April 4, 2011
Hey family!
I'm just going to say right now that General Conference was awesome. More on that later


Glad to hear that everything is going well at home. Sounds like Megan is in the final parts of her responsibilities for the play. I remember feelings like that, although, mine were based around Homecoming activities, assemblies, and sports games. Sounds like the play is going to be pretty good. I`d imagine that Megan is loving it.




I asked Elder Baez and he said that he is from pretty close to Rama Los Boulevares. I think that`s pretty cool. I asked him and about the names of the places and he said "Claro". For those of you who don`t know what that word means. Sorry, I don`t know what it means in English. I just understand it. It is one of a few words like that. It means something like of course. He lives about 30 minutes away from Barrio San Vicente. He is from a ward named Barrio Aruello.


This week was pretty good for us. We set a few baptismal dates and we worked really hard. We finally got Jhonathan Robles to accept a baptismal date. He is going to get baptized the 15th. Its going to be awesome. I can`t wait. I also finally had the opportunity to do a work visit for me! As companion of a District Leader, I had yet to do a work visit that was meant to see how I was working. Before the Zone Leaders never did them and because my companion was District Leader, I didn`t have a district leader to work with me. It was awesome. I was with Elder Berrett, one of the Zone Leaders in his sector. He is awesome. He goes home with Elder Linares in less than 2 months, and I learned a ton from his experience. He taught me ways to teach with the Book of Mormon and how to be more effective knocking doors. He also showed me what being a Zone Leader was like. We had about 10 minutes of companion study because he was busy the whole morning on the phone with other Elders. The assistants, the district leaders, authorizing service activities. Basically, I learned that I would be okay with never being a Zone Leader. We found a bunch of new people for the sector. We got lost in a hill. We climbed a hill to the top (I miss hiking a lot by the way). Overall it was an awesome experience.


Elder Linares and I also worked really hard to bring people to conference. The sad part. 1 person came. But 1 is better than none. :) Conference is hard because it isn`t in our chapel. Its in the stake center. They have to take a bus to get there. It was a little hard. But we are still excited. Our Zone has the potential to have nearly 40 baptisms this month. (Don`t worry, Im probably leaving before it finally happens.) In May we have a goal for over 40 baptisms. Im way excited for the Zone. (Even though I probably won`t be here). President Tyler basically told me and my companion that I was leaving.


Conference was awesome. I watched in English. ha ha. Elder Berrett talked to the Stake and we were able to see all of Saturday and Sunday afternoon in English. (Sunday morning they needed all of the tvs and classrooms for Spanish) I learned a lot more in English. As cool as it is in Spanish. I just can`t understand some of the examples they use in Spanish. For example, I can`t tell you how to say crust or loaf is Spanish. Its not really important. We just talk about bread (Pan). Its the little things like that. Sometimes we don`t understand the weight of the words.

I learned a lot from conference. I liked when Boyd K. Packer talked. He said this (Im paraphrasing): "If you are looking for a church that requires very little... This isn`t it." He also talked about the fact that sometimes we should let things go. He talked of a stake president who said that sometimes we have to look at situations this way... "Nothing will bring it back. Anything you do will make it worse." Leave it alone. Be humble. Forgive. Repent.


I liked what Russell M. Nelson said. We shouldn`t let fear overcome faith.


President Uchtdorf in the Priesthood session talked about the priesthood. I liked when he said something like. Somewhere between conference, when you say you`ll do it and you write it in your smart phone, and actually doing it... Your "do it" switched gets turned to the "later" position. This is so true. We need to keep our "do it" switch in the "now" position.


Being with Elder Berrett who was listening for things that will help him when we get home. We noticed that there were a lot of people who basically chastened young men who aren`t focusing on getting married after their missions. They kind of destroyed my mindset of "Focus on school and if an opportunity comes along take it." They said that is the wrong mindset. We have to focus on marraige when we get home. But Im okay, I don`t have to worry about that for 17 more months.


Now that I am finishing up I would like to give my quote of conference...

Its from President Monson...


And it is...


"The gift of the Priesthood is priceless."


I love you all. Have a great week. Look for something from conference for each of you. If you don`t think there is anything. Listen to Elder Holland`s talk again and then look again. I promise you that there is something.


Elder Tyler Rasmussen