exchange and conference!

 Bangalore sunset view from the apartment balcony

 2.5 Indians

Greetings from the Garden City, y'all!  It's funny: a little over a year ago, I was in Garden City, Idaho.  Now I'm in the "Garden City" of Bengaluru.  Haha I thought that was funny.

This week was solid.  I had the wonderful opportunity of going on exchange with an elder in our zone.  When he came to our area, his spirits were pretty low, but by time he left he was soaring.  He is an awesome elder, I learned a lot from him.  I will send a picture!

Conference was seriously awesome the time around.  I feel like conference keeps getting better, more and more relevant to me especially.  Perhaps that's because, through the Atonement of Christ, I'm beginning to develop "eyes to see" and "ears to hear."  Speaking of the Atonement, I feel that was a central theme this conference.  There were a few overarching themes this conference, I will name but three I noticed: 

• Suffering is inevitable in mortality, however, we can turn suffering into joy through faith in Jesus Christ.
•  God's love is always there for us, however, He will not save us in our sins.
• As members of Christ's church, we have no excuses, no loopholes no right to rationalize: we are so greatly blessed with an abundance of knowledge, revelation, and beautiful promises from the Lord.

There were a few speakers this conference where I could not take notes quickly enough.  Some of those speakers include: Elder Christofferson, Elder Bassett, President Nelson, President Robbins, Sister Reeves, Bishop Davies, Elder Renlund, the list goes on.  It's very difficult for me to pick a favorite, but I believe my favorite address was from Elder J. Devin Cornish of the Seventy!  He said that there's no such thing as being "good enough," and that we should stop comparing ourselves to others!  What God thinks of us should occupy our attention not what others think of us.  He said that if we repent sincerely, we'll always be forgiven--even if we may struggle with a particular sin over and over again.  He said that we cannot be saved without trying and that's the balance between grace and works--but must sincerely try!

What a great conference, I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did!  Have a good week, everyone, keep the faith!

Elder Tuscano

P.S.  It seems I will send the pictures in the near future, this computer at this random net cafe doesn't have available USB ports...sorry.