Houston Here I Come!

Mi familia bonita!

Well, the time has come and I am headed to Houston soon! Whoo! I have to be up at 2:30 this morning to get ready to go, so who knows if I will even sleep tonight. But right now I am kinda a lone wolf here at the CCM. Hna. Smith left at two this morning and every other girl that was in my casa is also gone. So I am a companion with Hna. Hill right now, she is the only other girl going with me to my mission. So I am very glad I at least have her! Then there are only two other Elders left in my district that leave with us tonight too. It's so weird, and now that everyone is gone I am more than ready to go. Maybe not with my Spanish, but I hope that will come with time!

Okay, Conferencia general. WOW! I mean really? My saying for this week is GOD IS GOOD. I cannot even tell you how many times I have said that this week.  Anyways, conference. I don't even know where to begin. We watch it all together in the auditorium over a broadcast. Mom, the Relief Society Broadcast. I have an experience I want to share with you. You were right, President Monson's talk was so sweet and it is clear the love he has for his wife. As he was speaking, I just kept thinking about Grandma Peterson. Her name came into my head over and over again and I felt so loved. I know that I felt of her presence there with me as I was watching that and I know that she is an incredible woman even though I do not know her personally. I know she is in the details of our lives even if we don't recognize it. She loves us so much. I know I never was able to know that while she was here, but I promise you that she does. I felt of her love that night.

The words that came from every speakers mouth were so incredibly inspired. They truly are God's messengers. Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today, I know it. The Spirit testified of this to me every time I heard him speak. It is so amazing to watch conference with the perspective of a missionary. The whole time I was thinking about investigators who had problems with certain things and how perfectly the messages could relate to them. For any missionary that had invesigators watching with them, President Uchtdorf's talk...GOLD. Honestly so incredible. I love how he said, we are all hypocrites. None of us are as perfect as we could be, but what makes the difference is that we have desires to be better, repent of our sins, and come unto Christ through His perfect atonement. How many times did he say, "Come, join with us" or "There is room for you here." I think that is exactly what the Lord would be saying to the people if He were here, and it is exactly what we, in His behalf, need to be doing. This is what stuck out the very most to me this conference. INVITATIONS. Wow. I can't even number the talks that mentioned Christ's invitation to "Come unto me," "Come follow me," "Come now," "Come unto Christ," "Draw near unto me and I shall draw near unto you," etc. I think you get the idea. Christ has His arms open for all and He will embrace us. We just have to heed His invitation "Come unto me." It's not just something for the Lord to do, we also have to do our part. Christ invites us to come unto him, the prophets have invited us to invite others to come to Christ. That is what we must do. Invite, invite, invite! It's not our invitation, it is the Lord's. He needs our help to bring people to Him so that they can feel of His love. I realized this week something about the Savior's love. 1. We have to recognize the love that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for us. It is perfect and infinite. 2. We in return have to love God and Jesus Christ. 3. We must love others. It is not until we recognize the love that the Savior has for us that we can love others with a love as powerful as His. He sets the perfect example for us, and now He invites us to do the same. It is our choice, but how happy He will be--how happy we will be--if we but only accept.  I loved Edward Dube's talk as well...in the service of the Lord, it is not where you serve, but how. It's not what we have done, where we have been, but where we are willing to go. You don't have to be a set apart missionary to take part in this work. This is the Lord's work and He will make it work. GOD IS GOOD.

Sunday was probably the best day I have had at the CCM, and what a way to end it. This weekend filled with conference and what I am about to tell you has made my top moments here. After conference on Sunday we began to pack because they fumigated our casas on Monday for bugs, so we had to get a bit of a head start. Oh and a little bit of a background story...we watch a church movie every Sunday night here and Hna. Pack and I really wanted to watch The Testaments last week before we left. And we honestly prayed for it. Then we get to the movie and it was not the Testaments. We weren't upset, we just really wanted to watch it! haha Then this Sunday we go to watch the movie and I'm just talking to people in my district and Hna. Pack says "Hna. Hoj. Look up at the screen. Look what's up there." Lo and behold I see the words THE TESTAMENT. GOD IS GOOD. That was something so little but it meant so much to me. The Lord is so mindful of us and truly wants us to be happy. Watching that after being so spiritually uplifted from conference, well watching that anytime, I lost it. The Spirit overtook me and the gratitude I have for my Savior swelled inside of me. I love Him and I truly truly desire to do all I can to become like Him. It is so difficult and it takes so much work but I know that God will help us be better if we ask for His help.

After the movie we went back to our classroom and the Elders in our district gave everyone Priesthood blessings. To echo what I said last week, I am so grateful for the power of the Priesthood, and I am so happy that all those Elders are worthy to bless us. When one Elder was giving a blessing a scripture came to my mind, it goes something like where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. I could have sworn that if I opened my eyes at that moment, the room would have been filled with angels and the Savior Himself. The Spirit was so remarkable and no one could deny it's presence there. Tears were streaming as we sung for the last time Nearer My God to Thee and God Be With You Till We Meet Again in Spanish. I never thought it would be so hard saying goodbye to these people, but they have become my family here and I love all of them so much. It was so hard thinking that would be the last time I would be with these people, but there was no better way to end it. GOD IS GOOD.

I am so blessed and so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary and to have spent six weeks in the Mexico CCM. I know I was meant to be here at this time for a reason. I am so lucky to get to go to Houston Texas and I hope that I can be humble enough to let the Lord work through me to accomplish His work. I am so grateful that I have the next 17 months to focus on the Savior and recognize His hand in my life and how He blesses others. He works miracles every day, and if we look for them we will be blown away by the love He has for us. I challenge you all to think every day about how the Savior blesses your life. Everyone, if they are willing, can recognize this. And I challenge you all to invite others to come unto Christ, and accept His invitation yourself. Come unto Christ. GOD IS GOOD.

Les amo!!

Hermana Hoj