Dearest reader,

This week was really good! Thankfully, we were able to watch all of General Conference (except the Priesthood Session since it's after out bedtime) and I really learned a lot. Though we did have a little problem in the first session and most of it was transmitted in Spanish, which  I was surprisingly able to understand fairly well.

I had a lot of favorite parts of the Conference. Elder Mazzigardi was awesome, because he's Brazilian and talked about Brazil. I had the opportunity to hear him speak in the MTC when he visited there too! He is a really cool guy and it was cool to listen about how he gained a testimony of the restoration. I also really liked the talks of Elder Rasband, Bednard, Ballard, Uchtdorf, Oaks, and Holland. I love the doctrine of opposition that Elder Oaks talked about and Elder Holland really wrapped things up nicely at the end. It's cool here because you know exactly when the speakers go off-script because the translators have a harder time translating. Elder Holland went off script a lot haha! One of my favorite things that was said was in Elder Uchtdor's talk when he basically said if we want anything good to happen, we need to do good. I also learned quite a bit about obedience from the end of his talk.

In other news, Elder Otavio is going to be a District Leader in Belo Horizonte and in the meantime I will stay here and train a brand new missionary! I have no idea who he is or what he's like, but I will find that all out tomorrow. I'm very excited!! The craziest thing is that yesterday during personal study I was praying about the transfer and I felt an overwhelming feeling that this would happen. But I also kind of felt like I would be moved to train in a different area, so I'm not sure what to make of it.

This week I read "Our Search for Happiness." I would recommend it to you guys if you want a quick read with an awesome message. It's crazy how much you learn on the mission. Most of what I'm learning I already knew, it's just that now I have it written in my mind and my heart to always recall it when I need it.

We walked a lot this week. I don't know if this week is the record as far as steps, but I did beat my record for steps in one day with over 28,000 which is about 14 miles. I used to think lots of steps was a sign of working more, but I'm realizing more and more how more work is actually done when we take less steps. My plan is to work a little more intelligently this next week. It should be fun to receive the training again myself as I train a new missionary for the next 12 weeks. I will let you guys know all about him next week!!

Love,

Elder Searle

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Our District Leader who is going home this week!