Elder Bednar has Beautiful Eyes

Hello my wonderful faaaaamily

This week was really short - it feels like time is going quicker and
quicker. On Tuesday we had a conference with Elder David A. Bednar. it
was SO cool. This was the third visit our mission has had from an
Apostle since I've been here, and this one definitely marked me the
most. As we did with Elder Richard G. Scott and with Elder Russell M.
Nelson, the whole mission lined up and we shook hands with Elder
Bednar. But this time, the quick moment of shaking his hand really
left an impression. He was so personable during the whole conference.
He didn't come, give a talk, and leave. He came and said, "today we
are not having a mission conference. Today we are having a revelatory
experience." And then the whole rest of the time it was like a big
Question and Answers session.

A few weeks prior, he had sent a talk for the mission to read and to
study, and then during the conference he asked us to simply respond to
the things which we had learned. It was really interesting, and then
he commented, asked another question, and it continued like that. The
cool part was how clear it was that he was not there to be the
"teacher." he left 100% of the teaching to the Holy Ghost. we all
learned a lot. and he talked about how we need to use this process in
our teaching to really make the investigators become a part of the
learning by faith experience. he explained that 'teaching by the
spirit' is important, but that doesnt bring about conversion. what
brings conversion is "learning by faith" - and he was speaking not
just as investigators are baptized, but as members are converted as
well. and we learned how we are agents, and not objects. therefore we
need to act as agents seeking to act in our own learning and
conversion process, and to also treat others as agents, helping them
to act in their learning and conversion.

it was basically dynamite. in the course of the afternoon we had
together, he was so natural, and made it seem SO simple to use this
teaching method, but it just goes to show how he's really developed
this technique of letting the spirit do the work, and the so called
'teacher' isnt really the teacher, but is just acting as the conduit
to let the holy ghost teach and convert people. i loved the
conference. If anyone wants to read the talk that we all read (hint:
its REALLY worth devoting some decent study time) I'm attaching it,
but i dont know if it will work. its called, "Seek Learning by Faith"
an address given to CES Religious Educators at the Jordan Institute of
Religion on February 3, 2006.

in other news, here are a couple of pictures from sister tsukuda's
camera.
1 - me and her going to the conference with elder bednar - last week
2 - all of the sisters together at the mission home - a month ago
3 - a few of the sisters at the stake center watching general conference

yayyy

welp, i love you a whole bunch, and hope you have a wonderful week!!
Love, sister Wardle




Olha que BONITO...