January 23, 2012

"Compose is the button I just pressed to start this email. If I was the Greatest orator, most poetic poet, master architect, I could never tell, touch, or design this life. I love being on a mission. I very much desire that I could be obedient to every one of Gods commandments and that I could always remember my relationship with God. He has blessed my life in many ways. I think that it is amazing to think that all blessings are based on obedience! I think of how often I mess up in a given day, yet God still blesses me. If I could be 100% obedient, that would be so amazing!

The blessings of life, Troy Julian Strachan baptized his brother this week. Around four months ago I was walking in Solomon's Food store talking in a fake english accent as we walked through the beverage section, a young man looked at us and said, are you missionaries? Yes, I responded in my fake accent. Four months later he is now a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one of my good friends and he just baptized his brother! He is continually talking about how much this has changed his life.


Journal, It has as of late been a bad habit to miss writing in my journal one or two days out of the week. It has very much hindered the joy I have felt in the past few weeks. Writing in my journal is a great way to "remember how merciful the Lord has been unto the children of men". I get the chance to see every ray of sunlight throughout the day. I very strongly encourage everyone to write a journal.

I love you all.

Love,
Elder Conder"

January 16, 2012

"DEAREST FAMILY & FRIENDS,
Elder Trumpet and I have been enjoying the life here in the Bahamas, but most of all our life on a mission. I don't think I articulate enough to detail to you the things I have done, and the way I feel. This week started off amazing as usual, P-day with a nice game of Golf. As the week progressed on we soon learned this would not be a normal week. Tuesday, we set up shop out front of a local food store where we met some amazing people. Wednesday we had district meeting. Thursday Miracle after Miracle. Friday,dinner at the one of the nicest restaurants on the island. Saturday, baptisms of Sister Cartright and Egdecombe. Sunday, conformations and amazing lessons.

I just looked at Elder Trumpet, we have a game of golf, monopoly and dinner today. Life is great. It is times like this you really have to, appreciate., give thanks and capture the moment so you can always remember these times.

Tuesday, we went to the food store and set up a little booth. We started talking to people and things seemed to be going very well. Then this man walked up and started calling us racest, he looks and me and goes why are you here if you hate black people. I thought to myself, this a great question. Why would I be here if that was true? The truth is, we all have one father and we are all equal. We have been commanded that we must not esteem one flesh above another. Sorry to go on this tangent, but God loves us all. My love extends to every human on this earth! Well the man continued to try to disturb us, I must admit it is hard to keep a cool, but we did and eventually he went away (as with all things you ignore). I felt sad that this man had distanced himself so far from the truth but my pains were soon swallowed up by the joy of being an instrument in the lords hands. That day we taught around 24 individuals. We met almost every person that walked in or out of the store. It was amazing, and a great testimony to me that if we will endure persecutions God will bless us.

Thursday, was the Miracle day. I wish I had time to show you all that happened, but I am going to focus on a specific event. 6:00pm was the baptism interview for Sister Cartright and Edgecombe. We were struggling to get the computer working. No matter what we did Skype would just not let us in. We tried and tried finally I stood up and said alright everyone let's say a prayer. I said the words Dear Heavenly Fath... when I heard Elder Trumpet say it worked. It is my testimony that God tests us each day and that he literally answers prayers.

Love,
Elder Conder"

January 9, 2012

"Dear World,

What a week, there has been so much that has happened this week ! They say the more things change the more they stay the same. The Gospel holds true no matter where you are what you are doing or where you are going. The question I have been using most often as of late is, what is the most important thing you can do in life? Troy!!!!!!! IS NOW A MEMBER What an amazing baptism. I love this mission. 

The more things change the more they stay the same. I love this quote. I love this gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is so perfect. As I asked people this question throughout the week, I received a very calming answer. Serve God. Amen, This is so true, serve god so that we can live with him again! I have been focusing my mind throughout this week on preparing myself to live with God again. Doing this has greatly enlarged my view on this life. I have been so happy because of it.

Troy is a member, he has been baptized and what a moment it was! I am trying to think of the best way to describe this experience, heavenly!!! A real touch of heaven. I loved being with Troy after his baptism. He was laying on his couch saying, I feel like I am drunk with the spirit. I was loving it, he is so funny. Then he got really serious and started to bare his testimony about the gospel, the way he felt, the spirit, and everything. I am so glad that I have been a tool in Heavenly Fathers plan. I do not glory in myself, but in what God has commanded me. I love being a missionary.

Brothers and sisters, I would really love to thank you for sending me your stories of success. Living the gospel is not always easy, but always worth it. I would like to tell you that the trees are green and the sky is blue when the gospel is in my life, that is my testimony and my life. I love you.

Love,

Elder Conder"

January 2, 2012

Welcome to 2012, 

Welcome to my life, there's no turning back, even while were here, "Tears for Fears." It is awesome to be here on Freeport, I am sending tons of pictures with this email. (Elora will post on Jamaicanjames.blogspot.com)  I hope that will be the more secular part of my email. I would love to tell you a little more about some stories I deem as "the stories so often untold." There is a quote that I have to say before I get started. "Perhaps success isn't measured in dollars and gold, but in the stories so often untold." Everyday is Gods day on his mission. I love being here, to be able to do what he wants me to do is my greatest desire. 

Going to lunch the other day we stopped by the ATM to snag some cash, to our dismay we found that is was closed, but what happened while we were there was amazing. We were stopped by a man begging for food and as Elder Trumpet and I looked at each other it seemed as if we both remembered " and ye will not suffer that the beggars putteth up his  petition to you in vain." Well we gave him all we had. The restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ!   As we finished I thought our work at the ATM was at an end. We were then called over by three girls, they wanted to know who Joseph Smith was, as we testified in front of that true value hardware store the spirit was strong. We invited them all to learn more. We set up a time to meet with them again. As we drove away Elder Trumpet and I talked about how wonderful this experience was. It is moments like this in life that I can say with all gravity of my heart, that all things testify there is a god, and by small and simple means are great things brought to pass. I love this mission. I love my companion. I love you. God bless

I have a family here on earth they are so good to me I want spend my life with them through all eternity. I hope you are preparing so I can spend my life with you. We are all family and I hope to live with all of you in eternity.

Love,

Elder Conder

December 26, 2011

"Let me lay it on the line, probably one of the most epic Christmas eve's in the world! We started out like just another day, great lessons, hard work and progressed from there. We called our investigator and asked if we could come visit him. He said yeah, just meet me at the beach by my house. Sounds good! We pulled up and sat down on a bench spanning over the beach. We started talking about the gospel and he just started to bare a really powerful testimony of how much we have helped him and how far he has come. I think there are few that would have not been moved by that testimony. After the spirit poured over us for about 30 min. we went back to the car and there was some gospel rap playing in his car and he started dancing and we were all laughing. After that we went to his house and went Christmas Caroling! He, his, two brothers , Elder Trumpet and I got to our first house and they opened the door. We started singing and then we all just started laughing. It still touched them and they were stoked to see us. Then we moved through the rest of the night, it was Epic!  I am going caroling every year for the rest of my life. I think that this Christmas has had a profound impact on the rest of my life.

I love serving a mission! Life is great and I got one of the greatest Gifts this Christmas! What? Talking to my family. I Love them so much let me just try and put it in words. 1 L Life would have been nothing without them 2 O My parents are the Ones I chose and I am confident the only ones that could ever raise me. 3 V they gave me the Vision of what I can become. 4 E Ever one of them bring something great to the table. Dad taught me how to work and love unconditionally. Mom taught me how to live life and dream big. Jessica taught me what it means to really share. Ragu taught me that life dreams can be met. Elora taught that perfection can be closely met in this life. Taylor, gave me a big push in life's giant swing.  LOVE that is the easiest way to spell how much you mean to me!!!!

I want to tell you so much! I want to tell you everything and let you see how great this is here, but there is absolutely no way to do so. It would be an endless email. So to sum it up; I know that my Redeemer Lives. God is our Father and we are all brothers and sisters. The field is white already to harvest. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love,

Elder Conder"

December 20, 2011

"Last Christmas I was standing on top of an apartment with two of my favorite people, Elders Gardener and Tracy. I love and miss them both. We were looking over the scenic view of Ocho Rios Jamaica, what an experience. I will never forget that moment. I am so blessed to be here on Grand Bahamas this year. I am getting an early Christmas present this year, Elder Trumpet is coming for Christmas. I am going to finish my time on this island with him. I am super excited about this experience. It should be a really good time.

It's going to be a white Christmas this year. D&C 4:4, "the field is white already to harvest".

ITS a Christmas miracle, this Sunday was indeed a Christmas miracle! We had so many in attendance! It was great to see so many people out. This branch has really made some great progress, they are moving right along. The members are doing great. I would like to relate a story of one of our members, maybe two stories. The first story  is about one of our sisters who has sparked a forest fire in  hearts. We went on our way to see a new investigator who lived next door to a member. We invited our member to come teaching with us. She agreed so we went to her house and then walked to the neighbors. Well the neighbor wasn't home so our sister said, well there has got to be a reason why you are here. We sat down with her and began to teach her. She then related to us of how she had been thinking at length about her moral state when she was facing a challenge. She said this helped her to make the right choice. She then asked somewhat concerned, is it bad that I think about this all the time? No, we declared this is a great thing. This is a part of repenting. In the bible dictionary it defines repentance as a fresh view of ones self and the world. This is just what you have and a new view on life. I am so proud of her! She radiated the spirit as she bore her testimony. Then four days later at the Christmas party she came up to me and stated, I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. I was so enlightened by this testimony and moved with hope. This was an honest testimony of an honest sister.

I love you all I hope this will be a good gift to you this Christmas,

I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and redeemer of the world and that God loved his only begotten. I love you my brothers and sisters and pray for you often.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love,

Elder Conder"

December 12, 2011

"Merry Christmas,                                                                                              

We hold choir practice every Wednesday night at 7:00 P.M. it is always an awesome event. This week however was more than awesome. We started singing our Christmas hymn and then when we finished we started talking about our car and one thing lead to another and soon, everyone was just dying laughing. It was so fun Sis Cash had tears in her eyes she was laughing so hard. It was a great experience. I love serving a mission this is the most unique thing I have ever done in my whole life!

This week was chuck full of off the wall things Zone Leader Conference, fun times at mommies and spiritual lessons. For ZLC we headed over to the church and joined the Elders and Pres. over Skype.

F.H.E.,   ya, this week we had one of the funniest family home evenings ever. It all started out with two little girls running up and down and mom and dad trying to get them to sit still. We pulled out the hymn books and they started fighting over them. As we started to sing, something amazing happened. Singing Love at home, everyone settled down, the spirit was so strong, and seemed to come so fast. D&C 25: 12 For my soul adelighteth in the bsong of the cheart; yea, the dsong of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.  After we sang and got into the lesson we read a story on being nice to your brothers and sisters. We asked Julia (she is 8) if she would be nice to her sister Alia (4).  She said yes, "I will but Alia is not always nice to me."  Alia took this way serious and dramatized a facial expression and said " ohhh Okay, How About I climb up on the table and get you." We were instantly laughing and when we finally calmed down we started to finish the lessons and wrote notes to each other. After writing the notes everyone read theirs out loud and then Alia's dad said,  Alia will you read yours? She politely said ya. A moment later she excitedly said,  I want to read mine in the bathroom.

Love,

Elder Conder"