Mount Timpanogos Temple

Mount Timpanogos Temple

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Baptism Joys

December 15, 2014


Hey family!

The work is on fire here. My companion's name is Elder Marquezado. He is from Peru! It is so cool to have companions from so many different places. 2 from California, Nicuragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Bolivia, and now Peru! He is a great missionary. We are getting along very good. He is trying to get used to a lot of things. He says that here is very different from Peru. For starters he doesn't like beans... uh oh, we eat beans at least once a day if not 2 or 3 times. haha He´s a really awesome, and humble person. He is also very shy during the lessons so I have been doing a lot of the talking. We are practicing together and working on being more unified. He is also very dedicated to learning English. We have been having good language studies. He is the 3rd missionary in his family. I am very excited for the work we are doing together. 

On Thursday night we had a lesson with Marjorie. We asked her how she felt about her baptism this Saturday. She told us that she wasn't sure, that she wanted to but something was telling her she shouldn't do it. We explained to her that Satan always trys to stop us from doing what is right. We told her that she is completely free to choose whether to be baptised or not but if she does get baptised she will be blessed. She thought about it and we just sat there waiting for her response. She said yes, yes I will be baptised. It was so happy to hear her make the right choice. Agency is a very spcial thing. I know that our Heavenly Father is very happy when we choose the right even though we are given always the wrong and the right choices. 

Gabriela and Marjorie were both baptised on Saturday. The other Elders also had a baptism! All three bore powerful testimonies after being baptised. Sister F___ (Marjorie) said that even though she has been baptised in other Churches she feels like this baptism was real and that she is going to have a real change in her life. I felt the spirit so strong when she said this. Sister S____ (Gabriela) was baptised with a bag around her arm because of a motorcyle accident she had. She has so much faith. I am amazed at how absolutely willing she is to give her life to Heavenly Father and obey His commandments. She is a great example to me.

The Reyes family has been out of town but we are going to visit them tomorrow. David just left for EFY yesterday. The Garcia Paguada family are still very receptive. Two of the daughters came to Church on Sunday. Sadly we haven't been able to teach another lesson with the Dad. Right now we are trying to find new investigators and then focusing on those who are willing to learn and change (the sheep, like Pres. Klein says). Jesus said that His sheep will hear His voice and follow Him. There are many people who are not willing to change or that only want to listen but not act (the mules, like Pres. Klein says) these people may be prepared sometime in the future but we don´t have time to try and make them change right now. My goal right now is find the sheep, teach the sheep, and baptise the sheep. 

I love you all so much and wish that I could write lots more. I am so excited to be able to Skype soon! Yes I will find a computer. You are all in my prayers. Keep being so faithful. Although I feel like I have many weaknesses, I am happy beacause I know the truth and I know who can make me strong. Jesus Christ.

Love Elder Conover 

Conference, elf spaghetti,newly ordained Elder, and an iguana‏

December 8, 2014

Dear loving family,

Hola! Happy Monday! I love you all so much. Thank you for your kind emails. I miss you all so much especially during this special time of Christmas.

Things are going great here! My companion and I are really hoping to not get changed. They aren't going to tell us until Tuesday night! 

Last Friday we had a special lesson at the Stake President's house with his family and with Bro and Sis Reyes. It was very spiritual. We watched a video about baptism and how its related to a baby in the womb. The baby is in a sack of water, is given life when the spirit enters, and is cleaned by the blood running through the body. When we are older and are baptised we also must enter the water, receive the Holy Ghost, and be cleansed by the blood of Christ. At the end of the video it asked a very special question. Jesus Christ has done His part so that we can make it back to Heavenly Father, have we done ours? It's a great question that I believe we should think about everyday. Sadly the Reyes family was out of town on Sunday so they didn't make it to the Stake Conference. 

On Saturday in the afternoon we had the Stake priesthood meeting. It was very good. All the Stake Presidency spoke, Pres. Klein, and the Tegucigalpa Temple President! It was a very good meeting. Pres. Klein said that the diference between a young man and a man is that the man is worried about helping others more than himself. Pres. Ocampo (temple president) said that the Temple is prepared for us are we prepared for the Temple? Almost everything was focused on going to find and bring back the less active members. There are around 2000 actives and 3000 less actives here in the Ceiba. Lots of work to do. :) All the talks were great. 

On Sunday morning we had the Stake general meeting. It was great as well! Sunday night we watched the Christmas devotional in our Chapel. It was so good! I especially loved the music. After the devotional 4 men were ordained to the office of Elder and recieved the Mechizedek priesthood. David was one of them! Wahoooo! I am filled with joy thinking about how far David has come from when we first met him 4 months ago. He is filled with energy and is spreading the gospel. It makes me so happy. 
One night at our house we were eating spaghetti that Pres Selayas' wife gave us. I had a pop tart also so I decided to try what elf did and crumble some pop tart on my spaghetti. haha (random fun fact of the week) It was good.

Today in the morning the other Elders came running back to our house with a young man named Kevin who was holding a big iguana. I guess they went with Kevin and caught it! Today they are going to eat it for lunch. They are hilarious. 

I should be able to write a bit more on Wednesday. I will have to respond to your individual emails on Wednesday because I ran out of time. I love you all so much! Keep praying for opportunities to give service each day. I know that as you and I serve our lives will be filled with happiness. Remember that our Heavenly Father always loves us. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that we belong to His Church. Thanks for everything!

Love Elder Conover
P.S, We have permission to put pictures on Flickr so that is where I am putting all my pictures. Just look for Eric Conover. I love you! You could try flickr also Mom, if you want!