Dear Everyone,

CONFERENCE! and a historic one at that. I'm not sure if I would have ready at 18. In fact I know I wasn't. It would have compelled me to prepare a lot more in High school knowing at graduation I could be off on a mission. So it my opinion that psychologically it will help a lot of young men take church a little more seriously at a younger age. As far as mission presidents saying:  “Give me more 18 year- olds. They’re sweeter; they’re purer, they’re smarter.” My retort to that statement is that they haven't experienced American eighteen year olds yet. :) It will work out for the best. I hope that more missionaries come out all over the world. Maybe China will open soon or something cool like that where we need to double our missionary force. I bet President Anderson is as giddy as Holland was in the press conference. :) The Lord is hastening his work. Speaking of the work it is going well in our respective areas. We set two baptismal dates this last week! The first is a young man named Justus who has been dating someone in the Spanish ward. He lives in our ward boundaries so we get to teach him! He is solid. He came to conference yesterday with us and ate with the Tongan ward after. :) The second was for the Tongan ward. Her name is Desire and she is about college age. She also came to conference. I look forward to teaching these new investigators and the others we have. It still amazes me how the blessings of the Lord can be thrown at you. The Summit ward is being blessed. Going back to conference my favorite talk was Holland's. He gave a very similar address to the MTC a few years back. We watched it recently at a zone conference. The words "Lovest thou me" will be something that I will say ask myself throughout my life. The moment that hit me the hardest was when he said: "To every returned missionary who ever stood in a baptismal font and with arm to the square said: 'having been commissioned of Jesus Christ.' That commission was to have changed your convert forever, but is was surely supposed to have changed you forever as well." I know that this commission has changed me. I also know that I need to let it change me more. It is a commission I received long before my mission. It was a commission I have failed to live up to at times. I am grateful that when we deny Jesus Christ for me a lot more than three times, He gives us an equal amount of chances to say "thou knowest that I love thee." We say this by acting according to the commission given us when we were baptized. Anyway I'm done with my rant for today. I love conference because it gives me an extra push as I know it did for all of you. We especially liked the theme of missionary work throughout. :) I hope all is well for you. Thank you for your support.

-Elder Roos