Elder Ogden sends pictures!

Dear Family,

Conference weekend was wonderful for us as well. We had four extra elders spend the weekend with us, and we had a good time. Elder Knorr came down from Segovia and although he did not stay at our apartment, we did spend quite a good amount of time together and managed to sing a few hymns into my tape recorder. I will have to get a package on its way, but I do not thing I will be sending more pictures through snail mail since, according to Elder Bytheway, President Watkins has given authorization to send pictures through E-mail. So here are four pictures. One is of Elder Morris and me along with President Blanco at Juan's baptism. Another is everyone who was at church that day in Caceres. The other two are of me with my new companions, one at the Temple and the other outside the Madrid planetarium. In the latter, Elder Padrones is between Elder Froberg and me.

Transfers were on Monday. I probably should have warned you, but nobody left our district so keep on sending mail to my apartment. The only change in our district was that one more sister missionary was added, making our district a three-companionship district with 8 missionaries since there are two threesomes. Elder Padrones will be with us for at least another month.

The pizza bakeoff on Wednesday was good. We made ours a deep dish pizza since there was a lot of sauce and there was plenty of dough. It got the nickname pizza soup. At the activity there were also fooseball tables and a ping pong table. It was a fun little activity. Today we attended the Temple again. I love being so near the Temple, and with how long people are staying in areas now I may not move again before the end. Speaking of which, Elder Bytheway shared that his family wants to come and see Spain, but his plan is to go home first and get released before making the rounds. I really like that idea. In his case the lapse at home will be 36 hours. I would probably want to be home a little longer, but seeing Europe as a normal member of the Church is just a lot more appealing than doing it as a missionary with mission standards. Just something to think about.

Thanks for taking notes on the last session of Conference. I am very excited to read about it. Apparently they do show that session but since it does not end until midnight here, the missionaries are not allowed to go. In any case I loved Conference and the different focuses it had. I especially liked the talk by Elder Oaks about the love and laws of God. I also thought Elder Scott's description of pornography's influence was very impressive. Elder Ballard's advice has me ready for what to expect after the mission, and Elder Bednar's metaphor of brush strokes helped me see why family home evening, family prayer and family scripture study is such a special program. I hope to be more consistent in the little things of missionary life.

This transfer brought some more policy changes, such as that in the schedule we are now allowed to take our two-hour break whenever it fits best rather than putting it at the same time every day. It will make planning a little more complicated but I think that our days will be more effective.

Well, that is all I have time for now. Thank you very much for your loving example and doctrinal diamonds. I love you very much.

Love,
Elder Jonathan David Ogden