Hola Familia Y Amigos! We had an amazing zone conference this week, or I guess really it was amazing just because we got to watch the new Christmas initiative video Light the World (#LIGHTtheWORLD). It is so good!! The full video will be released on November 25, but there is a video out now that you need to watch! It is a teaser trailer for the full length and you should be able to find that on social media or mormon.org/christmas/light-the-world and search light the world. I will include a link to it if I can. Well Monday we picked TONS of Fuji apples and ended up filling the trunk of our Equinox, and after all the pressing and everything was done we ended up with about 20 gallons of pure liquid apple. SO GOOD. not bad for only 45 minutes of picking apples. I think I picked about 10 grocery bags full of apples, but anyway, a delicious p-day. After dinner we talked with Hermano Garcia. He seems really relieved now and a lot happier. It is really good for him because now that he doesnt have anything to do, he just alternates between watching tv, taking walks, and reading the Book of Mormon. So we read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with him. He is a good guy. Tuesday, we met up with the zone leaders in the middleton zone to plan out the trainings we were assigned for zone conference. It was an alright meeting, I think I was able to learn a lot from it, and I learned what makes a good meeting good. Its the Spirit, and the learning, not really the people or a particular subject matter. But after the meeting we went to visit Reina. She is not able to make it to church, for a few reasons, but sure loves having us over to read the scriptures with her. It is so sad to me, there are so many of the people that we teah that dont know how to read, or arent really literate even though they can recognize the letters. And its because they had to work since they were 8. Reina cant read. but she loves the scriptures. she cant read them to herself, but when we read them to her she says "oh I wish I could read, to just pick up a book and start learning. There is so much knowledge, and the scriptures are so beautiful." We told her that we could help her to learn to read when we visited her yesterday, but she feels spread pretty thin with having to care for her husband and all the grandkids. We will see if we can start helping her sometime soon. We had dinner with the De Jesus family. Hermano De Jesus' dad is in town, and he is a member but hadnt been to church in years, but hes been to church both weeks that he has been here. We shared a message about light, and the promise that the Savior gives us in John 8:12. Hermano De Jesus shared his testimony about that promise. That he has felt his light grow or fade depending on if he is doing what he needs to or not. It was a great visit that we had with them, and the food was delicious. :) Wednesday, we didnt find anyone at home. We mostly finished planning for zone conference, but no luck the rest of the day. Thursday, we finished our training and then taught Hermana Ochoa. I guess when I say taught I mean really we jsut listened to her stories. She is a good lady, and is preparin to go to the Temple and so we stop by to just stengthen her and help her to reach her goal. Friday, we had the zone conference. I was asked to conduct, but oh my goodness it is so nervewracking to conduct a meeting you know nothing about. There was a really general kindof ambiguous program, but I had no clue what was happening. Well I got through it alright anyway. We saw the initiative videos, ate lunch, got flu shots, gave our training, and then had a testimony meeting right at the end. It was a good day, and a good meeting. This Light the World video needs to be shared. if we can do a good enough job sharing this video, it can do some real good this Christmas season. Watch it and you will know what I am talking about. Then that evening we found Luz's son, Marcos, and taught him the restoration and invited him to read the Book of Mormon. He said he would try to be at church and bring his mom. Saturday, we had another correlation meeting with our bishop in the morning, and then one with our ward mission leader in the afternoon, with a service in between. We were helping to move a member's son who just got here from Kansas. He told us he has a lot of stuff that he doesnt need and that he had some jackets that we could have if we liked them. Well he started to pull jackets out and I figured there would be nothing in there my size (he is a shorter bigger guy), but we found some real surprises. Most of the jackets were leather with a few other jackets mixed in there, I also got some interesting compliments while trying on some of the jackets. haha Ill include a picture of the ones that I got. In the evening we found some new investigators. One is the son of an old investigator, he is agnostic but agreed to take the lessons. and the other is a family that was referred to us by an investigator. They are moving and we offered to help and they let us in! Well the truck didnt get there until too late, but we said we would help them the next day. So Sunday, we had church like normal, no investigators of ours came to church like normal, but we had a lot of less active members come. they are coming so much that it is hard to say they are "less active" anymore! We read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with Reina after church and then late in the evening we found the new family that was moving and helped them to unload the truck. they moved from one part of our area to another which is nice, and they say we have ben a pretty big blessing, so Im glad we were able to find them! They might do better in an English ward, but we will have to see. As a spiritual thought I want you to ponder on the real meaning of Christmas, and watch the video: https://www.mormon.org/christmas/light-the-world It is based off of our Prophet's conference talk from October 2015. Think about how you can get involved and make plans now! I love all of you and hope that you are well. Elder Whitaker
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