who gave the commandments in the first place.

I believe that Jesus is our Savior, that he did what the bible says he did, and that he appeared to the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.  I believe that He lives, guides the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today through a living prophet, and that He knows and loves each of us.

Just writing that out makes me feel better.  Write down your testimony somewhere special, if you have one.  If not... well, get one.  It comes through study and prayer.  And it does come.  I promise.

Two funny things that happened this week, with pictures!

1, 2)  We made cookies for a ward activity.  Or... tried to make cookies.  They turned out more like cakies.  But the Italians loved them anyway!  Members asked us for the recipe!

3)  Rained.  We were on our bikes.  Seems to happen a lot to missionaries, or at least to me.  Ha!

Love,
Anziano Burton