General Conference October 2011

I'm blogging from a hotel in Twin Falls, Idaho, so if someone comes to use the computer, this may be cut short.

My husband and I just attended General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You call us Mormons.  It was an absolutely wonderful conference!  I felt so at peace to be there with thousands of people who share one common goal:  To try a little harder each day to become more like the Saviour.  There were talks from the prophet and President of the Church, President Thomas S. Monson, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other general officers of the Church.  I took great notes, but I won't try to summarize them because they are in one of my suitcases, and I'm not sure which one at this point -- and I'm pretty tired tonight.

The one talk that does stand out in my mind, however, was a talk by Elaine S. Dalton (oh, I do hope I got her name right), the Young Women's General President.  Usually, when a member of the Young Women's Presidency speaks, she speaks to the young women of the Church.  This time, this wonderfully inspired leader spoke to the fathers of the Church.  It was quite apparent that she knows that families are falling apart, and she felt inspired to speak to fathers about keeping their families together, honoring their priesthood responsibilities, and staying close to their daughters (and sons).  It was a powerful and moving talk.

I was also thrilled at the new temples that were announced in Wyoming, the Congo, Columbia, and South Africa, and that the Church is going ahead with plans for a temple in Paris, France.  The historic tabernacle in Provo, Utah that burned down a few months back will be completely restored -- but not as a tabernacle -- as a new temple!

It was also announced that a new fund has been set up to help families who live far away from a temple to make a one-time trip to a temple to do family ordinances and seal their families together for eternity.  What a wonderful opportunity!  I can definitely sink my teeth into that, and will be making my first donation to the fund shortly.

On a more personal note, between the Saturday sessions of conference, I was thrilled to be able to personally meet Kathryn Skaggs (aka LDSNana, aka A Well-Behaved Mormon Woman).  I have been in awe of this woman's talents since I first "met" her on Twitter a couple of years ago.  Kathryn has her own story to tell about conference, and I won't tell it here and spoil her fun.  She's probably already done it, but the hotel where I'm staying doesn't allow patrons to use social media on the hotel computer, so I can't check to see what she's posted to Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ about conference -- that will have to wait until I can get to a more "friendly" computer.  By the way, Kathryn is as beautiful as her pictures -- besides being a completely genuine person.

The main lesson learned from attending conference:  When I was walking back and forth between the hotel and the conference center, I kept telling myself to fight through the pain because my third great grandmother, Ingeborg Mortensen Jensen, pushed a handcart all the way across the country to the Salt Lake Valley, and I shouldn't complain.  As I recall (and my family will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure), Ingeborg was about 15 years old (or at least a young woman), she was a little bit of a thing (not overweight), and she did not have a metal plate and several screws in her ankle.  Those Vicodin that I didn't take after my surgery and just threw in the 72-hour kit in case somebody needed them someday -- yeah, I should have grabbed them for the trip.  Let's just say that I had two nights of total agony, and I made Danny go find food last night (walking because the whole area around the hotel was a huge construction site) and bring it back to the room.

I'll blog about our trip to Idaho in a couple of days.