"Lord, I Would Follow Thee" (Week #92)

Howdy! I hope you are doing well! I'm doing great! I'll explain more about that later I need to start with what I missed last week. So last week was really awesome like I said in the last email we had some really awesome spiritual appointments. But also something I was not able to put in my email last week was one night, we got a call from the office elders. They said Hey! It's the office elders! we would like to inform you that tomorrow, you will be doing an exchange with elder Larson, and elder hall. I got so excited! Elder Larson is one of my close friends on the mission and elder hall came out at the same time as me! It was definitely a huge blessing! That next day I worked with Elder Larson and we had such a blast. First we went to the store and bought some monsters and then we had a really good morning. We got to contact lots of people. It was fun to talk to him because he just came back from Senegal which is a lil different than côte d'Ivoire so he was having fun re experiencing a lot of the things he first experienced when he was here. In the afternoon we went out with a member but we were waiting on the member to get back to our area so while we were waiting, we went to another member family and hung out with them for a little bit. Its a really amazing family and we ended up playing hide and seek in their house for fifteen minutes (don't worry i stayed with my collègue) (elder larson i saved it dont worry) Then, after another couple of rendezvous, we had to go back to his ward building to help him reunite with the missionaries in his area so he could help them understand their area. Well those missionaries happened to be Elder Hendrickson and Elder Doho! For those of you that don't know, Elder Hendrickson, Elder Larson and I, were in the same area for a couple transfers and we are all really close friends. Sadly Elder Larson is in Senegal and has just back here for a visa run so we were sad we wouldn't be able to see each other before we left but God is a God of Miracles and He allowed us to all reunite one last time before the end of our mission. It was great! Oh yeah also I totally forgot to talk about transfer news! I'm staying with my companion in Niangon 5, which probably means I'll finish in this area! Its a great area and my first zone so it's super awesome being able to stay, unless they switch it up on all of us and move me haha. We'll see! Also one day our fire/carbon monoxide alarm started going bonkers, like absolutely crazy just beeping like it was on steroids so we made sure nothing was wrong and then turned it off and continued haha. It's been a week since and I'm still not dead so I think all is well! Haircut shoutout to Elder Hendrickson (you're clean wit it) 🧼 Okay. Sorry for the long email. But that was only the first week. So now we're back to talking about this week which was also a very great week! We had lots of members help us with lessons again with 15 lessons with the participation of members, lots of new friends as well! But the part that we were most excited about is that we had seven friends that watched general conference. huge w. We put in a lot of effort this week to help friends be able to watch general conference! And we also put in a lot of effort to set up a way that we can watch at the church building. It ended up turning out pretty well but sadly we were only able to have one friend show up when we hosted it at the church building. No biggie! We watched the other sessions at member homes etc and they all seemed to love it! I did another exchange this week in a different area! I got to work with one of the members that I really like throughout the day and he was super helpful and we had some good spiritual lessons and overall I learned a lot that day. It was a W aussi We had mlc this week, which was good No problems haha, got some food, learned some really good principles that i have been trying to apply, and got to see some friends. Sadly, elder kesterson wasn't there... R.I.P. its OK it was awesome anyways. I also saw Elder Casady for the last time.. ;(( God be with you 'til we meet again! Elder Hendrickson got Typhoid and Malaria... Yako GENERAL CONFERENCE: SOOOOOO GOOOOD There's just something about being a missionary and watching general conference that is so so amazing. So many awesome talks I felt were directed to me. Really saw a HUGE focus on three things 1. COVENANTS/TEMPLE 2. PRAYER 3. JUDGEMENT I'll talk just a tiny tiny bit on each one. 1: yeah oh my I miss the temple so so much. It didn't make it any better that they announced one in lehi (my hometown) Im officially trunky for the temple (thats a good kind of trunky right?) and having that increased spiritual power that comes from constant temple attendance. Definitely gonna make that a priority 2: SOOO much about prayer and how to improve our prayers and testimonies that God DOES hear prayers even if it doesn't seem like it. Definitely going to try to improve the way I pray but ALSO thanks to the conference I received lots of answers to my questions but not all! I know that was thanks to God haha now I have to apply what I learned in conference and pray to find out the rest of my answers. I can't wait to learn what God has for me! 3: judgement comes in multiple forms. Maybe judging others, or also judgement on a situation. There were multiple talks that focused on having a positive outlook and looking at "both sides of the coin, always." But also there were multiple talks that focused on not judging others! Even the popular hymn was sung "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" which says "Who am I to judge another when I walk imperfectly? ... Lord, I would follow thee" I often judge others too much. I feel like I'm constantly judging others in my head and that's not the outlook that Jesus ever had on anyone around him. Its not a christ-like way to live and I'm trying to eliminate that.. but it's not easy. I knee through PRAYER (#2) God WILL help me to overcome this fault I have and turn it into a strength! I know the church is true. It's all true. The gospel is true. Russell M. Nelson IS called of God. Joseph Smith really DID see God and Jesus! I KNOW that. What will I do because of it? "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" I love you all so much, but like always, God loves you SO SO much more. ❤️ Enjoy some photos. If you didn't get the chance to watch General Conference, PLEASE DO! Maybe not all but choose of couple speakers and give them a chance. If you need a couple that I really liked you could try, Elder Godoy, Jeffrey R. Holland, or Dallin H. Oaks! I loved those ones! I hope you love them too See ya! Elder Ducker 🦆