I am so excited! It's the coolest thing ever in the world!

Yeah general conference was awesome! I was just loving it! So many good talks and I felt like many of them were aimed directly at me. A couple of focuses I noticed on a whole: Do temple work! The sustaining of the prophet. The need for personal worthiness. Standing true amidst the coming persecution. I really thought it was an awesome conference. My three favorite talks were Elder Bednar, who spoke about grace and the Atonement's enabling power. "The load is what gives spiritual traction." Interesting and needed perspective on trials and sufferings. I also loved Elder Christofferson's talk that was a powerhouse testimony of the Savior. The one that I felt like I learned the most from, surprisingly, was Elder Oaks' talk in Priesthood session. I'd encourage you to watch it too. He threw down on the priesthood, and very clearly outlined the power, authority, and keys of the priesthood. I learned a lot. I am very interested to hear the reaction of the Ordained Women Organization, because after that the only two real responses are to disband or apostatize...  I loved it what Elder Ballard said about owning and using Preach My Gospel! Something we are doing is working with active members to do the activity on pg. 172. We call it the Elder Arnold Thingy because he challenged us to do it when he toured the mission last October. 

Lancaster ward is great! (That is what it's called.) We are probably getting fed 5-6 times a week, which is pretty phenomenal. The ward is pumped up for missionary work, just not sure how to channel their energy. So we are helping. I can't remember, did I tell you about our awesome district meeting last Wednesday? I will now. We had it Wednesday night at the church, and all the Lancaster youth came. Something like 11 YW and only two YM. (All the rest were at sports, dang it!) But we did our district meeting as usual, just with the youth as a focus. So we discussed missionary work, what it is, how to be effective, and then we split into groups to role-play. That was the best part. Every missionary working with a couple of youth, just going through situations and teaching a lesson. You could really feel the Spirit and it was awesome. I feel like getting the ward more involved is what is going to get more baptisms and reactivations here. 

We have had a couple of cool experiences lately.  We have been teaching F, who is married to a less active member named J.  We taught about thePlan of Salvation and answered some really solid questions of the soul.  Then we asked how he was feeling at that moment, and he said he felt a calm and peaceful feeling.  We told him that was the Spirit, and he was like, “Wow! I’ve felt that whenever you guys teach!”  This was critical for him because he has had a lot of trouble recognizing the Spirit so far.  We set him with a date to be baptized on May 17th, a date we prayed and felt strongly about.  Yea!  We also met J and J, J’s siblings, they live at their mom’s house, who is active.  It took a lot of patience, listening and waiting for the promptings of the Holy Ghost, but we were able to teach them and begin to help them.  So things are looking up, as usual.  If God is with us, who can be against us, right?  That’s how I feel anyway.

OK and best for last... Elder Holland is coming to our mission May 22! I am so excited! It's the coolest thing ever in the world!

Elder Wright