I´m gonna go ahead and start off with some pretty awesome news!! I found out this week that I will be able to extend my mission until febuary!!! Originally I would have gotten home at the beganing of December, but this week one of the mission secretaries asked me if I would want to stay until the end of the next transfer in January, without a second of hesitation I said  I would and then asked to see if it is possible to stay for even longer. The next day the secretary told me that I  would only be able to stay 4 more weeks after that transfer, but to me it didn´t matter every extra second that I  can have in the mission will be so worth it!

With the extension of my mission a few of my plans will change, like the fact that I was going study at BYU during the spring semester which starts January 6th. So I guess I´ll have to get in to contact with BYU about that now... But honestly as i have been on the mission I have realized that there is literally nothing that you can lose in this service but everything that you can gain!

This week was General Conference, and man was it good! Seriously every talk was more inspired than the last. and with these inspired words we had the chance to once again see the power the truth of the Gospel has to inspire the hearts of those who are prepared. 

Last week my companion and I found a new investigator Thatiane. The first time that we taught her she was pretty receptive and seemed sincerely interested in what were saying but nothing out of the ordinary. We taught her about the restoration of the gospel by the prophet Joseph Smith and how our church is the only one of the face of the earth that has the priesthood authority of God. As we explained this she seemed just a little bit skeptical, but we bore our testimonies to her and told her that she could find out the truthfulness of our statement by praying and asking our Heavenly Father. We challanged her to pray about this and to come with us to general conference and that if she went would receive the answer that our church truly is the only one with the priesthood authority of God. She accepted and said that she would go with us to the Sunday afternoon session.

After an especial inspired conference session I asked her if she recieved the answer that she wanted. She looked and me and said she had and wanted to know when we would go back to her house to keep teaching her!

I knew that she would recieve this spiritual witness with the words of the living apostles and prophets because they truly are men called of God. As we follow the counsel that they gave us this weekend we can be sure that our lives will be blessed and we will enjoy a more constant presence of the spirit with us!

I love our prophet Thomas S. Monson and i know that he and all of the men under his leadership are called of God. And although Thomas S. Monson may be our earthly leader the true head of this Church is God himself.

I love you all and pray that we can all give head to the words of the prophet.

Love,

Elder Rice