Hello, Friends and Family!
This week was so good!
The big highlight of the week was on Saturday, when we got to meet Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! He came to our mission conference, accompanied by President L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy and Elder Keith Giddens, who is the area seventy over our mission.
Elder Giddens spoke first, about being careful to not spend our time in secondary endeavors.
President Clayton spoke about conversion, activation, and retention. He talked about how we want to bring people into the gospel so that they'll never leave.
Elder Holland spoke on all kinds of things. I don't think he really had anything planned as far as what he was going to say to us, to be honest. But everything he said was powerful. I didn't have time to write down everything I wanted to because it was one profound one-liner after the next. Probably my favorite thing that he said was "There is nothing in this universe as important as contributing to the salvation of the human soul." I think it's safe to say that all of us could feel the power and love of God through him. I know I did.
I don't have much time to comment on anything else, but I'll give a quick update on my health. I went to a lab to have some tests run on my blood to see if it could give us any clues as to what is wrong with my joints, but the results showed nothing abnormal that would cause joint pain. So... I guess we've eliminated yet another possible diagnosis or two or five, but we still don't know what's going on. I'm still a little short of breath from mowing that sandy lawn 10 days ago, but I'm not really concerned about it. If it's still a problem by Saturday, I'll add it to the list of things for our mission doctor to look into.
I hope you know that the gospel has been restored to the earth through living Prophets and Apostles. I testify that they hold the priesthood keys to the kingdom of God and that those who listen to their words and obey them will never need to search for happiness or peace.
I love you all and hope to hear from you soon! :)
With love,
Elder Schank
