More last this and that

familia,

we just got back from Bogota at like 1 in the morning, after a 12 hour bus ride. fun stuff! Because all of the missionaries from bucaramanga went, we rented a charter bus and filled it with 40 missionaries. It was a fun trip. And the conference with elder walter f. gonzalez was great. That man is super inspired, it was basically just a question and answer session. I did like one thing he said a lot. He told us how many times we think that if someone doesn't accept the gospel in this life they are going to have that oportunity in the spirit world to accept it. He said the doctrine of the secound chance doesn't exisit. Meaning that some might just have once chance at recieving the gospel, and if they reject it, they aren't guranteed another oportunity. This made me realize how important it to be direct in telling the people how absolutely important this message is. And how it will completely change the course of their eternity, that the their time to repent is always now.

The whole trip hit me pretty hard in realizing that my time is running up. Because the whole mission got together, I took a picture with every companion
I have had that is still in the mission. Saying goodbye knowing that I won't see almost all of them ever again. I heard my self repeatly saying ''welp, see you in ... chile / peru / ecuador / paraguay / argentina'', notcing in the same moment that might not be true. I really developed love for everyone of my companion's no matter how hard or how different we seemed.

But it was also comforting to know when they talked about not wasiting your time in the mission so you don't have to look back with regrets. In my heart i know that I haven't wasted this last two years of the Lord's time, and a conformting feeling told me that the Lord is pleased with my work.

Last week I was able to have a great experience in a baptismal interview a of a 24 year old girl that had gotten to know the church in the past couple months. And she told me about her conversion. She said a little bit over six months ago she didn't believe in God, but one day she started talking with a class mate about religion, and the at first she just started to listen. Little by little he started to explain to her more, and one day he started reading to her in Galatians about the works of the flesh ''which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.''

And when he read these verses she felt a complete emptiness and guilt and felt that Paul was describing her, and for a while she felt that pain in her chest, and then she started to ask for forgiviness through prayer, and started to feel light and forgiveness. With out going into any religion she started to talk with God, and let his spirit work in her telling her the things she had to change. and as she explained her conversion, i could now see the fruits of the Spirit in her, which are ''love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law''. And I know she was repentented and I understood more clearly what repentence is. In greek, the work repentence means, change, or more specifailly a change of heart and mind. And that is exaclty what happend. The works of the flesh had gave way to the fruits of the Spirit. That is what true repentence is.

Haha, mom i laughed when you told me that were washing me clothes. hahaha. soo cute.

Great to hear about clay!

Thanks for all you do for me. I love you all.

Love,

jake, formaly known as elder adams