Thanks for Birthday wishes

Hey you guys, thank you so much for the birthday wishes!! I can't believe its this week. Something about being down here just makes me feel like it isn't real. I don't think there will be anything special going down, but hey, there´s a baptism on Saturday!! Also, happy birthday to me. I will say I am fluent in Spanish. When we went to zone conference this weekend we slept in the hostal for one night and there were six in our room. I apparently had a discussion with one of the elders from chile in my sleep. I didn't know that I sleep talk, but I guess when I do, its in Spanish! Buenaso.

But this week was awesome!! Zone conference was one of the best meetings I have ever had in my life. We started early in the morning in the chapel next to the temple and Pres. Smith taught us about the plan of salvation for about two hours. It was absolutely mind blowing. He talked about space and the fact of the worlds out there and how space is always expanding. (basically the human mind cannot comprehend space.) And how amazing it is that this God loves each and every one of us perfectly. It's amazing to be honest. We went to the temple after and it was amazing! I haven't been in five months and I needed it and the spirit came through like always. The temple is such an amazing place, enjoy it. We finished the day talking and practicing teaching the Plan of Salvation and it made me realize how much I need to work on just knowing the doctrine. He emphasized the importance of teaching with your own words, and it really does make a difference. It is just using my own words that I know in spanish to put it all together. I learned a lot and it was really an awesome day!!

Also Cristina is coming along very nicely and we are getting set to teach her the big commandments this week. She has shown so much desire to learn as much as she can, and she doesn't have any problems with smoking or drinking miraculously, so it should be great! This week the other Elders are baptizing someone named Raquel. She is an amazing example to me. She has accepted everything so willingly and this week quit smoking so she can be baptized! Its going to be a good weekend down here!

It is also cooling off really fast, and Im sooooo glad we are finally pulling out of summer!! Get ready for a humid winter! Can't wait to see if all the horror stories the members tell us are true!

One of the investigators of the other elders gave us meat to cook from their cow they had the day before. I prepared everything, and while I was cutting all the fat off it still smelt like a live cow. But for the record, it was amazing. Im getting pretty darn good at this.

Love you all, Happy Birthday to dear Abby!! Happy twelve girl!

Todo mi amor,

Elder Degn

ps. this is me and Elder Bulloch, my ZL that has been in Colonia all this time with me. Champ.