I'm going to have some time tomorrow to write a tape home, so I
will answer a lot of your questions from your email in it.
Leading up to this week I was actually very hesitant and nervous
for this week. I have been going on exchanges with the same missionaries for
the past seven months and on exchanges this past week I went on exchanges
with two elders who I have never served around or been on exchanges with. It
is always challenging to go on exchanges with someone that I have only had
limited contact with. I guess I could expound on all the reasons why it's
challenging, but basically I get to spend several hours with someone that I
really don't know and I am expected to be their friend and also a leader to
them and help them grow in their missionary abilities. It's quite the task.
But I learned something about myself this week, what I learned was that
before I have my greatest and happiest moments I am slightly timid and
nervous. It's been a cycle that I have been in my whole life that I am just
now realizing. Anyways, after my exchanges with these new elders I have
found two of my new best friends. Their names are Elder Evans and Elder
Liston. After spending several hours with them tracting and teaching with
them I feel a great friendship for these tow elders. Elder Evans is going to
be at BYU-I when I am there, so we made some plans.
This leads to what I learned today while at church. But to give
a little background before I share it, I will begin with an experience I had
my first week of my mission. My first week in the mission we had a Mission
Tour by Elder Allen Packer. He pre-selected some missionaries before our
conferences that he wanted to interview. He had chosen my trainer, Elder
Harrison. So before the meeting, Elder Harrison goes into a room and is
interviewed by Elder Packer while I am in the chapel. After their interview
Elder Harrison comes and gets me and tells me that Elder Packer wants to
talk to me. So I sit down in the room with Elder Packer and we get to
talking. I can't really remember all of what happened, but I can remember
him asking me about my goals. I left and he interviewed and another
missionary and we then proceeded with the Mission Tour Conference. Later on
in my mission when General Conference came I was surprised to see that Elder
Allen Packer was giving an address. I have to say that I took more
particular attention to what he was talking about because I felt like I knew
him more than the rest of the General Authorities. His topic was on personal
revelation. It has been my goal my whole mission to learn more about
personal revelation and how it works with me, so I really enjoyed listening
to his talk and then later reading and studying it in the Ensign. One
principle that he taught has stood out to me the most, and that principle
was that in the future, personal revelation is going to be even more
important. Today, as I was thinking about these experiences and the studies
I have done on this, I learned something's. Basically, I learned that it has
taken personal revelation to know who I am, to know my potential, to know
God's plan for me, and also to know that Christ has atoned for my sins.
Personal revelation is needed in order to be saved. It's all about what you
know, not what the church knows. I think that's what the Lord means when he
says in the Doctrine and Covenants that he is happy with the church
collectively, not individually. The church contains absolute truth, but not
every member does. It takes personal revelation to obtain absolute truth.
Alma 12 sums the rest of what I learned while at church today.
That's it for this week. Thank you for all that you do for me!
Love,
Elder Kelly Conrad
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