General Conference was amazing.  I cant even explain the gratitude I have right now at the close of conference.  I fasted and prayed that I might be able to receive specific revelation that I could apply to me.  Obviously this is something that occurs every time in my studies, instruction from leaders, and especially conference, but I was truly humbled as nearly every single talk said something that hit me hard and touched my heart. There are so many exciting things happening as the Lord is hastening his work, and I am so grateful to have the chance to be a part of it as a full time missionary!

One cool miracle we experienced was as we were on our way to a meeting.  We saw R---...  I feel like I've talked about him a lot, but we meet with him almost every day, and we have seen so many cool things with him.  Over these past 4 weeks, he has gone from a homeless man with no job to a clean-cut working man, who has attended church with out fail.  That is an intense battle with his alcohol addiction.  As we rode past, we saw him enter a liquor store. Our hearts sank.  All the progress he had made, all the work put in, was about to be shattered.  As he came out of the liquor store, we rode over to talk to him as he carried his bag with a bottle inside. He greeted us calmly and said, "Hey elders!" He then pulled out a bottle of water from the bag--just regular plain old drinking water.  We were so relieved and proud. We feared for the worst, but we thank our Father in Heaven for the strength he has given R--- to continue to battle. Even though he is a less-active member, and we don't get to participate in a baptism with him, it still feels amazing to be an instrument in helping him become converted and grow closer to his Father in Heaven.

My birthday was great! It was not quite the same as playing a football game on Friday night and catching the 4th down conversion that set me up to kick the game winning field goal, like last years birthday... But a B-day in the mission field on the same day as conference was amazing! :)  Haha.  I'm pretty sure I had more presents than I usually do at home. 

One of the members, F----, is my new best friend.  He's an awesome, 57 year-old, short, chubby man.  He is going to move to Utah in two years, and were gonna be best friends forever.  He took really good care of me.  He got me an amazing Oreo cake, and the gift he gave me was a digital Spanish-English translator thing with all these learning materials on it.  It talks Spanish to me. It's so cool.  I get mad at him, because he spends so much money on Elder Trujillo and me, but he says he likes to, because the more he helps the missionaries, the more the Lord helps him. 

It's so cool to see how involved the members are here and makes me sad when I realize how tough it would be to be a missionary in Brigham City, Utah. But I'm sure all is going to change with the announcements and challenges of the work of salvation for members. My companion can't eat chocolate, so I ate the entire cake myself, and tons of food and candy that I got too... I'm getting so out of shape. Haha.