My testimony of apostles and Conference is this week! 9-29-2015

So much has happened this week! 

Last P-day we had a little district activity and brought food to this big game room. We played ping pong and pool. Our district is sooo close, I'm so sad to not be with them next transfer. 

Last days with my comp Sister Revoredo

  BUT, I have a new companion!! Her name is Sister Linares and she's from Mexico. I'll send a pic next week! She's one transfer ahead of me and I can't wait to be with her! 

  I feel like Sister Revoredo and I are literally sisters, so it'll be weird not to be with her anymore, but I know that everything happens for a reason. 

On Wednesday, we got to go through the new, remodeled Church History Museum!! It officially opens tomorrow. If any of you are in SLC for conference or will be coming to Salt Lake City any time soon, you HAVE to go to the church history museum. It is incredible. 

  Everything is super high tech and there's this presentation they have all about Joseph Smith's first vision. You go into this room and sit on these logs and then everything around you gets dark and then there's a screen that goes all the way around the room (like surrounding you) and you feel like you are in the sacred grove. 

  There's so much art work on the 3rd floor and everything is original. It's paintings of the Savior and stories in the Bible depicted in ways I had never seen before. Everyone has to go!! It's going to change hearts. 

  It also answers a lot of questions people have about how the Book of Mormon was translated, polygamy and lots of other rumors that get spread about the church. I hope people will go to the Church History Museum first and then make their way over to Temple Square because it will spark so many questions and give a much greater perspective of the history of the church.

Sunday was our day of miracles! Everyday we write down our focus for the day, our goal and a miracle that we want to happen. 

  On Sunday, we texted one of our investigators who we hadn't talked to in a while and it turns out that the local missionaries set her on date to be baptized in 2 weeks!! She invited us to go because she lives about an hour away from Temple Square, so hopefully we will get to go. 

  Anyways, our miracle for Sunday was to find 2 new investigators. We took a scheduled Temple Square tour and it was these 2 guys around our age. They had so many questions but by the end of the tour, one of the guys asked if he could meet the local missionaries where he lived! His friend wasn't as interested so we gave the guy who wanted to meet with missionaries a referral card to fill out. 

  On the card you write down your name, address, phone number, email and then underneath there's an option that says, "Refer a friend." The guy referred his friend who was in the tour with us who didn't want to give us his number. hahaha. It was hilarious. We assured the friend that we wouldn't bother him or be calling him, but it made our day. 

Something that was so special to be a part of was Elder Richard G. Scott's funeral service. I was outbound for the other two apostles' funerals and so I had no idea what to expect. 

   I don't know why but the past couple times I have heard the apostles speak, I just start have this overwhelming feeling of God's love. 

   I've been thinking a lot lately about why I was called to Temple Square and why I've been so blessed to have so many incredible, life-changing experiences this past year. 

   I am beyond grateful to be a missionary. It's just changed everything in my life. It's changed who I want to become and my understanding of the gospel. It has changed my understanding of Christ's grace, His mercy, and God's love. It has changed my understanding of the temple and the reason we make covenants with Him, and the restoration of His church, and priesthood authority, and the beauty and simplicity of the plan of salvation, and ugh, the list goes on and on. Being a missionary is the greatest gift God has ever given me. 

I found a scripture that I just love! It's 3 Nephi 9:13-14:

 "Will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you? Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me."

 This is how Christ feels about each of us. All of us are continually striving to become reconverted to Christ. I just love the visual that these verses give of Christ's hands stretched out. He knows perfectly how to heal us. He can fill every hole, every gap, every weakness, every imperfection. I am so grateful for His infinite atonement and His invitation to change daily. I'm grateful that through His atonement He helps me be better and strengthens me to never give up on myself. 

Love you so much!

Sister Helton 

P.S. Watch every session of conference you can this weekend. You won't regret it.

What a great district!