4.6.14

First things first, conference is the coolest event of all mankind! Why is it that we looked more forward to watching the lame Super Bowl than General Conference?! This week has been really hard, and yet it was an incredible one due to conference. As I was watching, I kept forgetting that I was in Uruguay and thought I was in some random hotel room in Las Vegas or California for one of my soccer tournaments. I never really paid too much attention when we watched it in the hotel rooms, but I do remember that we still watched it as a family, no matter where we were. The amount of blessings that these people here have received just by going to the church to watch conference is incredible. But yeah, it made me constantly think about home and I wanted to just save Arizona by sharing the talks with them. I also wished that we would have been able to talk to you guys about it over skype, but we'll probably forget about everything awesome that happened. Anyways, I loved Hales's talk on Saturday about obedience! Something that Mom always tried to teach me was that the reason I was to follow her stupid rules was to show my love towards her. This is a LAW of God. As we are obedient, we are demonstrating our love for our Father in Heaven. He went on to talk about Satan and his followers who were disobedient to their first estate and just gave away their salvation… just like that. I was thinking about it and was like...Why in the world would they disobey, if they knew that the consequence was going to be eternal damnation? What idiots!!! Just obey?! Then literally two seconds later, Hales says, “and you would probably ask, why would they disobey knowing what would happen to them afterwards?” (I was like...wow, yeah that’s what I'm asking) and he said... “Why do we disobey him? Even when WE KNOW the consequence to our actions...because WE LOVE SATAN MORE!” BAM!!  After that, he just slapped me across the face. I started thinking about all the times that I was disobedient, knowing the consequence...What an idiot I am... I also totally loved Uchtdorf’s talk about how there are people who are facing ends. He said that the cure is GRATITUDE. Why does God command us to be grateful? Because with every commandment there is a blessing. What kind of blessings do you think you guys will receive while being grateful for the midget house? Mom barking at you for something not even that bad? Living with lazy people who love to blame problems on other things so that they don't have to do anything about it? We choose to limit the amount of blessings that the Lord gives to us!!! I also loved Ballard's. Who did you guys baptize before Christmas? Who did you guys help to find the love of Christ in their lives? Who are you guys working on bringing into the fullness of the gospel right now? As I listened to these talks, all I was thinking about was how easy it would be to convert people at home. Every single member of our family will be serving a mission in this lifetime and are in need of preparation NOW. Mom and Dad will be serving a mission when Abbie and Gavin have already left. Gavin and Abbie NEED to read the Book of Mormon and finish it cover to cover. The first time I honestly read the Book of Mormon was in Spanish because my English scriptures were robbed and I can't think of a single excuse as to why I didn't read it 10000 times in English before the mission. I feel so stupid for not at least testifying to all of those kids in high school who were just lost, in need of something like the Gospel to give them a purpose in life… or referred them to the Missionaries. I was thinking about how easy it would be to work with my awesome family bringing people unto Christ. 

Dad, to tell you what you could do to make things better. First, be grateful, like Uchtdorf says. Another thing you can do is work on helping some of those ghetto people to go to church or get in contact with the missionaries. I heard a handful of missionary stories from you and your mission and am confused at times of how you didn't beat us for not wanting to read the scriptures, pray, and watch ALL of conference. Clearly, Satan works on us when we're off the mission and with work, school and other things getting in the way of reading every day, praying every day and focusing on the Lord's work.  It’s difficult to maintain the happiness of just keeping all of the commandments. Study all of the talks again and share what you learn with Gav boy and another person that needs revelation from a living prophet.

Reading Gavin's email was the best!!! I'm working on getting a sick Luis Suarez jersey but I’ll have to wait until I go to Montevideo again to buy it. I know that it’s tough to listen to Mom sometimes, but she is the best mother in the world. She knows exactly what you need to do. Seriously, though, sometimes I think about how much fun we had messing around with Spencer, Parker, Tyler, Jared, Kyle and many more. I tell the story about what we did to Bailey Baird a bunch of times to people here and everyone is confused at why in every story I tell, I'm hanging out with my little brother. Being at BYU was awesome and I know it would be even better if you could go there with me when I get back. It’s not too hard to get in. I'm a retard and if I could get in, you can too. You really need to focus on school, sports and church and nothing else. Friends are awesome but you can't let them get in the way of those other things. Girls are jokes and you don't have to worry about any of them. Females are better at BYU when they return from their mission. I don't want to talk too much about the mission because I know that when Conner said anything about the mission I was just like, I don't give a flying fetch...but the mission is first priority! I miss you too and I keep thinking about that one time when you scored the free kick against some lame team we were already beating five to zero and we freaked out! Remember, THAT'S MY DUCK! and THIS IS MY TABLE! 

Our area is really tough though and I feel like we're going to have to do a lot of work here. I'd like to ask you guys to continue to pray for me so that I can get through this change successfully, stop thinking about my problems and start really helping these people. I loved Eyrings talk about heroes. I have so many heroes in my life that have impacted me so much. Like his parents, my parents have placed so many heroes in my path. I'd like you guys to thank some of the heroes that came to my mind during conference. Uncle Jared and Uncle Tommy. For dealing with me while I was in Utah. Coach Hussey. The Nelson’s… especially big Rog and Marideth. Grandma and Grandpa Merideth. For some reason I thought about Mark Frandson. I thought about Bishop King and want to thank him so much for being an incredible bishop for me. Stake Pres. Hinton. and many more. 

Thanks for everything! Love you all. 

(ps...I lost my Patriarchal blessing. Can you send that to me?)