Elder Daniel Jackson Picard : Week 40 April 13, 2015 "Better late than never, Conference is the BEST!"

I finally got to watch conference. Woo hoo!! I watched it after everyone else but it was still great. Conference is the best. I love that stuff! Especially as a missionary when you watch conference it makes it that much better. I just learned so much good stuff and was able to get some questions I had answered. I would encourage anyone who hasn't watched conference to watch it because it was great (got to lds.org)! I could go on for days talking about all the cool things I learned but it would take too long and I don't have enough time :( The crazy thing is I only have 2 conferences left as a missionary! I was kind of in shock when those people opposed because I had never seen that before. It just made me think for a bit and of course I know with no doubt that Thomas S. Monson is the true prophet of God and that he really does receive revelation from God on how to direct the church.

This past week I got to do some farming!! It for sure was a lot more tiring than I expected. I will send some pics farming to post on my blog. We tilled a bunch of land with super short shovels so my back was killing me haha. After that we did some sweet potato row things which I don't really know how to describe. We ate some ramen just out in the middle of the field farming so that was kind of interesting and fun. This week I got to go on an exchange with Elder Han and that went well. It was cool to serve with a Korean for a day. I lost my Book of Mormon this week so that was a bummer. I couldn't find it for a few days but then found it! I said a prayer to find it and sure enough God answered my prayer and found it. It just made me think about how God really does answer our prayers. Even a simple prayer to find something lost, He will answer. God really does love all His children and wants to hear from them all and we do that by praying to Him. Faith too I have learned is an amazing thing. When we have faith we have nothing to worry about. So don't stop having faith! With faith we can do all things and God will never stop blessing us as we exercise it.

We had zone training this week and I past off the third lesson for TIP, a program our mission has to learn Korean and become a better teacher. I got some letters from my dad and my bday package so I was pretty excited about that. My dad told me in the letter that the Savior loves us all unconditionally and I sure know that to be true. All people are so different but in all reality we are all the same in the eyes of Jesus Christ and God. I am trying to do a better job and love as Jesus did but man is it hard to love that much! It honestly is incredible and breath taking to think how much Jesus really does love all of us. He suffered and died for us, what an act of love! I hope throughout my life I can continue to improve and love a little more each day so that when I return to my Father in Heaven He will not be disappointed in me for not loving enough. We all can love, it is easy. A simple smile or a compliment is an act of love and that is not hard at all. I opened my bday package a little early because I could wait haha. It was everything I wanted and more so thanks family! I just open a few things and am saving the cards and stuff for my actual bday. My family truly is the best and I love you all so much. It just comforts me that I can be with my awesome family for time and all eternity!

I have been doing a better job of waking up and exercising in the morning but man is it still hard to roll out of bed in the mornings. I have got up at like5:45 the last few days because my body just automatically wakes up at that time and it is easier to get up then. We did our service down at the old folks place again. I got to be a lunch lady and serve the old people food so that was fun. Then after everything we just washed a bunch of dishes. We met Tom this week and got to ball again with him. He won the first time we played 21 but then I beat him the second time we played. We talked a bit after we played and just tried to get to know him a little more. We still aren't sure on how we could best help him but we are trying to figure that out. Our investigator Mr Kim pretty much just set us up a brand new English class with all those kids we taught last week at the pizza place so that was pretty cool. Now we have two English classes but may have to stop doing both of them with the wards combining. They built a brand new big building that we will be going to and we also will be combining with another ward. The ward will get bigger so I am excited about that. I think we will still live and work in Siheung but we aren't for sure yet.

Well I will finish with some stuff from conference. I am not sure whose talk this was but I really liked the one about the Atonement and the quote "Twas I, but tis not I." When I heard this quote it really made me think that sure I have made some bad decisions in my past but that is not who I am now. With the Atonement I was able to change from who I was and I am still changing but it is just amazing to me how powerful the Atonement really is. The past is hard to drop sometimes but as I have not remembered the past I have been able to live so much more happily. So no matter who you are and what you have done, just repent and forget. That is the power of the Atonement. The other one which was probably my favorite was the apostle who used the story of the Native American medicine man. It is so easy to fall into just doing the motions and not hearing the music but we can't let that happen. So just listen a little harder sometimes and hear that music! I love you all so much and remember we can't just hear the music.... we gotta dance too!! So never stop dancing!!

Love,

Elder Picard