HAPPY THANKSGIVING

"I am so thankful for this amazing opportunity that I have to serve the Lord. This work is amazing, 

and even though we haven't seen very much success yet, there are miracles everyday to see." 

ENGLISH CLASS

Hello everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!! :) This Thanksgiving I am especially thankful for this wonderful opportunity that Heavenly Father has given me to serve Him. I am super happy here. Also, the Jurupa Zone better watch out because on Thursday, I'mma ball out at the Turkey Bowl haha. 

This week has also had its ups and downs, but I continue to be exactly obedient and give it all I have. I know things will pick up soon. 

Tuesday was a pretty good day. We had our weekly District meeting, and Elder Zeng, my companion, gave an awesome training from Chapter 4 in Preach My Gospel about Recognizing the spirit. The Holy Ghost is a powerful tool in missionary work and in life. That night, we had our first lesson with a new family we picked up. Perry, his wife YoYo, and their 2 year old son, Robin. They are so awesome. We are praying and praying hat they will continue to progress! YoYo is pregnant, so we taught them about The Plan of Salvation. The lesson went pretty well and I know they felt the spirit! 

Wednesday we had trainer/trainee meetings. We drove to the mission office, and there President Mullen, Sister Mullen, and the AP's gave us various trainings. It was awesome. I learned a lot. After that we had another meeting with multiple zones in the mission about the new Christmas initiative, "Light the World." Should be pretty cool! Take a look at it. It is powerful. Wednesday night we had English class again. Brother Yang and Perry both came which was great!! We also met with Brother Miao. He is basically the Ward Mission Leader for the Chinese members but has been traveling in Taiwan the last several weeks. He is incredible. 

We continue to work on the UCR campus to find investigators to teach. We had dinner that night with the Li Family again. They are so awesome. We had some good baozi, and also I tried some good CHICKEN FEET AND CHICKEN STOMACH!! It wasn't too bad actually. A little different though. That night we had another lesson with YoYo and Perry. We taught about our life on earth, the Savior's Atonement, and invited them to be baptized. We extended the invitation, and they said that they want to learn more before they commit to be baptized. We will see what happens! 

I went on my first exchange this week with Elder Wood! He is one of our zone leaders, and is a really awesome missionary. We got up Friday morning, and went seeking with faith. We found two really cool guys, Tyrone and Jesus. Tyrone played football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers and on the Chicago Bears for awhile! He also said Jimmy Butler was his cousin!! Crazy. He was nice. We showed him a video about Jesus Christ and he really enjoyed it. Jesus is a chef in Orange County. We found him in his yard and he is also super cool. Hopefully these two people will progress for the Zone Leaders in their area! Elder Wood and I also did some service for a guy at his house that he is remodeling. We invited him to the Turkey Bowl on Thursday! 

Saturday we had our weekly Blitz in the morning. Elder Ly and I went out, and it was super fun. We contacted 16 different people, and picked up some referrals which was good! We also had dinner with Brother and Sister Li. Sister Li translates during Sacrament meeting, and they are both wonderful members. Brother Li served in Vancouver Canada and Sister Li went to Australia on their missions. Super cool examples to me.

Sunday was awesome. YoYo, her mother-in-law, and Robin, came to church! We sat by them and they seemed to really like it! Later Pan Xia called us and unfortunately she told us that she doesn't want to meet anymore. She said that she simply cannot overcome her "Scientific Mind." It is such a bummer. I know she has felt the spirit but is struggling to let faith take a bigger hold in her heart and mind. We also met with Brother Miao again last night, to discuss missionary work in the ward, and some things we can do to improve. Brother Miao is such a stud!! He has a great desire to spread the word just like I do.

I am so thankful for this amazing opportunity that I have to serve the Lord. This work is amazing and even though we haven't seen very much success yet, there are miracles everyday to see. Love you all enjoy Thanksgiving!! 

Elder Willes

ANOTHER WEEK IN THE BEAUTIFUL CRM

"Through the Atonement, the Savior came to know us. 

Through His Atonement, we can come to know the Savior." 

I love that. Through Christ's Atonement, ALL is possible. 

 
Hello everyone :) I can't believe another p-day is already here!! Crazy stuff. This week has been pretty good. Monday after p-day we had a dinner appointment with a Chinese family in our ward. They fed us some pretty good Chinese food and we shared a message with them. After we left my companions asked me, "How was the food?" I was like, "It was pretty good!" And then my comps asked, "Did you know what you were eating?" I said "Pork, right?" Hahaha wellllll turns out it was pork but it was some good old PIGS EAR and I felt a little queasy for the rest of the night.

Tuesday was pretty good! We had zone meetings all throughout the morning. We talked about goals, how we can improve and be better missionaries, and also received some training from our zone leaders. We did our studies and then ate dinner with another Chinese couple in our ward, The Chen's. They are awesome. Sister Chen leads the music every week in Sacrament meeting. After dinner, we went out and worked, trying hard to find more investigators. We tried to visit a couple of potential investigators too, but they didn't answer the door :( We also ran into a bunch of old Chinese ladies doing a traditional Chinese dance on the tennis courts. They were nice and we tried talking to all of them, but no one really had much interest in our message. 

So, the next day we tried a new approach to finding new investigators. We drove to the 99 Cent Ranch Market. This is basically a big Chinese Supermarket. We talked to a lot of Chinese people, and found a couple who had some interest which was awesome. We also had English class which was awesome as usual. We probably had our most successful English class yet! There were quite a bit of people there. 

We continue to work hard and contact on the UCR campus. I love working on the campus, but this week we didn't have very many people who were interested in our message. That night we drove to a referrals house, Zhou JieMei. We talked with her for about 30 minutes, and she is awesome!!!! The problem is, her family is going back to China this week and they aren't coming back until the end of December. We tried to schedule a time where we could come and meet with her before then but she said we can contact her when she gets back. Kind of a bummer :(

Friday we had a lesson with another referral, Sherry. She is great, but has a lot of questions and doesn't believe in God. She doesn't really have a ton of interest to continue to meet, but we will keep on trying!! Friday night, Elder Ly (from my Zone) and I went to teach the UCR English class. Sadly, no one showed up. So Elder Ly and I went out and contacted people. I did two solid Chinese contacts all by myself (since Elder Ly doesn't speak Chinese) and I was pretty proud of myself! 

We had our weekly Blitz Saturday morning and I was put with Elder Wood this time. We worked so hard but weren't as successful this time. That's okay. I love the Blitz's!!! That night we visited Zhu Di Xiong (the dad of the family who is showing interest). We talked for a while and answered some of his questions. He is super busy and doesn't want to commit to anything. We will continue to work with him and pray for him!

Sunday was pretty awesome as usual. We had a missionary farewell in our ward for Daniel Torres, he is going to Chile. We also had one of our investigators at church!! Yang Di Xiong is his name. He lives with his daughter and she doesn't really want him to come to church but they made an agreement and he came which is so awesome! We had a lesson with him on Wednesday after English class. Then after church we had a lesson with a potential investigator from the 99 Cent Ranch Market. Her name is Joan Wu. We taught her the Restoration, and it was a pretty good lesson! We invited her to pray to know the truthfulness of our message and so we are praying for her! 

This week has been better! I am continuing to learn every single day and I am grateful I have this opportunity to work as hard as I can for the people here. One cool thing I learned this week, "Through the Atonement, the Savior came to know us. Through His Atonement, we can come to know the Savior." I love that. Through Christ's Atonement, ALL is possible. Love you all have a great week!

Elder Willes

HIGH and LOWS

Hello everyone!! This week has had many highs and lows. I know this is missionary life and I will stay focused on the positive and enjoy every moment I am here! 

Let me tell you about my companions. The three of us are the only Mandarin speakers in our mission. In fact, we cover the Riverside Mission, Redlands Mission and Rancho Cucamonga Mission although they that mission might be getting some Chinese Elders. It is lots of driving and I am always the driver. Elder Zeng and Elder Yang cannot drive. They are both from mainland China. Elder Zeng's English is really good. Elder Yang is improving and works really hard on English! He can't speak very well but he can read really well for some reason. My companions are so awesome. Elder Zeng joined the Church 6 years ago and he and his mom are members. Elder Yang joined the church 5 years ago and there are 7 other extended family members of his that are also members of the Church. 

So last p-day (Monday) was Halloween. We were not allowed to go proselyte. I wanted to go out so bad to find investigators. There were so many people out! Instead, we had a zone activity. 

Tuesday was the first day of November... that is crazy. We had our weekly zone meetings in the morning and some more studies after lunch. We went finding at a park that night and talked with this one guy from China for a really long time! He had us sit down with him and basically teach him a lesson. I was really excited and then we asked him if he wanted to hear more and he said that he didn't have any interest. That was kind of a bummer. We also visited the Li Family and had a lesson about encouraging them to do member missionary work. They are so awesome.

We continue to work really hard to try and find more investigators, but haven't yet seen much success. We met three guys playing basketball at the park named Frankie, Joseph, and Johnny. They weren't Chinese but we talked with them for a while about the Gospel which was cool. We got their contact information and referred them to different missionaries so that was pretty cool! We had English class that night. English class is the best. I love it so much!! 

Thursday we spent most of the morning at UCR. On the way to UCR, Shu Jie Mei called us. She said that she wants to learn about Jesus Christ and our Gospel, but her family doesn't want her to meet with us, so she cancelled our lesson. It was super sad. I was so excited about her! 

Friday we went to UCR again for most of the day. Finding at UCR is really fun. This past week we found a really cool new investigator, Pan Xia. She is a Material Science major and is super smart!! We had a lesson with her yesterday which I will explain more about later!! We ate dinner that night with Sunny, and older member from Taiwan. She is so awesome. It is kind of sad... She has a 17 year old dog that is blind and deaf and runs in the wall sometimes. But our visit was great and we invited her to try and read from the Book of Mormon everyday and she agreed! We had 2 new people at English Class on Friday night! Both of them are students at UCR, and have interest in learning about the Church. Also the Taiwanese couple came too, and they are awesome.

Saturday we had our weekly blitz. This week I was with Elder Jackson, one of our zone leaders. He is a really great missionary. We worked really hard and made I think we made about 17 contacts in 90 minutes and got quite a bit of referrals which was cool! We had the Stake Conference Adult Session that night which was awesome. Elder Zwick from the Seventy was there and he is so so cool. 

Sunday morning we had Stake Conference. It was so cool. The was the best Stake Conference that I have ever been to. President and Sister Mullen spoke, the Redlands Temple President and his wife, and Elder and Sister Zwick. So awesome. I was really grateful that I could go and learn and feel the spirit. We also had a lesson that afternoon with Pan Xia. She is great, but kind of has some doubts and believes in "Science." We will continue to try and help her though! We also had a lesson with Evelyn. It was a hard one for me. We talked with her for a while about the Book of Mormon, faith, and prayer. At the end of the lesson, we invited her to continue to pray and read, everyday. She said that she doesn't need to, and already feels like she has a good life and then she told us that she doesn't want the Gospel right now. I know that someday she will accept the Gospel. 

This week has had many highs and lows but I am so happy here and grateful for the opportunity to serve my Savior, Jesus Christ, and represent Him. I love you all have a great week!! 

Elder Willes  

TRUNK or TREAT x2

"A small miracle happened for me. We were tracting at another local park in the area, trying to find more investigators. I was feeling really discouraged. No one wanted to listen to us, and I was feeling really down. Right as we were about to give up, our last two contacts were a success. I was so grateful for Heavenly Father's blessings when I was feeling really down. Heavenly Father is really mindful of all of his missionaries!"

Elder Willes and Elder Yang

We try to do any grocery shopping at the local Asian market in hopes of finding people to teach

Hello everyone. I had another great week here in the CRM. I have really felt Heavenly Father's hand this week in my mission. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve here and help the people Come unto Christ. Tuesday, I had my field-orientation at the mission office with the 12 ish missionaries that came in a week after me. We had a bunch of trainings which basically took that whole day. I learned a lot so that was good! Towards the end of the training, we had a testimony meeting and everyone was assigned a trainer and an area. I already knew who my trainer was and area so no surprise for me there :) Elder Zeng and Elder Yang are awesome. 

We had district and zone meetings this week. We also had our first official lesson with Tang Cheng. He has a few questions and concerns about the doctrine, but has shown some interest and wants to learn more about Christ. We also had the annual Ward Trunk or Treat this week. It was awesome. We had a great turnout! There were Chinese all over... I loved it.

Thursday we spent most of the day at UCR, finding. That is super fun. College students from China are awesome. I love talking to them and trying to help them Come unto Christ. We had a few good contacts and got some contact information too. That night, a small miracle happened for me. We were tracting at another local park in the area, trying to find more investigators. I was feeling really discouraged. No one wanted to listen to us, and I was feeling really down. Right as we were about to give up, our last two contacts were a success. We contacted Shu Jie Mei and her son, Allen. Shu Jie Mei has a lot of interest and I was so grateful for Heavenly Father blessing me when I was feeling really down. It was so awesome. Heavenly Father is really mindful of all of his missionaries!

Friday was super busy. Studies in the morning, and then we met with a PI, Amit, at UCR. He is a student and super smart. We are hoping and praying he continues to show interest in our message! We then spent most of the day at UCR and also had another English Class. The same awesome couple for Taiwan came. They are both in their 70's and 80's and are hilarious. We are trying to help them learn English, and share with them our message. They don't seem to be too interested but we will continue to try!! 

Saturday morning we had our weekly blitz. This week I was with Elder Steed (another Elder in our zone). In 90 minutes, we made 11 contacts walking around and got a referral too! That was awesome. We also had lunch with our Stake President, President Jergensen. He is super cool. We had a dinner scheduled with a family in a different ward, but they just invited us to come to their Trunk or Treat for dinner so we went to two this week haha. After that we went and visited the Zhu family. They are super busy, but are showing more interest. Please pray for them! We are going to try and put them on for baptism this next week.

Sunday was awesome. I was asked me to give the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting. I also bore my testimony to the English ward. :) Sunday night we drove to Riverside to meet with the Grahams. The Grahams have a 18 year old girl named Evelyn living with them, from mainland China. We ate with them, and shared a message with Evelyn. We taught her the third lesson, about the Gospel of Christ. It was awesome. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon every day, and she said she couldn't do it. I felt prompted to invite her to just try it for a couple of days, and see how she feels. I let her borrow my Book of Mormon and promised her that she would feel happier. Please pray for her as well! 

This week has been awesome. I am learning more and more each day. I am so excited to keep serving the people here and am praying for our investigators so that we can help them. Love you all have a great week! 

Elder Willes  

Our kitchen 

I LOVE IT HERE!

"Funny thing, since people need translation, for third hour of church, we go to Relief Society!! 

Hahaha it was pretty funny just us Elders chillin' in Relief Society translating. That was fun!"

Elder Willes with his new companions Elder Yang and Elder Warren

Holy cow! Where do I even start? I finally made it to California. I love it here. I left the MTC on Tuesday, October 18th, at 3:50 a.m. and arrived in California at about 9:30 a.m. Seeing my bro was a highlight and got me pumped and ready to go. When I landed and got my bags there was no one there at the airport to pick me up. It was crazy! I was so scared and just sat there for like 15 minutes wondering what I was going to do. The AP's arrived and got me so no worries :) They took me straight to the mission office, and I met my companions there - Elder Warren (from Sandy, UT) and Elder Yang (from China). They are so awesome! Elder Warren actually goes home tomorrow and so Elder Zeng (he is also from China) will be training me and I will also be companions with Elder Yang, and we will all serve in a trio. I also met with President Mullen my Mission President. He is awesome. I love him. Riverside came up clutch and we had dinner my first night here with a really nice member family... The Chubbicks. We also taught a lesson about the restoration with a RC family, the Li Family. I love them. They are the best! 

The Li Family - I love this family. They are so good and kind to the missionaries.

Every Wednesday and Friday we have an English class. On Wednesday, after our district meeting and studies in the afternoon, we had our first English class. Sadly there wasn't any Chinese people there. :( The Jiang's, another member family in our ward, fed us some good Chinese food. The food here is pretty great. We shared a short message about prophets with them and went finding at the local park that night. 

On Thursday we went to the University of California Riverside (UCR). There are tons of Chinese people walking around... It is so awesome!! We walked around campus, and talked with a bunch of people and had lunch at the Institute building there. We had a weekly planning session, ate dinner at this Mexican place, On the Border... It was sooooo good :) I also met the Bishop... Bishop Louden. He is a great guy!! 

We have a couple of investigators that we are teaching. The Ning Family, The Zhu family, Grace (a referral) and a couple others I haven't met yet. The Ning's came to church yesterday!!! It was awesome but they just moved and are now saying that they don't know if they can meet in their current house because they are renting. We will have to find another place to meet. Please pray for them! 

Friday Elder Warren and I went to UCR for the whole day. We talked to a ton of people and met this cool guy named Patrick. We thought he was Chinese and turns out he wasn't haha but we talked with him for a while. He has a Christian background and we were able to say a prayer with him on campus and said he wanted to keep meeting! We referred him to the other Elders. Then we had English class again. 3 people came - 2 from Taiwan and 1 potential investigator from China, Tang Cheng. We have an appointment scheduled with him this week! 

Elder Willes and Elder Warren

Saturday was another really busy day. I love the busy days. We had a "blitz" in the morning, where all the missionaries from our zone go to a certain area and get referrals to help the area. We found 2 really awesome referrals for the Elders in that area. We talked with one guy who used to be in a bunch of gangs in LA and felt like he needed to move to Riverside and change his life around. It was a really cool experience. Saturday night we had a dinner appointment with the Ding Family; another family in our ward. :) They fed us some traditional Chinese food, including some nice DUCK FEET. I had to eat two of them... It was alright. Pretty weird but a good experience! 

Sunday was the best. One Sunday a month, all the Chinese members come together and have a Sacrament meeting all in Chinese. It was so cool. About 20 people were there, and Elder Warren gave a talk, and I bore my testimony in Chinese at the end. It was awesome and I felt the Spirit really strong :) We then went to Gospel Doctrine class, I sat by Ning Di Xiong. He is awesome. I hope he gets baptized. Funny thing, since people need translation, for third hour of church, we go to Relief Society!! Hahaha it was pretty funny just us Elders chillin' in Relief Society translating. That was fun. 

Elders Willes, Warren and Yang

Our apartment is in Eastvale, CA. The members here are so awesome. I love them!! The weather is so sick. It is literally hot and I love it so much. I got my bike but we are also mostly in a car. The language is really hard... I get frustrated sometimes but am working really hard. That is so sad about Brother Jensen and Sister Slater. I am praying for those families. The Plan brings us a lot of peace knowing this is not the end. I'm glad I get to share this with others.

This week has been crazy busy, and so tiring, but I am so happy to be here. I am excited to keep progressing every day. Love you all have a great week!

Elder Willes

I'M FLYING SOLO

CALI BOUND! Let's Go!!!

"As I think back on my time at the MTC I feel really accomplished and that I am about to complete one of the hardest things i have ever done. My time here hasn't been easy, but I have loved every second of it." 

Another Legendary Picture
Brother Xiao who is the 1st Counselor in our Branch Presidency.
Brother Xiao is from China and is the coolest guy. 

Hello everyone! :) This week has been awesome. My travel plans came this past week!!! I leave Tuesday morning, the 18th (mom note: TODAY). I report to the MTC travel office at 3:50 am. My flight leaves for Ontario, CA at about 8:50. Haha I am the only missionary in my travel group but it is going to be so awesome I am so excited!!!! Also, this last week I got my Chinese tags, Now I'm ready.

This week has gone by so fast, and I was really busy. We have taught so many lessons and had so much fun. Let me tell you a little bit how it went down!! Wednesday night Elder Shakespear and I gave a tour to all of the new missionaries in our zone. We got 8 new missionaries. They are great. We met all of them, had a little meeting, conducted a mock companionship inventory for them, and gave them a tour of the MTC. It was funny reliving the memories that I had just 8 weeks ago :)

Teaching, teaching, teaching. That's what we've been doing. We've had lessons with Liu Di Xiong and one with Wei Kai. and with Ou DX. We have been teaching a lot on the Word of Wisdom lately. Some of our investigators have problems with giving up tea, and so we are trying to work those out. Wei Kai also said he would try and commit to live it, despite his problem with alcohol. We have also been practicing our teaching on the principle of keeping the Sabbath Day holy. I am ready to get to California and try to help someone make real changes.

Elder Willes' last day at the MTC

Friday morning we got up and did service. I have one more service opportunity this coming Friday! I am kinda sad though. I really do love service. On Saturday night Elder Shakespear and I interviewed all of the district leaders, that was pretty great too. Being zone leaders is a lot of new responsibility, but we love it so much and are both so grateful for the opportunity to serve our zone. 

Sunday was awesome! As usual :) Elder Shakespear and I blessed the Sacrament in Chinese! It was a super cool experience. It was also Fast Sunday. I promised myself last month that I would get up and bear my testimony this month. I was pretty scared but the Spirit was prompting me so I got and and did it. I am so thankful I did. It was great!  We grow through sharing and speaking those words aloud. Sunday night's devotional was President Heaton, who is one of the guys in charge at the MTC. He spoke all about repentance, and how repentance is one of the biggest gifts that Heavenly Father has given us. I loved it! 

Monday we had another Skype TRC, I love those :) We Skyped a guy from Taiwan and taught him about Christ, His Atonement, and Christlike attributes. It was awesome. At the end of the lesson, we sang a hymn for him and it was my first experience singing during a lesson. I loved it and I love how easily I can feel the Spirit through music. 

Yesterday was so cool. ELDER BEDNAR came and spoke to us!!! He taught us the importance of re-studying General Conference. So I'm gonna do that. One thing Elder Bednar shared is that Conference topics are not assigned, and common themes emerge through the Spirit and power of Heaven. I loved that. General Authorities are some of our best examples of following the Spirit. 

Well everyone, I can't believe I leave in about 5 days. Crazy and so exciting :) Love you all have a great week!!

[Mom note: At 4:00 a.m. today William popped out of bed and raced to the train station. Will bought a Front Runner ticket and found his brother, Elder Wei (the 2nd) - Nathan, sitting on the upper level waiting for the train to take him to the airport. They visited for a few short minutes, Elder Willes shared his testimony in Mandarin and Will jumped off the train before it left Provo. And just like that Nate is off to spread the good news to the people of Riverside.
Elder Nathan Willes takes with him our hearts and prayers and love. Go teach peace my sweet son.]

Elder Willes

THE SAVIOR'S LOVE IS INFINITE AND IT REACHES EVERYONE

NI HAO - again

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him 

to declare his word among his people that they might have everlasting life." 3 Nephi 5:13

Another great week here in the MTC! This past week Elder Shakespear and I were called as the new Zone Leaders. We are excited for the opportunity and are working hard to improve our zone. Tonight Elder Shakespear and I welcome 8 new missionaries :) As zone leaders, we get to welcome them, get to know them, give them a tour of the MTC, and conduct a companionship inventory. Super exciting :)

This week was pretty solid. We have taught a lot of lessons this week. We have been working hard on companionship unity during lessons, and we are really starting to see the benefits. Monday night we had another Skype TRC. We skyped this older lady from Taiwan. Her name is Wu Jie Mei and it skyping and teaching her was so awesome. At the end of the TRC, I felt prompted to invite Wu Jie Mei to read The Book of Mormon with her family, every day. She thanked us, and said that she really needed a reminder to do that. It was cool. 

Saturday and Sunday were full of General Conference, which was a great blessing :) 

Sister Burton, the General Relief Society President, gave the Tuesday night devotional. It was awesome. She shared the scripture:

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people  that they might have everlasting life." 3 Nephi 5:13 This scripture truly sums up my feelings about my missionary purpose. So awesome. 

General Conference was incredible. Before my mission, I really didn't have the best attitude about General Conference and I definitely took for granted the blessing of hearing from modern day apostles ad prophets. This time around, I made a change. I took tons of notes on every talk and there were so many awesome things I learned. I just want to share a few highlights of a few things I learned. 

#1- I loved Robert D. Hales talk. I love how he talked about how if we love the Savior more, will we suffer less? Jesus Christ gave up his life for us, so that we can be happy. What a blessing that is. Another thing that stuck out was "We love Him, because He loved us first." The Savior's love is infinite, and it reaches everyone. The Savior has an enduring love and He is our caretaker. 

#2- I also loved Elder Uceda's talk, and the story he told about the Inca Bridge where he almost fell off, and the missionary stayed behind because he followed a prompting. While on a mission it is really important to listen to the spirit, so that you can follow promptings and teach to the needs of your investigators. 

#3- Elder Yamashita "Be ambitious for Christ." I loved that.

#4- Elder Eyring's talk in Priesthood session was amazing. When he talked about the "Priesthood Journey" and how we can help others develop faith and confidence in priesthood Service. I felt the spirit really strong.

#5- Russell M. Nelson's talk about joy was so good to hear. During His Atonement, Christ focused on joy. I think that is so amazing. We can follow in His example that when we go through trials, learn to suffer with joy. We will be blessed beyond belief for that.

General Conference was so special. I am so grateful for everything that I learned and it was incredible watching it in a big room with about 2000 other missionaries; all 2000 of us united in purpose and in spirit. Super cool.

Love you all have a great week!!

Elder Willes 

Elder Lewis and Elder Willes - friends from home - after watching a session of General Conference