Conference after conference - April 15, 2009

Dear Family,

General Conference was really great. We watched it last Saturday and Sunday via DVDs. It was a little strange because the branch presidencies decided to play the sessions back to back, which is not a very good idea in my opinion because it was just too draining. But regardless there were many amazing and inspiring talks. President Monson just about made everyone cry I think in the Sunday afternoon session when he talked about the German woman who was a widow and buried four of her children. It really is a blessing to have the sealing power of the priesthood bind our families for forever. I really like President Eyring, Elder Christofferson and of course Elder Holland. I think you are right Jeff, that talk can definitely help some of our investigators.

We just came back from Zone Conference in Visac, which was both a great and horrible. The great part was how uplifting and inspirational the conference was. The horrible part was that I was suffering from naseau, diarrhea, and a fever. Luckily I made it through and I was able to have plenty of time to rest. It seems the Lord only allows me to be sick when I have down time. I'm almost 100% now so I should be able to go out tonight, which I'm grateful for. We also have District Conference this weekend so I'm definitely going to be ready for a normal schedule by time this week finishes.

Wow, Carly I can't believe your already doing your first triathalon. I told all the other elders and they were way impressed--especially when I told them that it has been less than a year since your second child was born. And yes I know Uday Gali. He was the former branch president and I'll be sure to give him Mark's email because I have to actually get him to sign some papers. As for the faith talks I think Lectures on Faith will give much more than I know. You should probably talk to Byron about it also because he knows much more than I do. But I was talking with my companion about fear and why it is the opposite of faith. I like to describe faith as confidence in a promise made but not yet fulfilled. There is always an assurance that these promises will be fulfilled that is the witness of the Spirit. But sometimes we fear that the promise won't be fulfilled, and then we begin to doubt our personal witness of the spirit. At that time, for whatever reason, we doubt God as well as ourselves and we spiritually expose ourselves to Satan's attack. Satan likes to entice us with promises that give immediate satisfaction and many people feel more comfortable with this because they feel more certain that those actions will bring them more happiness later because it brings them happiness now. But we know that Satan is a lier from the very beginning and his promises cannot be fulfilled. His purpose is to make us miserable. So in the end I concluded that faith is confidence in a divine promise from our loving Heavenly Father while fear is falling into the false comforts of Satan's hollow promise. That is why faith and fear cannot exist in the same place at the same time. Hopefully that was doctrinally sound and of some help.

In other news we are working to gather more investigators. We actually found a pretty nice family that learned a little bit about Mormons and not from a local pastor (whew). Sagar, the husband, read an article about Mormons in a Reader's Digest 20 years ago and his wife Sri Devi met the elders in another area of India. We had a nice visit with them and at the very end Sagar asked if any of our prophets had more than one wife. I wasn't quite sure how to answer because a recent convert with us and I was pretty sure he hadn't learned about polygammy yet. I sidestepped the question because Sagar referenced a book and I told him I never heard of the book and he said "okay just leave it". I talked with President Nichols about it and asked how I should have responded. He appreciated my hesitation to answer directly but he said that I should have done just that. I should have said "yes sir, polygammy was practiced in the church for a time but we discontinued the practice due to revelation and have left it since". The church is true, we shouldn't be afraid to tell the truth even if the world looks at it funny. President Nichols told me not to worry about talking about polygammy because in India there are many cases of polygammy.

I'm learning so much as I go along in my mission. During Zone Conference we were doing practices where we tell about an actual investigator and his or her concern and then practice resolving the concern. Elder Chagoya and I chose Manikiyum and wrote her concern as following the word of wisdom with tea. As we were practicing we were focusing on following the word of wisdom, President Nichols stops us and says "Elders in all my years I have never heard of someone who won't be baptized because of tea. Do you really think that's the real reason?" Well we did at the time but of course we quickly changed our mind. After some discussion we came up with several other concerns and came up with a list of questions we could ask do find out the concern. Basically I learned that we have to really know our investigators. Too many times we make assumptions and make excuses for them and then we have no clue how they really feel. I got a lot to learn but it's kind of fun to figure things out.

Anyways I better get going. The new car sounds nice. I'm excited to take for a spin as well so keep in good condition;) Thanks for the advice Mom and I'm glad you got my letter. Maybe having Shawn work for Moviemax will be a good missionary opportunity, you never know. I'm sure if anyone could have an influence on Smurph it would be Paige.

I love you all a million General Conference talks,

Elder Curtis Mackay