Hello wonderful people!
It feels like it has been a day or two since I last wrote, time is just flying by sooooooooooooo quickly. And what about conference? My oh my, if you want to see the Lord's hand in the world, just look at the Provo Tabernacle. An easily prevented fire was somehow looked over, and here we are, less than a year later, turning the burned out remains into the Lord's House! Baptism by fire anyone? I felt such a strong spirit rush through me the second President Monson said the words 'Provo Tabernacle". I have known from the day it burnt down that it would be rebuilt, I just had no idea it would be glorified above all other earthly buildings. What a joy it is to live in these days!
And as for Mom and Dad, I hope you were praying about whether or not to serve a mission during this time, because Elder Holland (I think it was, I only have access to my memory right now, which is filled with Portuguese) pretty much gave you the answer straight up. A 6 or 12 month mission with the majority of housing paid for you? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!? I think just like the Provo Tabernacle, some of these things happen to us in order for us to fulfill a purpose God has ready for us. The hardest part is recognizing that, and acting upon those feelings.
Last night, we talked about prayer in our classroom time (all in Portuguese too) and my companion and I noticed that the language the Preach My Gospel uses to talk about prayer is the language of describing a covenant. It doesn't say the Lord can answer your prayers or can give you comfort, but he WILL. Prayer is the covenant with God where we recieve spiritual blessings from the Lord, instead of physical blessings. I greatly encourage you to make your plans for the next few years based upon prayer, because there is something we are supposed to be doing for God, and he will tell us what it is we are to do. I'm doing that right now, and I can feel the hand of Lord guiding me in all that I do.
Thus ends this session of Specific Conference.
I can't remember any events of class or anything from this week just because we do sooooooooooo much of the usual grammar and whatnot, so I'll give you highlights.
Tuesday devotional, I sang in the choir again, which was super fun, and then Dan Clark spoke to us. I cannot for the life of me remember anything specific about it, but I remember the great spirit I felt during his talk. Probably one of the best I have heard.
The rest of the week was fiiiiiiiiiiilled with class, but we teach lessons during the first hour of each class period now. With our pesquisadore SIlvana, we have taught all the basic doctorine and commandments, so we are blessed to be able to just focusing on talking about the church with the influence of the spirit. We get to talk and testify so much, it has really strengthened my knowledge and testimony of this gospel.
We also talk a lot about the relationship between us, our investigator and God with a diagram like this
God
/ \
/ \
/ \
Us---------Investigators
Our purpose is to strengthen that relationship with God and the people we teach, so we focus on their testimony and giving them the ability to pray and feel the spirit. Its really cool to see how it all works and I really have a great appreciation for what 'real' missionaries do when they teach.
As for General Conference, I think my favorite part was when L Whitney Clayton (?) talked about missionary work. I testify that this work is just beginning to come forth, and that we have just barely seen the beginning of the great and marvelous work. The rest of conference weekend, we got to just relax and take it easy (which I welcomed with open arms!).
On Sunday, I went for a temple walk and we went around the east side of the temple and I hear a yell of "Elder Cornwell!" I turn around, and I see ASA CLEMENTS!!! It was so crazy! I gave him a hug, and we talked a little about the MTC and Portuguese, since he is taking a class at BYU. I didn't get a picture with him, but I do have a picture with Joe from that night being printed that I will send home to you (we can't get pictures off of our cameras to send in emails here).
That night, we had a fireside, and the speaker was Chad Lewis. Yes, that Chad Lewis that jumped over people in the NFL. He talked about his mission in Taiwan and about climbing Mount Kilomanjaro with some Marines who were wounded in Afghanastan. It was a really great opportunity to hear from him and learn how we can overcome trials and accept help from the Lord. Also, one of my friends from school (Brooklynn) was there as a guest (I guess she is friends with one of their daughters) and I said hi to her and talked for a bit. Also, a fun fact for the BYU football fans that are reading this, there is a Hermana Bosco that is on the same schedule as our district. Yes, she is related to a certain Bosco, and she is his daughter. Chad Lewis had to point it out, because he was their home teacher (consequently, his companion is in the MTC).
Anyways, that is all I have for this week! The Portuguese is coming great, and it is super fun to speak! No word on my visa besides what Mom sent me in that email, and I DID see Elder Clements (and Elder Lamb) off today as they left for the airport.
That is all for now, Love y'all!
Elder Cornwell
P.S. the watch is boss and I am now the most popular elder in the district becuase I have a backpack full of twix.
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