ELDER COLTON WEST: Week 65: You Are the Message!

Hello Everyone!

This week was AWESOME! We had the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast and a mission conference all in the same week! We'll start with the Missionary Broadcast, since that happened first.

In the missionary broadcast various general authorities gave training on different aspects of missionary work. One that stood out most to me was given by... well, this is embarassing. I don't remember the name of the Elder who gave the training... Anyways, he taught that we should teach less active or inactive members the same way that we teach investigators. In meditating about that, I realized that at the core our goal with less active members is the same that it is with investigators: to help them to feel the Spirit. So it makes sense that we should teach them the same way.

Now, for my favorite part: the mission conference. This week's mission conference was presided by none other than Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve. Also present were Elder Adrian Ochoa of the Area Presidency and Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy.

Various topics were discussed, and powerful testimonies were shared. The email title of this week comes from Elder Cook's message to us. He said "You (the missionaries) are the message." He then explained that we are the Lord's messangers, yes, but that we also are the message. When we act in a manner that shows a Christlike attitude and a Christlike life we become the message to the people.

To end the conference, Elder Cook shared an experience about a college student who asked him why the members of the Quorum of the Twelve aren't more direct with their testimonies. Elder Cook explained that much of the testimony of an apostle is sacred and personal, and that they do not feel that it is correct to share such things with the world. He then added that he felt impressed to be more direct with us, the missionaries of El Salvador. Elder Cook shared a truly apostolic testimony with us. As I shared after President Nelson visited us, the members of the Quorum of the Twelve are Apostles in every sense of the word. They are witnesses of the divinity of Jesus Christ every bit as much as Peter, James, John, and the rest of the original Twelve. I know it, because the Holy Spirit of God has made it known unto me, confirming and strengthening the testimony that I received a few short months ago. For those who do not share my belief, I invite you to listen to their talks from any session of General Conference. Ponder what they say, study it, and ask God. He will tell you. I should know; He told me.

Love,

Elder Colton West

El Salvador, San Salvador East Mission

I "borrowed" this hat from the husband of the
sister that cooks for us.
It's super cool!

Another picture of Zona La Union

A dead scorpion. Photo taken shortly after it stung me, and my companion killed it.
This little guy got into my dirty laundry, and when I was washing socks I grabbed it by the tail,
thinking it was a piece of grass. I realized what it was when I pulled it out of the water
and it stung me in the thumb. The silver lining to this cloud is that the
scorpion was already half-drowned, so it didn't inject very much venom.
It still hurt though.