"I Don't Care What Movie We Watch, As Long As I Can Hold My Temple Recommend After Watching It"

Hello family and friends!

We have had a good week this week! The zone is doing a great job and the work and coordination with our stake leaders is getting a lot better. Every week we have a conference call with our stake president, high councilman over missionary work and us. The past few calls have been very productive. I think one of the best parts as serving here is being able to work with these great leaders in the church. There has been a lot of efforts in applying the hastening the work broadcast in all of the individual units in our stake, it is very exciting.

The S-- family is still doing great. We were unable to meet with them because of a few scheduling difficulties. Unfortunately, they said that they want to take a break from meeting with us. We are not exactly sure why, but we think that being a member of the church was more of a commitment than they were now ready to make. They are still going to be working with the B--'s and hopefully still read the Book of Mormon so one day, they will join the church.

The other big family that we are teaching are the H--'s and the B--'s. They all live in the same house and are awesome! It reminds me of Lumberton. I think I told you before, but they are from Micronesia. A few of them are members and we are now teaching 6 of the kids who are not yet members. They are awesome! They are all good kids and a lot of fun to be around.

I am very excited for general conference coming up! We are planning to watch it at our church building. I love hearing from the leaders of the church because their testimonies strengthen my testimony. This past weekend we went to a youth fireside presided by Elder Tony Parker of the 70. It was amazing! He is a really funny man who was a very good speaker. The fireside was very interactive and interesting. He had a lot of participation from the youth in our stake and gave an uplifting message of being a good example to those around us. He told of a story when he was deciding to watch a movie with some of his family members. They asked him what movie they wanted to watch and he was inspired to say, "I don't care what movie we watch, as long as I can hold my temple recommend after watching it." They then looked at the first movie on the shelf and decided they couldn't watch that one. They then went to the next, and the next until the large majority of their movies were determined not to fit that standard. His family were members of the church but as we all have seen, it is easy to let things that are not necessarily good into our lives. He was a good example by throwing all of the "bad" movies away. I know that we can all be an example like him if we are brave enough to stand up for what we truly believe.

 
Thanks for the good news from home!  I'm happy to see all of the good things that are happening. Keep up the good work in all that you do, my prayers are with you .

Thank you for being so supportive of me. I hope you have a good week and that you are able to make General Conference a spiritual experience for you:)

Love Elder Mortensen