Conference Craze!

This week was so wonderful! We had our big zone conference with Elder
Adler of the third quorum of the seventy and it was amazing.
Everything was so inspired and I received a lot of great guidance that
has already been helping with missionary work.

Elder Adler bore a powerful testimony about Jesus Christ and his
Atonement. He related the story of Alma the Younger's conversion told
in Alma chapter 36, talking about him as a "dear friend." Alma was a
son of a wealthy and powerful leader, a righteous man who had done his
best to lead a civilization to righteousness. Didn't Alma love his
father? How could he have become one of the vilest of sinners? He
sought the praise of man more than the praise of God. He only saw the
things of this world. When the angel came to him and delivered a
powerful message that he needed to change, that people had been
praying and fasting along with his father for his salvation, Alma went
through a process of conversion that changed the rest of the Book of
Mormon. The description of what he felt is probably the most poignant
chapter in the Book of Mormon. After his conversion, Alma became a
powerful and indispensable instrument in the hands of the Lord to
bring thousands to Christ.

The Atonement leaves no trace. After this life, the mistakes that we
have made that we have repented of will simply cease to exist.

A lot was said about the adversary and how he is ever so powerful in
the world today, which means that we need to be ever vigilant about
staying strong in what we know. The work is hastening! Satan knows
that and he knows what to do to get people to be distracted by other
things in this world and make us lose focus on what's most important.
No one likes talking about the adversary, but Sister Wallace and I
were seeing how important it is that we recognize the presence of him
with our amis too. When we recognize that the opposition that comes as
we move forward in faith comes directly from satan, we know that it is
a greater testament to the truthfulness of what we're doing AND we
know how to better combat it. We are indeed on the front lines of a
battle in this world today.

Thankfully we have the best leaders to lead us through this war and we
have the chance to listen to them this weekend!! It's general
conference time again and I am SO EXCITED. SERIOUSLY I MIGHT BE MORE
EXCITED FOR THIS THAN CHRISTMAS AND THATS SAYING SOMETHING.
😄😄😄👍🏼🎉💥🎆🎶 this is my inner child coming out. I hope you have
all been preparing! This transfer I've been really trying to prepare
well for these sessions of conference and so I'm ready with questions.
Can't wait to receive guidance for my life and for our amis and just
be edified!

Our amie nelly is making so much progress! She came to a baptism on
Saturday that the assistants had and she totally loved it even though
she doesn't show it. Our President Brown was there too and totally
sparked her! She's scared of men and President is like a big teddy
bear so it's perfect. We've talked about baptism with her this week
and we know she's thinking about it, she's just scared. She's scared
life won't be easy after baptism, which it won't, and that she won't
be strong enough. Satan is trying SO HARD to discourage her and scare
her and make her feel weak and downtrodden by the world. She's such a
strong woman, and she will move past this. This week was really hard
for her, but she is making progress.

I don't have time to write more but you should know we did a musical
number for the conference and the same for the baptism and I played my
violin. I knew you would be happy, mom and dad. And I can't believe
I'm saying this but can you send me violin music? I'm REALLY bad at
playing right now and I need some good music to warm up to that's not
hymns. Just send me whatever, any of my old books. It was a rough time
playing but the people singing made it BEAUTIFUL.

Anyways challenge this week is to prepare for conference!! Je vous aime!

Sœur Melissa Hurd

Adler Conference

Zoo, Chambery, and making pumpkin bread