Oh man, this week was awesome! We had conference, and it was like the best conference ever. And I will clarify what I said last week about watching them, I always watched them when I was young, but I don't think I ever appreciated them as much as I do now. Like it was so so so awesome. The sad thing was that like none of our investigators came, because it was at a different chapel far away, and it was kind of annoying, they didn't have a Tagalog version showing, so I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have understood anyway. I don't know how many of the people that actually showed up at the stake center understood, but I guess making the effort to go is what counts. But I thought every single talk was just awesome, and I especially liked the priesthood session, it was too good. I don't know why, but something about Henry B. Eyring's talk really touched me, the spirit just overwhelmed me when he was talking, it was super neat. And of course how do you go wrong with Elder Uchtdorf, oh and then you have the 2nd counselor in the YM, and Hallstrom, oh man, All of them were awesome!

This week my patience was tested time and time again. We had so many appointments set and we went and nothing. The people were either not there or busy, and it was so frustrating. But we just kept working. We visited a lot of the Less Actives which was really cool, because we challenged them to go to conference and try to get answers from the Prophet and Apostles. I totally felt the spirit in all the lessons, and I was pretty sure they did, but none really ended up coming. It was just so frustrating, and I just want to stop wasting my time on them. I prayed really hard this week to know what to do, and to help me love them, and listening to conference I think really helped me. The Lord loves them so much, and because they might be struggling, I need to always have hope in them and help them. And I realized that is why I want them to go to church and read, because I love them, and know how much that it will help them. I get no gain for them going, I just know that it will help them. 

Something I really like from conference, was that I noticed that they talked about the basics a lot. I'm pretty sure they do every conference, and some people get annoyed with that, but I can really attest to that belief. The basics are what keep us on the right path. When we don't read our scriptures or go to church and partake of the sacrament, pray, family home evening, and so on, that's when we start to slip. I have been thinking about it for a long time because so many of the people here are in financial trials, and they expect this immediate help, but the promise is if we keep the commandments we will be blessed, and after the trial of our faith will we gain a witness. So if we aren't doing the basics and then a trial comes our way, how can we expect help and be bitter, when we weren't holding our end. The Lord will ALWAYS hold His end. 

This week too, I found all this stuff I love here. One is Buko Juice. I invite all to try buko juice. There is this guy that sells it, it is the best ever, and it's like 5 pesos, I don't even think that has a real cent value because it is so cheap. maybe like 12 cents. Oh it is the best. The next is this street food called Fish balls, it's like fried stuff and in the middle is fish I think, I can't really taste it, they have this sauce, oh it's delicious. And today we went to the mall, and I had to get a Jamba Juice, that's just awesome I found one, and we found a cold stone! but I was never a huge fan of it back home so I didn't spend my money on it. But we found a store too that has so much stuff from back home, but it's all so expensive it's so sad haha. But they had Milk. Real milk. I could not even believe it. But I didn't buy any haha, next time. It was crazy. And they had tropicana orange juice. That was cool too, oh man I miss real food haha. One of our members has an oven so we were going to buy the ingredients for cookies, but the choc chips alone were doubled the price of the duncan hines cookie mix, so we just bought that. Things are really weird here, price wise. Like I could buy 3 t shirts for the price of those chocolate chips, and I could buy a whole cake for the price of those chocolate chips. I could buy that old guys buko stand for the price of those chocolate chips haha just kidding, but it's weird. 

I couldn't really think of much this week except conference. Prophets and Apostles are so essential for us. We had them in the Old Testament, we had them in the new testament, and is fundamental for Christ's church. I know that this church is truly lead by Jesus Christ through His prophets and apostles, and I encourage all to read the talks and study them, that is when we really receive the blessings from conference. I hope that everyone has a great week! And try to remember President Uchtdorf's talk, and be grateful in our circumstances no matter what, not just for things!

-Elder Rock