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April 3: GENERAL CONFERENCE!

Hellooo everybody! 

Happy 1st Birthday to my Nephew George yesterday! He's already on his second year of life!

I hope everyone had a great week and enjoyed General Conference. Everybody says this, but It's true, General Conference on the mission is the best! Our investigator Hubert came to Priesthood session and really enjoyed it, I look forward sharing some of the talks with him that were shared this weekend. I would like to share one of the most important things I learned this Conference.

In the priesthood session President Eyring gave a wonderful talk called "Walk with me" He said something in the talk that really hit me. I don't have the exact quotation but he said something like this: "The purpose of the Lord's work is not to solve problems, it is to build people." This insight from President Eyring greatly enriched my understanding of repentance. To me, the Lord's work is accomplished through repentance, therefore, I substituted the words, "Lord's work" with "repentance" and the quotation became this: "The purpose of repentance is not to solve problems, it is to build people." Therefore, here is what I learned: Repentance is not simply a process one uses to solve problems when they arise. Rather, repentance is humbly drawing upon the Lord's help to strengthen our character and develop our Christ-like attributes. That is the Lord's work, building individuals into the people God knows they can be. And how do we repent and bring about this change? Follow the Savior. In the process of building ourselves to become like the Savior we should also be focused on building others. As parents, family, friends, church leaders, and missionaries, that should be our focus. Our focus shouldn't be: how do I fix this problem, it should be, how do I love this person and build them. And if we are humble, we can draw upon the Lord's love, and that love will work through us, strengthening them in their trials. And we ourselves can draw upon the Lord's divine help whenever we need it and he will strengthen us. It's important to remember that we wouldn't be able to progress and be built if we never experience trials. I am grateful for the trials I have experienced because they have given me the building blocks to develop my character. I am even more grateful for my Savior to makes repentance possible through his atoning sacrifice. To me, this is repentance and this is the Lord's work, this is what I am striving to do as a missionary. This spiritually process begins with Faith in Jesus Christ; and we exercise/increase that Faith through the simple things which were talked about frequently during General Conference. This is some of what I learned from General Conference, I hope you learned something yourself as well.

It's important to remember that we wouldn't be able to progress and build ourselves if we never experienced trials. That is why God sent us to this world! I am grateful for the trials I have experienced because they have given me the building blocks to develop my character. I am even more grateful for my Savior, who makes repentance possible through his atoning sacrifice. I would not be who I am today if it were not for my loving Savior. I am so grateful for everything I learned at General Conference and I encourage you to study the talks that were given so that you will learn how you can become better and build yourself into a more Christ-like individual.

Have a wonderful week and enjoy spring!

Elder Johnson

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