Mount Timpanogos Temple

Mount Timpanogos Temple

Friday, March 28, 2014

Hey Family!

Editor's Note:  Elder Conover's birthday is coming up on May 4th.  I know he would love so much to hear from you!  It takes about that long for him to receive a dearelder or letter through the mail.

If you send something in the mail, including dearelder.com which is free, he can read it whenever he wants and over and over again:)  Thanks so much for all your love and support.  Here's his address (same for the duration of his mission):  

Elder Eric Conover
San Pedro Sula East Mission
12 Calle Av. Circunvalacion S.O.
Edif Yude Canahuati, 3 Nivel, Oficina 4
San Pedro Sula, Cortes, Honduras C.A



I'm going to write what I can but I'm not feeling good right now. I've had to leave this internet cafe twice already and ask to use the bathroom. 

I'm happy to hear that the funeral went well and that for the most part it was a joyous and peaceful time. Because we have the Book of Mormon and modern revelation we know Heavenly Father's plan for us. I am so so grateful for our knowledge of this plan and for my testimony of The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and our true and living prophet today President Monson. 

I am a little sad but mostly comically able to tell you that I now weigh 180lbs! Twice as much as great grandma! haha I have gained a ton! The doctor who helped me with my foot told me that its all the flour tortillas that we eat almost every day for dinner with the members and sometimes with lunch. Not to mention that we almost always eat meat during lunch and dinner. To be honest I've gotten a bit sick of eating the food here. My companion and I are going to start eating lunch in the house which will be great! I am going to also when I can just wait until I get home at night to eat dinner or at least not eat as many tortillas! haha Oh and last week I bought a blender! I bought it used for 300 lempiras. 15 dollars! It has been working great. Today I bought spinach, yogurt, bananas, raspberries, and milk, and I have the protein powder. I'm very happy to be drinking fruit flip again!:) I'm really hoping that I can change my diet and get back into shape. I'm doing good on the exercise side just need to change what I eat. If any of you have some other healthy ideas I would love to hear them. Thanks:) Sorry I wrote so much just about my struggling body, now to the good stuff! 

 On Saturday we had the baptism of Isis! She is so great and has such a strong testimony. She has been looking for the truth and has gone through some very rough times. Her husband was killed, I don't know how long ago but she has two little boys. My companion and I were blessed to be the missionaries to share the gospel and watch her life change. She is 22 yrs old. I'm so happy for her and for the new life of happiness that she has started. We got to know Isis because her sister Claudia brought her to Church last month. Claudia is slowly progressing but through her we met Isis. It is all part of Heavenly Father's plan. The spirit did the teaching, my companion and I are blessed with the opportunity to talk to people and watch them change for the better. Her sister Angela will be baptized this Saturday! 


I'm going to let it be a surprise but this Saturday let me just say is going to be AWESOME!!! We are seeing many of the fruits of our labor. Many are showing great faith and are coming to know the truthfulness of the Church. It is wonderful being a missionary. The hardest thing is when someone falls or doesn't progress further but I know that they can change. The Atonement is the most powerful thing in the Universe.

Use it everyday! :) 
Love Elder Conover 

P.S I got your loving package! Thank you so much! It meant a lot. My companion was so happy to receive your valentines also. He thought they were so awesome. Which they were. Thanks a ton! I love you all so much! Sorry I couldn't write more. 

Monday, March 24, 2014

The Plan of Happiness

(March 17, 2014)
Buenas tardes familia,

Thank you for your great emails and the love you always share with me through your words. I felt the spirit so strong as well as felt a small part of God`s love for us as I read the news of the passing of our loving, inspiring, Grandma Hicks. I am sad for this time we will have separated from her but infinitely happy and grateful that we will spend the eternities with her if we live righteously. 

July 2013, Eric with his Great Grandma Hicks, 100 years old
Mom, Miriam, Abby, and Cannon I hope that you are enjoying your time in Las Vegas. I'm happy that you were able to see great Grandma Hicks before she passed on. Dad and Mom I know that you make decisions following the spirit for our familiy. Mom, your words touched me very much as you recounted the last moments you spent with her and the words of Grandpa Hicks` blessing. So special that you took a picture with Cannon and grandma. 100 years apart but family forever. I too feel great love and gratitude for my great Grandma. I can practically feel her frail, loving hand in mine. I remember grandma's eyes. They were always filled with great hope. I know like her we can always ¨hope for a better world¨. A perfect world. A world of peace, joy, and love. She is living, working, and cherishing her grand reunion with all the people she loves so dearly that passed on before her. Like Dad said ¨as we suffer just a small degree, it is or can be in remembrance of the Atonement and if suffered for Christ's sake will draw us nearer to him.¨ Very wise words that I know to be true. 

I would like to touch a little more on something that Dad brought up a little bit. Being in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. I know that it is through obedience and following the spirit that we can be sure of where we stand with God and know what we must do to please Him. I know that if we think of these 3 things the Holy Ghost will guide us in all things and we will literally be following the specific plan Heavenly Father has for each one of us, the Plan of Happiness. He knows us and He knows ¨happiness¨more than anyone of us knows happiness. 

 About the toe: Well first of all I went to an awesome doctor on Thursday and he told me that I needed to rest three days more but that he thinks he won't have to cut or take out the toenail. I rested that day and with the new medicine he gave me and without a doubt the help of the power of God my toe started healing very good. The doctor told me that I could start working like normal Sunday afternoon but I started Friday. Friday and Saturday I worked in my Sandals all day and Sunday I wore shoes for the first time in more than a week. So far things have been going great and my toe is healing great! Some things that have been recommended to me and that I have done are wash my toe in hot water with this special salt, clean my feet really good with soap, and keep my foot elevated, oh and taking off the water head on the shower and turning the water on to full blast so there is a powerful small stream of pressurised water and putting my toe right under the water so the water is opening and cleaning where the nail is in my skin. It KILLS!!! haha along with always making the toe bleed, it cleans it very good. An awesome guy who lives in the appartment beneath us showed us the trick. Thanks for the other tips Dad. I also wish that you could be helping me with it. I know you would be a great help. 

I am very proud and happy to say that Sunday was one of the best days of my mission! This last weekend was stake conference. Saturday night we had a great priesthood session with the people here in Progresso. There are 53 missionaries in the Stake we are in! Sunday morning we woke up, got ready and then went to Miriam's house to walk with her to the Church. From the Church we took a bus with the members to the Stake center. The Stake Center was filled to the max! Elder Hales and Elder Oaks spoke through broadcast to all the Stakes in Central America! We ended up watching it on the T.V. in the kitchen because there was no room in the cultural hall. Elder Hales spoke in Spanish! The others had translators. It was a great session and I hope that Miriam along with the other 7 investigators who came with us felt the spirit and truth of the Church. That afternoon after eating lunch although it was super tempting to take a small nap and stay out of the heat, we went to work and I am very glad that we did. We had one hour of space before a planned lesson. We walked up the road and thought of who we should visit. There was a family that lived at the top of the road that we visited once and shared part of the Plan of Salvation with but we hadn't been able to find them home since. We decided to try. We got there and another man in his 20s or so greeted us, we asked if Jose was home (Jose is the head of the house) he was! They and one other young man graciously let us in and listened to the message of the Restoration. I felt the spirit guiding my companion and I so much during this lesson. At the end of the lesson they all accepted the invitation to be baptized if they received an answer to their prayer of faith. They also told us they are going to come to Church this Sunday. It was such a happy and fulfilling lesson. I know that Heavenly Father gave us this blessing for being at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing and for following the spirit. We had a wonderful and powerful lesson afterward with Joan, the young man we baptized a few weeks ago, two other young men, and the newly ordained Elder and young men's president in our ward.  We shared a message about the Priesthood that he just recently received. Again, I felt the spirit guiding me and I felt a great joy as we talked about the power of God and the blessings we receive if we stay worthy. Afterwards we had an incredibly spiritual lesson with Claudia, Angela, Isis, and Dorka. The three sisters and Mom. about the Law of Chastity and testified that all we teach leads us to the Temple. We talked of eternal families. Claudia told us that she is going to read the book of Mormon with her spouse because we told her it would strengthen their relationship. Isis is going to baptized this Saturday! Angela we are praying will also be baptized with her sister but she hasn't made the decision. We talk to her tonight. After this lesson we walked to dinner and on the way an investigator we have named Antonio who we have been working with for months,and is completely ready for baptism but just needs to get married stopped us. He has been very sick, we shared a lesson with him on Saturday and gave him a blessing. He stopped us and told us that the blessing we gave him is healing him and that he is 80 percent better! He bore an incredible testimony and told us to keep working because we are servants of God. He told us that during the night as we rest God's angels come and prepare us for the next day. I almost started crying. When I have more time I will tell you more about Antonio. I have a great love for him and his words felt like they came straight from Heavenly Father. Last Sunday was a day that I will never forget, there was a special spirit with us that day. My great grandma Hicks listened and walked with us. I now understand what was so special about that day. Little did I know that my great grandma had passed on and that she in her spirit was with me. 
I love you all so much, I wish I could be at the funeral but I know I can be here with Grandma in spirit. Please share my love with Grandpa and all the family. You are in my prayers and I love you very much. This is the work of God. These 6 months in the mission not only have flown by but have changed my life for the better. I know this is where I need to be, doing what I'm doing, at the time I'm doing it. It's all part of Heavenly Father's plan. :)

Love Elder Conover

I will respond more to each of you individually next week. Sorry I'm out of time! I love you! 

lots of reading and pondering...

(This letter is from March 10, 2014)
Hello my dear family, 

Thank you all for your emails. Things are going good but I'm going through a trial. My big toe on my left foot has been hurting for a while but I didn't really think too much about it until last Tuesday. I decided to show my toe to Elder Reid in our district who took Sports medicine in school. He informed me that I did have a pretty bad ingrown toenail and that it was starting to be infected. We cleaned it but couldn't do much there in the house. Gratefully I had the first aid kit I brought with gauze and tape to cover my toe. Elder Reid told us it would be a good idea to stop by Sister Gomez's house that night because she is a nurse. We worked like normal and after dinner talked to Sister Gomez. She told us that she was heading to the hospital and could take us and help me at the hospital. We decided it would be the best thing to do. Her son drove us to the hospital. There we made some phone calls letting everyone know and getting permision from the mission nurse. She took us into the emergency room. It was quite the experience waiting there in the E.R. seeing all that we did. After waiting for a while we finally were let in to see the doctor. The doctor told me that I needed to take antibiotics, rest my foot, and come back Thursday. I thought they were going to operate on it that night. Sister Gomez drove us back home. Wednesday was transfers and Elder Flores and I didn't change. Elder Lopez and Elder Oviatt were transferred so we received 2 new Elders into our district. Elder Wilson who was in my zone in Colon, Sonaguera and came here at the same time as me and Elder Perez. That night was quite the adventure. The new elders were out and about and the 4 of us other Elders never saw them come back to the house. It started to get quite late and we were getting worried. We called the zone leaders and Elder Reid(our new district leader, from P.G) and his companion left the house to go look for them. Our zone leaders were keeping in touch with us and he had us start calling all the members we could that are in the area of the other Elders. To make sure they weren't in their house I banged on their front door really hard but they didn't answer. Elder Reid and Elder Durhan came back with no success. My companion remembered that their door was open and now is closed so he climbed around the barrier behind our houses and yelled through their bedroom window and they were sleeping safe and sound in their room!!!!! haha I dont know how they didn't hear us knocking! Things were getting quite serious! The Assistants to the President were on their way here to search with the zone leaders! Even though they had us all quite scared the first night of their stay here I'm glad they were not really lost. 

Back to my toenail, Thursday morning we went back to the hospital. I again waited and then saw a different doctor. He looked at it and cleaned it. He told me the best thing I can do is keep taking the antibiotics and rest my toe for 7 days, and hopefully it will heal on its own without an operation. 7 days! My companion is a champ and has been working hard with members and I have had to stay with other members or at our house with an adult male member. It has been challenging and I really wish I didn't have this ingrown toenail, but like any trial I am learning and growing. One good thing is I finished reading Our Search For Happiness and am about 1/4th of the way done with Jesus The Christ. I am really trying hard to strengthen my testimony and my mind during this time that I can´t work my body. As you all know I thrive on activity so it's been a challenge. I am also sad to say that the reason I have this ingrown toenail is because of one small, very unintelligent decision a while ago to pick my toe nail. I have been thinking of Dad and his advice to me to not pick my toe nails. He even told me that if I did I could get an ingrown toe nail!! I'm now having to learn the hard way. Follow Dad's, and Mom's counsel guys. :) I'm hoping that I will be back to work earlier than Thursday but we´ll see. I'm really grateful to have Elder Flores as a companion who is working hard with all of our investigators still. 

We were going to have baptisms this coming Saturday but they are being postponed for the following Saturday because we have Stake Conference this weekend. 

I love you all so much. Keep counting and giving thanks to Heavenly Father and Mom and Dad for all the blessings we have. I was never a great example of this and all my life I took things for granted but here in Honduras life is different and I am learning a lot. A few examples: Hot water here doesn't exist unless you heat the water. Must buy purified water not just drink water from the sink or from the fridge. Very few have washing machines and I know none with a drying machine. Around 5 people in the Ward have cars and very rarely do they have more than one that functions let alone 3 super great cars. These are just a few of the many things I took for granted before my mission and wish I would have been more grateful for. This list doesn't even mention the families who are starving as their parents work for 5 dollars a week. There are countless other blessings I could name. I sincerelly ask each one of you to show your love and gratitude to Mom and Dad more often. I wish so badly I would have done better at this and set a better example. Pray always giving thanks to our Heavenly Father for all that we are blessed with everyday. 

I was showing a man named Luis Flores who stayed with me one day at the house the pictures you guys sent me. He has had a very rough life and is going through incredible challenges right now one being that he doesn't have work. He is active in the Church and has a wife and two kids. They are working on making it to the temple to be sealed as a family for all eternity. He told me after looking through the pictures together that our family looked so unified. I happily and gratefully told him that the reason we are unified is because my Grandparents taught the Gospel to my parents and them to us and that we make it to Church every Sunday no matter what and that we have family home evening every week. He told me that this is how he wants his family to be one day. More than all the temporal things in the World I will be forever grateful for our heritage, for learning the gospel from my Mom and Dad who learned the gospel from their parents. I love you Mom and Dad and I love you for getting married in the temple and raising me righteously. Like Nephi of old I can truly say I Eric having been born of goodly parents... It all begins with the parents and how lucky I am and each one of you my siblings to be born into the family we are in. Love and serve more. Lift each other's burdens. Pray for charity and most of all help each other make it back Home to our Father in Heaven. I know that Jesus lives and very slowly I am trying to be more like Him each day. Have a great week family! I love you all more than words can describe!

Love Elder Conover

Friday, March 7, 2014

It is getting very, very HOT here

Hola mí familia!

With Douglis who is leaving for his mission to Bolivia
Thank you all so much for your emails. I love reading each and every one of them. You are all so kind. It is getting very, very HOT here.  It hasn't rained for a while and this is the hottest month of the year here in Honduras. I am so grateful that our area is at least up on the mountain and not in the city.

I am sitting here trying to think of what I can share with you. To be honest it's very hard to put into words this experience. Everyday is hard, joyful, tiring, fulfilling, frustrating, beautiful, sad, and happy. When it comes down to the line being a missionary is a great privilege and blessing. The mission is the greatest training in the World. Little by little I am becoming a better representative of Jesus Christ. My testimony is being strengthened immensely, and my love for all people is growing. 

Apparently cambios are this Wednesday! Elder Flores and I until this morning thought that they were next week... We are both hoping that neither one of us is changed. I am almost positive that I will spend more time here in the mountain of progresso. :) I hope that I do stay. Because we didn't know, we planned for lessons and everything Wednesday so we are only going to be able to email today.   

Up in the mountain teaching people with Eduardo, the little brother of Douglis 

Last Tuesday all the missionaries in our Zone made a personal goal about our missionary service. I made the goal to have 50 new investigators each week. Last night we finished the week with 53 new investigators! :) The definition of a new investigator is someone that we teach 1+ principles to and plan a specific time to visit with them again. We talked with everyone!! (almost ;)) It was so awesome to see that with a specific goal and hard work each day along with specific goals each day we were able to accomplish this goal. We also had 17 investigators come to Sacrament Meeting yesterday! It should be said that a few are kids in our area who we only talk to and don´t visit but are awesome/g´s and come to Church with their friends who are members. Nevertheless, another great blessing. The Ward also had its best attendance ever, 167. 

We have some investigators who are very close to baptism! We are working with and teaching two sets of brothers who live in the same house named José and Oscar; Carlos and Kevin. José is 15 yrs old, Oscar 14, Carlos 13, and Kevin 10. They all have accepted to be baptized. :) Kevin is hilarious and ever since the baptism of Eskarlet has wanted to be baptized. We are still trying hard to finalize and obtain all the papers for the marriage of Renae and Marixa. They have been being taught by missionaries and going to Church since August and are so ready for baptism but need to get married! We are teaching three sisters who are in their 20´s and their Mom. The Mom is named Dorka, and the sisters: Claudia, Angela, and Isis. We started with just Claudia, then taught Claudia with her Mom after, then one day we were walking to teach Claudia and Dorka and by Heavenly Father's mercy helped a woman with a bucket she was carrying up the street to the same house we were going to! The lady we helped is Claudia's sister, Angela! We met Isis because a few weeks ago Claudia came to Church and brought Isis with her. I don´t remember if I already shared all this with you... I don´t think so. Isis has now come to Church three times and has accepted to be baptized! Angela is progressing a ton and has come to church the last two Sundays but does not want to accept a baptismal date yet. Last Saturday we had a powerful lesson with them but very sadly Claudia told us that she would continue to listen to us but was still going to go to her church and not the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS. The good/ bad news is that she still hasn't put in the effort to read the BOM. I don´t know if we haven't emphasized the importance of gaining a testimony of the BOM with her or what but Saturday after she told us this we sure did. We bore our testimonies with all the power and energy of our souls that night. I know that if Claudia reads the Book of Mormon, meditates its words, and prays with faith and true intention she will feel the spirit and know the Church is true. We also have an investigator named Anna who is married to a member named Alexis. They also need to get married! But like Renae and Marixa she is very prepared and willing and working towards getting married. These are some of our investigators that are progressing, changing their lives, and coming unto Christ. Please pray that they along with all the other investigators will have more and more faith in Jesus Christ, keep their commitments, and very soon make the covenant of baptism with our Heavenly Father.  

Thank you all for your love and support. You are the best family ever! Even though its extremely hard being separated physically, my love is growing so much for each one of you and our family as a whole. I always took for granted all that we are blessed with in our family both spiritually and temporally. Things are a lot different here. Count your blessings. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week filled with service and joy.

Love Elder Conover

Notes about the pictures:

Douglis is leaving for his mission in Bolivia this Wednesday! He is a great young man and has been serving as young mens president. He also many times spent time visiting people with us. He is going to be a great missionary.