John 4/4/2011

Well hello once again from Philadelphia, well technically I'm in Upper Darby but I'm about a 10 minute walk (if you wait for all the walk signals) from Philadelphia so whatever. Anyway...

I forgot to say last week, and before I forget this week. I got Christine's package. Everything was in there. Tell her thanks a whole bunch for me. (If you read this thanks a whole bunch. It was great.)

I love General Conference. I love being able to watch it. Yes mom I got to watch all sessions, well all except the first 15 minutes of the last session because we were at a lesson and had to go all the way into downtown Philly to the church to see it so we were a little late. We came in in the middle of Elder Scott's talk. From what I heard it was a great talk. It's amazing what spirit conference can have. E. Johnson and I were in a hurried mood because we were late for conf. and wanted to hear it all so we were kind of on a adrenaline rush because we had kind've jogged for a whole block to miss less of it. As soon as I walked into the chapel and sat down and sat there for a little bit I could definitely feel a difference. It was a feeling of reverence. The spirit was definitely there. I wonder if that's how investigators feel when they walk into the church. I really liked Pres. Monsons talk at, I believe it was the end of the Sunday morning session. He talked about marriage a lot. It was a great talk. Maybe it was in priesthood session. Either way even though I still have just under a year and a half left on my mission I felt that talk was talking a lot to me. It talked a lot about how to prepare yourself for marriage and how we need to not postpone marriage. It was really good. Even though that step is a little ways away still for me I still thought it was good preparation for the future. I also really liked Elder Bednar's talk about revelation. I really liked his foggy morning sunrise analogy. How our testimonies are often times like the sun on a foggy morning. We can't really say there was a definite time that the sun was up and shining but we could tell about when. That's how my life was. I can't say that there was a specific day or a specific time period that it happened but I know that the sun was rising and now it's up so I can say I have a testimony but it didn't necessarily just dawn on me. I think they talked a lot about that in conference. I know pres. Monson touched on it and a few others did. Our testimonies don't always just flip on like a light switch but they often times are like the sun rising. They come slowly and gradually. That was something I wish I would've realized earlier in my life.

We were able to get a lot of investigators at church. We got all of our investigators there except a family of 3, a 9yr old girl, and one other lady. But other than that we had 7 investigators at general conference.

Suzanne, the lady who is struggling with smoking, has a baptismal date for the 24th of April. She finally got her chantix medicine, it's a medicine that shuts off the nicotine receptors in your brain. It isn't some nicotine replacement but it shuts off your bodies want for nicotine. I hope it works.

So far we have 6 baptismal dates for April 24th. Suzanne, the Singari family (the family from India), and two we just extended yesterday. Their names are Annie and Dianna. They are really awesome. Annie came to general conference and she told us "I think your church is true because you go by the bible. No other churches do." (That was in a THICK, THICK Liberian accent but we mostly understood it.) It's not completely what is required but she's on her way. Dianna is her daughter and has been taught before and had a bapt. date and everything but she is SUPER afraid of water but if we can help her gain a testimony then I'm pretty sure we can fix that.

It snowed this weekend? I was wondering why before conference all the trees had snow on them. Ugh! That stinks. I think if it snowed on me up here I would not be happy. Well I'd be fine if I had a car but we don't here and if it snowed then it'd be super cold and I'm ready to be done with the cold.

Jimmer won that many awards? WOW! What is he projected in the NBA draft? If he's that good and won that many awards than he should be a top draft pick I would assume. I hope he wins that John R. Wooden award. That'd be sweet.

I was Ryan Larson in the priesthood session choir. Just thought I'd let you know.

Jordan- In the March Ensign there is a really good article about preparing for a mission. I would suggest you read it. They talk about it on the front cover so you should be able to find it.

Natasha- I didn't hear Breanna's stupid joke. You can tell me now.

Austin- May 8th is the deadline. May 8th is Mothers day, at least I think so. I hope you are keeping your commitment. You said you'd have 5. As far as I know you only have one.

Dad- How is doing two people's jobs? Time consuming?

Mom- Have fun painting the halls. Did you have a tornado come through and destroy the walls since I left? The walls weren't that nasty when I left.

Shaylee- Are you excited for spring break? Are you doing anything fun? How do you like the snow?

I love you all and I'll see you all soon.

Love,
Elder Schouten