What a great week last week! And to finish it all off, a great general conference. We really did have a good week this last week. We were able to find a few new people to teach. A whole new family of 8 is now hearing the lessons. The two parents and all 6 kids! Its a great blessing to be able to find families to teach. It always helps converts stay converted when the whole family is in on it, and not just one or two. It was a very special experience for me when we found the family. It was in fact a referral from a member that was baptised last year and sealed to his wife in January. He had us come up to his house (at the very top of the mountain in our sector) and we then went to visit his neighbors. The family was all there and so they let us come down the path to visit. We all sat outside in a big circle with the sun fading down on the mountainous horizon. We got the lesson started, and because of the lack of speaking ability in spanish, after every couple of sentences we would have the member that was with us translate into Kichwa. It was a great experience, seeing how the family was learning and being touched by the spirit. By the end of the lesson we invited them that when they felt good about it, that they could be baptised into the church. They all accepted. I would love to be able to relive that lesson again. It was beautiful. When the sun went down it became one of the clearest nights I´ve seen here in Otavalo thus far. Big bright stars in the sky, a beautiful full moon showing the outline of the big volcanoes across the valley from the volcano-side that we were situated on, then little us, sitting in a circle outside a small "hut" of a house teaching with a couple of little flashlights the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many tough moments on the mission, moments of true despair and doubt, but I think that´s why sometimes I get to experience something so precious. To be honest, today has been a day of just plain old bad luck, a trial of a day. And honestly I didn't even want to write home this week. But now, sitting down and remembering the moments of this past week, I again feel better, and know that there is always hope for a better day. Its always darkest before the dawn. The past two days were great days as well. All of us who took the opportunity to listen to or watch General Conference have surely been touched and have learned. There were alot of great talks given. A great one was, of course, Elder Holland´s. He spoke with much clarity, to not have any confusion on the matter, but he spoke with alot of love and concern. I can´t right now think of all of the talks that I liked, but I did think it was very interesting the pattern and the overall focus. April last year was focused much on the Temple, and staying out of debt. But this year in turn, between the 3 meetings saturday and the 2 on sunday, had a general focus on Parents. How to be involved with your kids, how to show them your personal testimony, how to lead them by example. I enjoyed it alot. I know I may still be a few years from having any little ones, but I was able to learn alot and apply those things to my own life now here on the mission.
Every letter that I received this week talked about the big blizzard back home that snowed over all the new green spring grass! Well I guess all there is to say is, Surprise? What did you forget we live in Idaho?! haha. It was something I was talking to my bishop about just the other day while we were going to do some visits, how crazy the weather is back home. It´ll be sunny and great one moment, then outta nothing will come a big cloud, turn day into night and rain like crazy! Well, I hope that everyone is still safe and driving carefully when it does come in and snow like that. As far as the weather here, well.... sunny, once in a while a little rain, but only every couple of weeks. Cloudy days are my favorites, the sun up here at this elevation is pretty hard hitting. But I always put on sunscreen before leaving in the mornings.
Hopefully everyone had a great Easter Holiday, a couple of other gringo missionaries here and myself all boiled eggs to decorate and take to sundays conference sessions for lunch between meetings. It was pretty fun. Got to celebrate a little like back home. All is well here for me, no worries at all. I'm doing very well and staying healthy. Thank you all for your letters every week! Love you all.
Elder Matthew Morris