As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I've just participated in a two-day event called General Conference where we hear speakers from the leaders of the church. There are four general two-hour sessions and an extra session for the men (which the women can view on-line) over the weekend. This happens twice a year; the first weekend in April, and the first weekend in October.
At the end of each conference, I marvel at the warmth I feel in my soul. Conference is a time to take stalk of our lives, set new goals, and renew commitments with the Lord.
I've had the privilege the last couple of years to participate in on-line chatter via social media during conference. We share conference quotes, impressions, thoughts, and ideas. We make new friends in the process, and strengthen friendships with others. We have conversations with others not of our faith, and more friendships are formed. I learn a lot from these people.
I don't own a laptop computer, or any fancy cell phone technology. My computer is not in the same room with the television where I watch the sessions of conference. So I participate on-line between sessions of conference. This has forced me to take good notes during conference so that I can go back to the computer and talk about what I've heard. Do you know how many years I've been told to take notes during conference? Do you know how many years I ignored that counsel? Well, I can now say that the counsel is wise. I learn a lot from taking those notes. :)
As conference came to a close today, I felt such a renewed commitment to the gospel. I'm exhausted from two days of "filling my cup" and then talking about it on three different social media networks, but it's a good kind of tired. It's the kind of tired that says, "you've got your work cut out for you, but it's okay because the Lord is there to help."
General Conference is not just for members of our faith, but for all people. If you have never participated in a session of General Conference, I highly recommend that you watch a session or two on-line here. You can watch the videos, listen to the audio, or download the texts. (Texts may not be available for a few days.) Do yourself a favor and "fill your cup" and enlighten your mind. Fill your heart with good things.
Showing posts with label LDS General Conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LDS General Conference. Show all posts
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
On Cloud Nine
My husband and I went to the temple this morning to spiritually prepare for this weekend's General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We also happened to have tickets tonight to a Jackie Evancho concert of "America's Got Talent" fame. My husband had given me the tickets last December for our anniversary, and it just happened that the concert was a few days prior to this weekend's General Conference. I'm on a spiritual high. There is nothing like quiet time to ponder in the temple followed by listening to Jackie Evancho sing "The Lord's Prayer" (among other things). What a way to prepare for General Conference!
I was so impressed by Miss Evancho's charm. She is a totally unassuming, sweet, amazing young woman. When she is singing, she is "in the zone," and has this huge adult voice. Upon completion of a song, she drops her shoulders, flips her hair, and tugs at her shoulder straps like every other kid her age. She has this tiny speaking voice on the microphone that was difficult to hear when she introduced the young man who is touring with her. At one point, she finished a song and said, "Well, I hope you enjoy intermission," and then left the stage. She is just a little girl with a huge talent -- a God given talent. I hope we hear good things from this young woman down the line. I hope her parents keep her from getting a big head, and that as she grows into a teenager she isn't consumed by the evils that lurk around every corner of the industry because she has a gift.
If anyone in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is listening, Jackie Evancho would be an outstanding guest at a Mormon Tabernacle Concert or "Music and the Spoken Word."
I'm looking forward to General Conference this weekend, and I feel like I'm well prepared to feast on the words of the prophets. I can hardly wait!
I was so impressed by Miss Evancho's charm. She is a totally unassuming, sweet, amazing young woman. When she is singing, she is "in the zone," and has this huge adult voice. Upon completion of a song, she drops her shoulders, flips her hair, and tugs at her shoulder straps like every other kid her age. She has this tiny speaking voice on the microphone that was difficult to hear when she introduced the young man who is touring with her. At one point, she finished a song and said, "Well, I hope you enjoy intermission," and then left the stage. She is just a little girl with a huge talent -- a God given talent. I hope we hear good things from this young woman down the line. I hope her parents keep her from getting a big head, and that as she grows into a teenager she isn't consumed by the evils that lurk around every corner of the industry because she has a gift.
If anyone in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is listening, Jackie Evancho would be an outstanding guest at a Mormon Tabernacle Concert or "Music and the Spoken Word."
I'm looking forward to General Conference this weekend, and I feel like I'm well prepared to feast on the words of the prophets. I can hardly wait!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Come Listen To A Prophet's Voice
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| Picture from here: |
Humility has never been one of my strong points. I take a lot of things for granted. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). We believe that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, and through His guidance we are led by living prophets and apostles, just as the Church was led when Christ was on the earth. As a kid, I used to watch LDS Conference on television (we only received one session on television in those days), and it never occurred to me how blessed I was to be listening to living prophets giving counsel. The older I get, the more appreciation I have for that counsel. What a marvelous opportunity it is to live on the earth at a time when we have living prophets! Technology has advanced to the degree that we can live stream all sessions of conference, and have the videos to replay within hours. The printed version is available later so that we can painstakingly study, highlight, and ponder the written word.
There is always so much to take into our hearts each conference that it is difficult to pick just one thing from the conference six months ago to share. However, there is something that I've thought about often over the last six months. The President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Thomas S. Monson, who we believe to be a prophet of God, said the following:
"We must be vigilant in a world which has moved so far from that which is spiritual. It is essential that we reject anything that does not conform to our standards, refusing in the process to surrender that which we desire most: eternal life in the kingdom of God. The storms will still beat at our doors from time to time, for they are an inescapable part of our existence in mortality. We, however, will be far better equipped to deal with them, to learn from them, and to overcome them if we have the gospel at our core and the love of the Savior in our hearts."
President Monson goes on to counsel that if we want to be in the world but not of the world, it is important that we communicate with our Heavenly Father through prayer. This is something that I've given much thought to over the past six months. I struggle every day with things all around me that are inappropriate at best and outright vulgar at worst. I recently wrote a blog post about part of this struggle here. The one thing that I've been able to take comfort in is President Monson's counsel to communicate with my Heavenly Father. Prayer has indeed been a great comfort to me and has helped me to muddle my way through the mud.
General Conference is coming our way again Saturday, March 31, 2012, and Sunday, April 1, 2012. Conference can be viewed on cable and satellite systems, as well as live streamed here: As usual, I'm starved to hear the word of the Lord through our living prophets and apostles, as well as others who sought for inspiration in preparing for this conference. I pray that I'll be in tune with the Spirit and hear the message that my Heavenly Father wishes me to hear.
I hope you will join with me in hearing the counsel of the Lord.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Vacation Fun Is Exhausting!
We've just had 8 lovely days! We drove to Salt Lake City for LDS General Conference, then on to Idaho to visit family and enjoy the desert scenery. Conference was wonderful, and I'm still on a spiritual high! There is nothing more relaxing to me that a drive through the desert, and we drove through some of the most beautiful desert scenery in the country this last week. I told Danny that photographs and even an artist's painting can't do justice to the desert. The shadows on the hillsides, the colors of pinks, browns, purples, and blues all blending together amidst puffs of clouds that you feel you can reach up and grab from the sky -- none of that can be recreated. It truly takes the hand of the Master.
After leaving Salt Lake, we stopped in Brigham City to visit the grave site of my third great grandmother, Ingeborg M. Nielsen Jensen, who was a handcart pioneer. A few years ago, our family took up a collection to place a grave stone for Ingeborg. We finally purchased the stone, took it to Brigham City, but there was too much snow to place the stone, so the cemetery had to place the stone after we left Utah. So this time I was able to get pictures of the stone placed in the cemetery for the family.
We traveled to Pocatello, Idaho, which is one of the few places in Idaho I had never seen. Quite by accident, we discovered Garrett Road, and the Garrett Business Center. My father-in-law, Lon White, was a truck driver for Garrett Freightlines for 25 years. A few years ago, Garrett went out of business, so the old trucking facility in Pocatello has been turned into a business park. It was so much fun to walk around and take pictures. I only wish I could have gotten a good picture of the street sign, but it would have required standing in the middle of a very busy 4-lane street, and I value my life.
Neely, Idaho is the site of a beautiful cemetery which has a great number of relatives, so we stopped there for a bit and marveled at the beautiful view on all sides of the cemetery! We stopped briefly in Burley, Idaho to see a cousin, Dale Whipple. It was pouring down rain when we got to Burley, but by the time we left, the sun was beginning to shine again. I always feel so much at home in Dale's house, and he's a real sweet man. I was glad we were able to connect with him, even if it was only for a few minutes.
We spent that night in Twin Falls -- and Danny scored with the hotel room! The Shilo Inn in Twin Falls is beautiful, and for $76, we had a full suite -- with not one, but two television sets! Actually, we didn't have a bad room for the entire trip, but the Shilo Inn in Twin Falls and the Best Western Plus in Winnemucca were the best. (Best Western Plus was a little more expensive.) Danny was born in Twin Falls, so we enjoyed cruising the area, especially around the new temple. We had the opportunity on a previous trip to Idaho to attend the open house of the Twin Falls Temple, and it is a really beautiful temple.
We drove to the Nampa/Caldwell area, and spent two nights in Nampa visiting Danny's brother and sister-in-law. It is always fun to spend time with Dick and Barbara. We took a tour of all the old stomping grounds in Caldwell where Danny was raised, and visited Danny's parents' graves, as well as the grave of his best friend, Colin Lamb, who was killed in Vietnam. (I had been inspired the day before to get all the details on the Lamb family in the cemetery, because now that Colin's parents have passed, we can easily do the temple ordinances for Colin and his family. Danny was thrilled at the thought, and especially that we might be able to get our son, Ezra, whose middle name is Colin, to do some of the work.)
We also checked up on my daughter's rental home in Caldwell to make sure it is looking good.
One night we went to Boise to have dinner with Danny's nephew's ex-wife and her husband. Diane will always be my special friend, and she will always be part of our family. I made up my mind that Ed and Diane may have divorced, but we didn't divorce Ed OR Diane. Her second husband, Fred, is a really fine man, and it turns out that Danny went to school with Fred's brother. Diane's youngest, Spencer, was with us for dinner, and it was fun to see him again. He was very young the last time we saw him, and he didn't remember us, but we remember him!
The 20 or 30-mile trip back from Boise to Nampa that night was eventful -- to say the least! I don't know how we got back to the hotel alive! Some roads were extremely confusing on our trip -- and that night trip back from Boise included my navigator directing me down the wrong way on a freeway ramp -- among other things!
We had a truly lovely drive from Nampa to Winnemucca, Nevada. We got into Winnemucca about 2:00 or 2:30 p.m., so we had some time to explore. We walked a block or two down to the only theater in Winnemucca to see the movie "Dolphin Tale." We were the only people there, so we had a private showing, which was really kind of fun! After a bite to eat, we vegged in front of a wide flat screen television in our room.
Today we drove from Winnemucca through Reno and back to Sacramento over Donner Summit. It was a beautiful drive. The sun was shining, and the snow had all melted from the road, but the snow was still on the trees, making a splendid winter wonderland! It was a wonderful trip, but I'm glad to be home -- and from the looks of it, my dog is glad we're home too. We had a house sitter for the first time, and it was great to know that everything was being watched over while we were gone, and that our dog was in good hands. We have had dog watchers before, but we've never had someone (other than our kids) actually stay in the house and take care of things, but I'm so glad we did it.
Just a bit of commentary: While California gave back some of their "stimulus money" because they didn't spend it on road construction fast enough, Utah, Idaho, and Nevada apparently spent every penny offered to them. The roads will be beautiful when they are finished, but I'm here to tell you that there is an abundance of road construction projects! I love the fact that we are restoring the infrastructure in this country, but I would like it even more if they would just say, "Hey, our roads stink, and we're going to spend a gazillion dollars fixing them." While they are putting lots of road construction crews to work (at least in three states), I'm not sure what that is doing to "stimulate" the rest of the economy. Hey, Washington, D.C., there are plenty of other people out of work besides road crews! Also, a reminder to those of us driving through these construction zones -- please be careful, slow down, and remember that these highway workers want to go home to their families at the end of the day just as we do!
After leaving Salt Lake, we stopped in Brigham City to visit the grave site of my third great grandmother, Ingeborg M. Nielsen Jensen, who was a handcart pioneer. A few years ago, our family took up a collection to place a grave stone for Ingeborg. We finally purchased the stone, took it to Brigham City, but there was too much snow to place the stone, so the cemetery had to place the stone after we left Utah. So this time I was able to get pictures of the stone placed in the cemetery for the family.
We traveled to Pocatello, Idaho, which is one of the few places in Idaho I had never seen. Quite by accident, we discovered Garrett Road, and the Garrett Business Center. My father-in-law, Lon White, was a truck driver for Garrett Freightlines for 25 years. A few years ago, Garrett went out of business, so the old trucking facility in Pocatello has been turned into a business park. It was so much fun to walk around and take pictures. I only wish I could have gotten a good picture of the street sign, but it would have required standing in the middle of a very busy 4-lane street, and I value my life.
 |
| Trust me, there's a road sign there that says "Garrett Way." |
We spent that night in Twin Falls -- and Danny scored with the hotel room! The Shilo Inn in Twin Falls is beautiful, and for $76, we had a full suite -- with not one, but two television sets! Actually, we didn't have a bad room for the entire trip, but the Shilo Inn in Twin Falls and the Best Western Plus in Winnemucca were the best. (Best Western Plus was a little more expensive.) Danny was born in Twin Falls, so we enjoyed cruising the area, especially around the new temple. We had the opportunity on a previous trip to Idaho to attend the open house of the Twin Falls Temple, and it is a really beautiful temple.
We drove to the Nampa/Caldwell area, and spent two nights in Nampa visiting Danny's brother and sister-in-law. It is always fun to spend time with Dick and Barbara. We took a tour of all the old stomping grounds in Caldwell where Danny was raised, and visited Danny's parents' graves, as well as the grave of his best friend, Colin Lamb, who was killed in Vietnam. (I had been inspired the day before to get all the details on the Lamb family in the cemetery, because now that Colin's parents have passed, we can easily do the temple ordinances for Colin and his family. Danny was thrilled at the thought, and especially that we might be able to get our son, Ezra, whose middle name is Colin, to do some of the work.)
We also checked up on my daughter's rental home in Caldwell to make sure it is looking good.
One night we went to Boise to have dinner with Danny's nephew's ex-wife and her husband. Diane will always be my special friend, and she will always be part of our family. I made up my mind that Ed and Diane may have divorced, but we didn't divorce Ed OR Diane. Her second husband, Fred, is a really fine man, and it turns out that Danny went to school with Fred's brother. Diane's youngest, Spencer, was with us for dinner, and it was fun to see him again. He was very young the last time we saw him, and he didn't remember us, but we remember him!
The 20 or 30-mile trip back from Boise to Nampa that night was eventful -- to say the least! I don't know how we got back to the hotel alive! Some roads were extremely confusing on our trip -- and that night trip back from Boise included my navigator directing me down the wrong way on a freeway ramp -- among other things!
We had a truly lovely drive from Nampa to Winnemucca, Nevada. We got into Winnemucca about 2:00 or 2:30 p.m., so we had some time to explore. We walked a block or two down to the only theater in Winnemucca to see the movie "Dolphin Tale." We were the only people there, so we had a private showing, which was really kind of fun! After a bite to eat, we vegged in front of a wide flat screen television in our room.
Today we drove from Winnemucca through Reno and back to Sacramento over Donner Summit. It was a beautiful drive. The sun was shining, and the snow had all melted from the road, but the snow was still on the trees, making a splendid winter wonderland! It was a wonderful trip, but I'm glad to be home -- and from the looks of it, my dog is glad we're home too. We had a house sitter for the first time, and it was great to know that everything was being watched over while we were gone, and that our dog was in good hands. We have had dog watchers before, but we've never had someone (other than our kids) actually stay in the house and take care of things, but I'm so glad we did it.
Just a bit of commentary: While California gave back some of their "stimulus money" because they didn't spend it on road construction fast enough, Utah, Idaho, and Nevada apparently spent every penny offered to them. The roads will be beautiful when they are finished, but I'm here to tell you that there is an abundance of road construction projects! I love the fact that we are restoring the infrastructure in this country, but I would like it even more if they would just say, "Hey, our roads stink, and we're going to spend a gazillion dollars fixing them." While they are putting lots of road construction crews to work (at least in three states), I'm not sure what that is doing to "stimulate" the rest of the economy. Hey, Washington, D.C., there are plenty of other people out of work besides road crews! Also, a reminder to those of us driving through these construction zones -- please be careful, slow down, and remember that these highway workers want to go home to their families at the end of the day just as we do!
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