General Conference 1/4

 Hello everyone,

So ya conference was this weekend! I hope everybody watched it and enjoyed it! I took notes on every single talk, so that's like 20 make up days for seminary right?? This week went by quick. Had exchanges with Elder Bradshaw in Salmon and we rode bikes everywhere which was fun and made me feel like a real missionary. Also, my companion and I were over our monthly mile limit for the car and walked around for about 3 days and it was some good practice for Colombia which is in 10 days!! The only difference is that it's cold here and it's going to be very hot in Colombia. Oh also a completely different language but that's no biggie. 

Some stuff:

• My family has a tradition of cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Sunday morning of General Conference. I felt a little bummed to be missing out and wished I could have had one too but I couldn't! But then we went over to a member's house to help with something and they offered us some cinnamon rolls! It is a small thing, but I know that the Lord sees me and cares about me. And you too! 
• The Spanish phrase of the week is "voy a destruir el trono"
• So we were at the store and I'm thinking "alright I'm gonna treat myself and buy stuff to make Oreo milkshakes." And because I am a responsible and wise adult, I looked at the milk and made sure to pay attention to the expiration date and picked the one with the furthest out date. Then when I got home I decided to have a quick Oreo with a swig of milk (because I love doing that) and the milk was terrible!! I was disgusted. I thought, "no way it's gone bad, it says it won't expire until October 8th!!" So I smelled it and it was a little weird, but not sour. I showed my companion and he said, "Dude that's buttermilk, it's not the same as normal milk." Oops. Lesson learned. When buying milk, look at the expiration date AND what type of milk it is. Who woulda thought? Side note: I ended up eating an entire gallon of cookies and cream ice cream in 6 days.
  

Spiritual stuff: (deep stuff coming your way)

• So this isn't exactly "spiritual", but my companion bought a book called "They Shall Grow Together" from Desert Book. One thing he shared with me that I thought was super interesting that the book talks about is that when the Book of Mormon mentions that the Lamanites were "cursed with a skin of blackness" that could mean "tattoos." The book says (and after a quick google search I can't really find one) that the Egyptians, which was the language of the Book of Mormon, didn't have a word for "tattoo" and so Nephi would have a hard time explaining it. And one idea of why it says "cursed" with the mark was because the tattoo process was basically cutting open your skin and then rubbing charcoal into it, causing lots of pain and infections and things. Not exactly a blessing if you ask me. These scriptures are what really makes me think that this could be true: For context, the Amlicites were Nephites but became wicked and left them and hated them. Alma 3:4 "And the Amlicites were distinguished from the Nephites, for they had marked themselves with red in their foreheads after the manner of the Lamanites." Alma 3:13 "Now we will return again to the Amlicites, for they also had a mark set upon them; yea, they set the mark upon themselves, yea, even a mark of red upon their foreheads." Alma 3:16 (God speaking) "I will set a mark upon him that fighteth against thee [Nephi] and thy seed." Alma 3:18 "Now the Amlicites knew not that they were fulfilling the words of God when they began to mark themselves in their foreheads; nevertheless they had come out in open rebellion against God; therefore it was expedient that the curse should fall upon them." Sooooo pretty interesting. The book gives more facts and things but ya.
• It is obviously not doctrine or anything I just thought it was interesting. 
• General Conference! Good stuff right there. "Think Celestial" + "A lot of things are interesting but few things are important" + "Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the only antidote to shame." 
• Ok, that last quote is from Uncle Iroh from Avatar the Last Airbender, but it is deep wisdom.

Pictures from the week:

with Pres. Becker

with Elder Parrott

watching conference

This email is kinda long but I just wanted to share about that tattoo thing because I think it's so interesting. But not important really! The Atonement of Jesus Christ is amazing!! I like what Elder Ballard said, that He is our best friend!

Elder Lukas Condie Bingham