Gongference

Holaaaaaaa

I hope y'all are well!  This week was super boring!  We did nothing!  ....Okay well that's not true but it's all I can remember.  In reality I did a lot this week...probably.

Here's a few highlights that I can remember...
-A living Apostle of the Living Lord came to say hi to me (There were certainly some other not-quite-so-important reasons)
-We're planning 4 conferences that will all happen in only two days

Everything else I did seems rather insignificant by comparison.  I mean, I sent out references, started recording facebook shorts about the gospel from various missionaries in the mission, and went to two birthday parties on the same day (one of which had way better food than the other), but most of that is pretty normal.  If all my emails were just describing the process of how I figured out that José Martinez actually lives in Ciudad del Este and NOT Madrid Spain,  I think you would all get bored pretty quick.

The Gong conference (or more correctly named "Gongference") was pretty awesome.  One quote I loved is we don't go to the temple, we go to God by being in the temple.  I love the increased focus on God that he gives to everything.  Being an apostle would be very very hard.  He had sooooooo many meetings in the couple days that he was here.  I couldn't believe it.  I only actually saw him once, but just realizing how much he does for the Lord was incredible.  It gave me the motivation to keep working even when I am tired, because I know God will strengthen me.

Also this whole 4 conference thing is going to be insane.  Like....wow.  I am hyped, but it is going to be so ridiculously hard.  I'll give more details next week, because the conferences won't happen until the end of the month.

And one more really cool thing.  There was a kid in our ward that got his mission call a while back.  His name is Edu (short for "Eduardo").  He always left with us missionaries and to be one of my best friends.  This last week he started mtc online.  So for a week and a half I had the chance to be his "companion".  That was really cool.  We even went out to preach a few times and enjoyed many lunches together during his zoom calls.  I had a blast.

Love y'all!

Elder Blacker

Pics include Edu packing up his bags and leaving, lunch with him, the Gongferece (Try to find me!), me and my beloved comps with a paraguayan family of investigators,and a pic from last week when we were all waiting outside because of the bomb.




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