Well, we had an awesome week this week, with some cool experiences and a great leadership conference. We went on exchanges with the elders in a place called new Iberia, they are doing well and have some great people to teach. We also found some awesome new investigators in our area, the kind of people that you just say "wow, they are getting baptized, no doubt" and are really receptive. Speaking of baptisms, we had a baptism last week! His name is Antonio, he's an awesome guy from Nicaragua. Really humble, and has a great testimony of the restored gospel.
The leadership conference was great, President Wall is a great leader, and really knows how to help us grow and gain our own testimonies. He gave a funny example, relating to his past life as a newspaper manager he said, more or less " I used to manage multi-million dollar companies. I was successful, because I've got good ideas, and I know how to implement them. I got paid an obscene amount of money for what I did. I also have good ideas about finding. Give me 20 minutes, I'll give you 20 ideas for finding, and they'll all work. Give me 20 more minutes, I'll give you 20 more ideas. But I dont want you to use my ideas, I want you to use your ideas, and seek revelation for your zones and districts." He related that to a story of when he was managing one of his companies, and how he got his employees to come up with some ideas. He said " I called a meeting with all my employees and said 'instead of using my ideas to accomplish x task, we're going to start using yours'. I told them that we'd have an idea box, that everyone should put their ideas in the box. for every idea submitted, we'd pay them 5 dollars. for every idea implemented, we'd pay them 50 dollars. guess how much we paid out? 15 dollars. So I took a different approach. We broke them up into smaller groups, and I went to each group and said 'each group needs to come up with at least 10 ideas, and the group with the least ideas will get fired. so start brainstorming.' Well, ideas came out of the woodwork, and many of them were things I never would have thought of. I want you as Zone and District Leaders to come up with ideas of how to run your zones." It was really kind of different from presidents normal routine, because he really is very humble and doesnt talk about his business success much, but it was just a little bit of "look guys, I know what I'm doing here."
We had a great increase in faith with this family we have been working with, they are pretty involved in another church, but we meet with them alot, and they love us coming over and love the Book of Mormon. (who wouldn't?). They've apparently come once or twice in the past, but not since I've been here. On saturday night I was talking to him on the phone about something else, and just got the impression to just invite him. I knew he knew when it was and everything, but I just said "hey, wanna come to church tomorrow?" he said he'd be working, but maybe another time. The next day (Sunday night) we had dinner at their house. He told us that that morning it was raining, so he didnt have to work (he has a lawn care business) and when he found out he didnt have to work he heard something tell him that he should go to church with us today. He didnt know what it was, but he just really wanted to go to church with us. Well, the bummer is he didnt, but we told him about conference, and he's really excited for it. So pray that he and hopefully his family if they come will have a great experience!
Well, last week was a fun p-day, we went to a members apartment complex and played volleyball at their sand volleyball court. We're going there again, this time everyones bringing their own meat and we're having a bbq! the complex is super nice, and had 3 or 4 nice grills next to the court and pool. (why dont we live there?)
Love you!
Elder Cardon
P.S. to all- if you want to send me some questions to answer, I'll answer them. My grandma did, but the time ran out on me for this week, so maybe next week will be all question answering!
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