Sister White: Prior to Brazil, Brasilia Mission

My daughter, Kaylonnie (Sister White), is serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Brazil, Brasilia Mission.  She has made many friends in Brazil, and they have reached out to me via Facebook.  It has been an honor to get to know her Brazilian friends.  They are curious about this young American woman who has suddenly become part of their lives. This post is for Sister White's new friends in Brazil so that they can become acquainted with who she is and what her life was like growing up in Sacramento, California, U.S.A.  I have chosen to use mostly pictures, as I feel the pictures tell the story quite well. The pictures are not necessarily in chronological order, but grouped to tell a story.

There were baby moments.

Hannah is holding Kaylonnie

Easter moments.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Easter Fun

Fun times.

Tricycle and bicycle times.

There was fun at Fairytale Town.

Fairytale Town

Fairytale Town

Fairytale town pictures from here.

Excitement to be in school.

Kindergarten was at Joseph Bonnheim Elementary School.

Picture of Joseph Bonnheim Elementary from their website (above).

There were many first day of school pictures.

Kaylonnie, Hannah, Ezra (Molly was away at college for this one)

First through sixth grades were spent at Phoebe Hearst Elementary School in the Basic Education Program.

Phoebe Hearst Elementary School

There was growing . . .

And more growing.

There were braces.

There were birthdays, Easters, Christmases, other holidays, and family get togethers.

We can't forget Halloween!

Camp Fire Boys and Girls, and Camp Minaluta!

Top picture is a Camp Minaluta counselor with Kaylonnie and Ezra. Next, Mom and Kaylonnie.  Next Ezra and Kaylonnie with the "Hi-Seller" T-shirts they earned for selling LOTS of Camp Fire candy. Next is Kaylonnie and Molly.

Ezra and Kaylonnie at Camp Minaluta

Kaylonnie (second from left) with Camp Fire Buddies

Ezra, Hannah, Kaylonnie, Molly
The day Kaylonnie received her Camp Fire gown.

Canoes on Lake Minaluta

There were friends.

There were dog days.

Seventh and eighth grade years were at California Middle School.

California Middle School

 Above picture of California Middle School from their website.

California Middle School

California Middle School

The next four years of high school were at C. K. McClatchy High School.

C. K. McClatchy High School

Above picture from McClatchy website (above).

There were Nauvoo, Illinois moments.

And Quincy, Illinois moments.

Before our very eyes she became a young woman.

There were military balls and prom nights.

And lots and lots of laughter!

Many hours were spent preparing for the cultural celebration during the open house and dedication of the Sacramento Temple.

She began her college education at Sacramento City College.

Sacramento City College (from their website above)

Sacramento City College

Sorry, the above picture was the best I could do.  I was not able to get a decent picture of Sacramento City College.  Parking is a problem nearby, and I had to stand across Freeport Boulevard, which is extremely busy.  It took me several minutes to snap a picture between vehicles.  Unfortunately, an internet search didn't provide any pictures either.

A lot of college time was spent at the LDS Institute of Religion across from the Sacramento City College campus.  She learned so much here and her testimony really blossomed.

LDS Institute of Religion at Sacramento City College

LDS Institute of Religion at Sacramento City College

She was known as "Miss Kaylonnie" when she worked at Radcliffe Academy as a daycare assistant.

Radcliffe Academy picture from here.

There were pizza nights at Roma's.

Roma's Pizza from their website (above)

Roma's Pizzeria

Above picture from here.  (Roma's doesn't look great from the outside, but they have the best pizza ever!)

There were ice cream nights at Gunther's.

Pictures of Gunther's from here.  (Molly, Hannah, and Ezra all worked at Gunther's in high school too.)

There was a mission call.

And a missionary farewell.

Photo Taken by Rachel White, Vintage Bloom Photography

Photo Taken by Rachel White, Vintage Bloom Photography

Over the years there were sibling pictures and family pictures.

Above family photos taken by Courtney Farnworth

And even eternal pictures.

Oakland Temple Sealing Day Pictures Taken by Cecelia Takahashi

Sister White, the missionary.

Missionary Training Center

 

Mission Blessings

I gave this talk in Sacrament Meeting, LDS Sacramento First Ward, January 22, 2012.

I’m not sure why I’m speaking twice in just a few weeks, but I figure this should get me off the hook for a while now—at least I’m crossing my fingers.

The scripture that Kaylonnie chose for her missionary plaque that hangs by the Bishop’s office is 1 Nephi 11:17.  Nephi has just been shown in vision the Virgin Mary, and asked if he understands what it means, or “Knowest thou the condescension of God?”  This is Nephi’s answer:

“And I said unto him:  I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.”

I e-mailed Kaylonnie and asked her why she chose that scripture, and this is what she said:

“I love that verse because as much as I like to think I know a lot, the spirit reminds me all the time that I really don´t know anything and I need to be humble.  Also something I see all the time here is people in the world are really confused and lost when it comes to their beliefs and how to live their lives.  Having a knowledge of the restored Gospel and knowing that Heavenly Father loves me makes EVERY minute of this work easier.  No matter how much we are rejected or have false doctrine thrown at us, I can remember this scripture and thank Heavenly Father that I don´t have to feel as confused and worried about life as most people in the world. Also if you run out of things to say, I was torn for weeks between 1 Nephi 11:17 and 2 Nephi 4:20-21.”

I looked up that second scripture, and it says:

“My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.  He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.”

The scripture on her plaque means something a little different to me, though similar in a way.  I feel the love of my Heavenly Father and the love of Christ every day of my life.  That feeling of being loved is what sustains me.  I don’t know the meaning of all things, either.  There is a lot about the gospel that I don’t understand.  I don’t think we’re supposed to understand everything.  Besides that, I’m not a scholar; I have a very simple mind.  I was also inactive for 20 years so I feel like I’m always playing catch up.  I wasn’t raised in the church, really.  My parents joined the church when I was 10, but did not stay active very long.  I’ve learned, though, that understanding the gospel or understanding scriptures isn’t as important as being obedient to the principles of the gospel and having faith that what I don’t understand will be explained to me sooner or later, whether in this life or the next.

Sacramento First Ward has a very unique situation with three missionaries in the field at the same time.  I don’t think that’s ever happened in the many years that I’ve been in this ward.  I know it happens in other wards, but this is not something that happens in our ward.  It is a great blessing.

Each time my children have served a mission, our family has been blessed.  We never told any of our kids that they were going to serve a mission.  This was something that they chose for themselves.  As each one has left, I’ve wondered why they have such great testimonies and why they are so strong.  I was inactive all the time Molly and Hannah were young, and until Ezra was about nine years old.  Even though I was active when Kaylonnie was little, I still struggled for a long time.  I don’t know why these strong individuals came to me.  Maybe they needed to teach me.

I asked Danny how he felt our family has been blessed by our children’s missions.  He mentioned that he felt our kids have been strengthened in their marriages because of their missions.  I think he’s right.

One of the great blessings we have received as our children have served missions is being able to watch them really grow up.  The growing experiences they have in the mission field are invaluable.  There is no way you can put a price on that.  There is nothing that can replace it.  They go away as children and come back as adults.  They see people in the real world with real problems.

Ezra thought he lived in the Ghetto until he went to Uruguay and saw what it really means to be poor.  He saw apartment buildings that had no sewer hook ups, so when it rained the sewer ran down the street.  He walked up the hills in the rain against that sewer, and his shoes smelled like it when he came home.  I wouldn’t let him in the house with them.  He learned to appreciate the mail service in this country after living through three separate mail strikes in Uruguay in two years.  He also learned to appreciate the honesty of our postal workers because in Uruguay they open and steal anything that they can use or that might be of value.

Hannah went to Russia and learned about spousal and elder abuse, mental illness, and alcoholism.  She learned when she called the police in an abuse case, they won’t come until they know an ambulance is there, and the ambulance won’t come until the police are there.  When both agencies finally arrive, they look to the Mormon elders (who came quickly at her call) to go rescue the woman from the crazy guy who had beaten her within an inch of her life.  Hannah also learned that if you have to go to the hospital, you need to remember to take money and toilet paper with you.  She learned the meaning of freedom when she didn’t have it in Belarus.  Phone calls were tapped and e-mails were read.  She learned what it means to be followed by the police.

Molly learned about racial prejudice on her mission when she spent the night in a Boston hospital with a Hispanic woman who was in labor because no one else would go with her.  I find it interesting that Molly was later blessed with two adopted children.  One is full Hispanic; the second Hispanic and Polish.  Molly learned what poverty is when she painted over graffiti in a tenement building and helped put a roof on someone’s house to keep out the rain.

Kaylonnie is learning too.  She has also learned to appreciate the U.S. Mail.  Dad and I sent her three bubble envelopes of stuff for Christmas.  The first two envelopes were mailed right after Thanksgiving, and the third about a week before Christmas.  I knew she wouldn’t get the third one on time, but I was really hoping she would get the first two.  She didn’t have any of them for Christmas.  She e-mailed on January 9th and said that she had finally received one of the first two envelopes.  Last Monday she e-mailed and said she had finally received the other two bubble envelopes.  Just before Christmas she was thrilled that she had gotten several cards from her Dad and a second letter from Sister Conrad.  I think at that point she knew that was going to be it until after Christmas.  Fortunately, we were able to Skype with her for Christmas so we could actually see her face on the computer as well as hear her voice.  We’ve never been able to Skype with a missionary before, so that was pretty cool.  I don’t know what experiences she will have on her mission, as she hasn’t been out that long, but I do know that she will have them.  Just like the other kids, she will come home with a whole different view of the world and her place in it.  That is a huge blessing!

I’ll read just a small part of her e-mail last Monday:

“The weather is awful here!!  It is cold and it has rained every day this week! I would give anything for a raincoat and another sweater or two. Apparently the 6 months of DRY heat and absolutely zero rain starts in April. I thought I was on the southern hemisphere?!?  Apparently not!  I´m pretty sure my least favorite thing is wearing wet shoes every day and my second least favorite thing is running in the rain during exercises at 6:30 in the morning.  I thank Heavenly Father for Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays because I don´t have to exercise in the rain. :D And I loathe Wednesdays when I know there are four days of running ahead of me. HaHa.  As much as I walk and walk my hate of real exercise hasn´t changed. You´d think after walking miles and miles every day I wouldn´t be bothered by it.  I guess some things never change.”

Yes, she is having experiences in Brazil and learning a lot.  One of the things she is learning is that when the mission list says raincoat, even though there are no raincoats available in Sacramento stores in August, you listen to Mom and buy one on line.

There are other blessings that come through missions.  It was during Matt’s mission that I became active in church again.  I did not become active because Matt served a mission, but during that time the Lord was working on me through many different sources.  Everywhere I turned, it seemed, there was something to evidence to me that I needed to get myself back here.

For many years my family has prayed that my younger sister would find happiness.  She is five years younger than me, and has never been married.  She has been greatly blessed in her life in other areas.  She has traveled the world and seen and done things that the rest of us can only dream about.  She has had exceptional jobs that have brought her wonderful experiences.  The one blessing she really wanted, however, a family, never seemed to happen.  A while back she met a wonderful man.  He has two daughters; one who is almost grown, and one who still has some growing left to do.  We had been praying that they would get married, but things were moving pretty slowly—at least not as quickly as the rest of us would have liked.  We want happiness for my sister.  We love him and want him in our family.  We want my sister to have the opportunity to help raise his younger daughter.  As hard as we prayed, it didn’t seem to us like it was ever going to happen.  Then Kaylonnie left on her mission.  My sister’s wedding is now planned for April 7th.  They are not getting married because Kaylonnie is on a mission.  There is no doubt in my mind that they would have gotten married eventually.  My sister is too smart to let this guy go.  The timing of this marriage, however, is quite interesting to me.  Reasonable people might say that it would be better for them to wait for the economy to take an upturn.  My sister is the most reasonable person I know.  She is reasonable to a fault.  So it is nothing less than a miracle that this marriage is going forward in April.  That I will say is a missionary miracle.  If our family receives no other blessing while Kaylonnie is gone, that will be fine, because this is a truly wonderful blessing for our family.

I say this in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Addendum:  While I gave this talk on January 22, 2012, I have waited until April to publish it here.  My sister is now married.  I didn't publish this because I didn't want to jinx the wedding!

Significant/Insignificant Moments

Kaylonnie White

You never know how one person is going to touch another person's life.  About 11 years ago the lady who lived across the street from us, Ruth, had a stroke and was very ill.  My daughter, Kaylonnie, who was then about 11 years old, and her neighborhood friends drew a picture as a get well card and they all signed their names and gave it to Ruth.

While the kids wanted to do something nice for Ruth, I'm sure they never understood the significance of that little homemade get well card.  Kaylonnie is almost 22 years old now, and her friends are about the same age.  I'd be willing to bet that none of them even remember giving Ruth that little card.  It was an insignificant moment in their lives.

Ruth passed away a couple of months ago.  Her daughter, Lolly, is in the process of clearing out Ruth's house to rent.  Today she walked across the street with Ruth's card and handed it to my husband.  She told Danny that Ruth had kept it on the bulletin board in her room all these years.  What was a tiny insignificant moment in the lives of these children, was a very significant moment in the life of one very ill little old lady.

Kaylonnie's birthday is coming up, and she is currently in Brazil serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Tonight I packaged up some goodies in two bubble envelopes to send to her for her birthday -- the traditional care package of peanut butter, Fiber One bars, Crystal Light, Ranch flavored Doritos, etc.  In one of the envelopes, I carefully placed Ruth's card, with a note explaining to Kaylonnie the significance of the card to Ruth.  I told her to compare it to missionary work. She may say something today that she doesn't even realize will be of great significance to someone -- and she may never know it.  I told her that when she gets discouraged, that she needs to look at Ruth's card and remember what it meant to Ruth.

He Rarely Repeats a Mistake

Danny 4-7-12

One thing I've always admired about my husband is that he truly tries not to repeat mistakes--even the minor ones.

Years ago when the block buster movie "Titanic" came out, everyone was raving about how wonderful it was.  Everyone except me, of course, because I hadn't seen it.  I usually let my husband pick the movies we see because he gets such a kick out of it.  Apparently, he wasn't interested in seeing "Titanic."  One day I teased him about the fact that I was the only girl on the planet who had not seen the movie.  He scheduled a date night and took me to see "Titanic."

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the 3D version of "Titanic" just came out, and he didn't wait this time. We saw it this afternoon.  Seeing the movie was great, but being reminded of how much my husband values our marriage was priceless.  It's a small thing, and if I had never seen either version of the movie it wouldn't have been the end of the world, or even our marriage.  The effort that he made to please me, however, does not go unnoticed.  As a matter of fact, it will be cherished forever.

One of the reasons I think we have a good marriage is because this is Danny's second marriage.  He tries really hard at this marriage because he doesn't want a second mistake.  To say that he gives 110% would be putting it mildly; he gives his all--and THAT is why I love him.

Billiards, Weddings, and Bridesmaid Wranglers

My baby sister, Colleen (Coke), got married yesterday.  We've prayed for many years that she would find the love of her life, and prayers were finally answered.  She not only found the love of her life, but this family couldn't have hand-picked someone to fit in better with our family.

The Bride -- Colleen

It was a very fun wedding -- and I don't normally like weddings.  Colleen was as relaxed and happy as I have EVER seen her.  She just made this one big party.  Our niece, Jodi and our nephew's son, Isaak played a flute/keyboard duet.  I didn't see it because I was "wrangling" in the hallway (see below), but I could hear it.  It was lovely.

Coke assigned me "bridesmaid wrangler."  Since my second daughter is too pregnant to travel to the wedding, her children, Joey and Ella, weren't there to be included in the "wrangling," which gave me 9 bridesmaids and 4 ushers. Our cousin, Jim Cain, had the easy part as "Usher Wrangler" mostly because his ushers were older.  He only had one usher that was little.  We had the ushers walking with two bridesmaids on each side.  Each of the bridesmaids carried a flower.  There were lilacs from my bushes, daffodils from my sister, Cheri's yard, and a few other varieties from who knows where. After the ushers and bridesmaids walked in, George's daughter, Katie, walked alone as the Maid of Honor.  Then I scooted in to my seat quickly so that I could see our brother, Rick, walk Colleen down the aisle.

Wrangle Mania

Unfortunately, before I sent the kids walking into the ceremony, I made the mistake of giving Coke a hug.  She looked beautiful, and I don't know why I hadn't prepared myself that I might cry, but I hadn't.  It never occurred to me that I would turn into waterworks!  I burst into tears, and then she did.  We got it together and then when Rick walked her down the aisle I lost it again, which made pretty much everyone else lose it too.  I feel really bad about that!  Then during the party I was so tired, and she played two of my Dad's favorite songs, and I bawled again.  When the first one started to play, she was dancing with George facing the other direction.  She said, "George, Laurie's crying, isn't she."  Gee, thanks!  I'm so predictable!

I teased Jim Cain after the rehearsal that he had a much easier job "wrangling" the ushers than I had with the bridesmaids.  So just before the wedding, he came to me to show me how I could keep my bridesmaids in line.  He had a taser gun.  We were laughing. At any rate, he decided to taze thin air to show me (and the kids behind me) the snap, crackle, and pop. Apparently, my rowdy bridesmaids got the message, because they were extremely reverent throughout the ceremony!  Ya gotta love cousin Jim!

The bridesmaids sat on the floor to the right of Colleen and George, with the ushers sitting on the floor on the left.  After the ceremony, Coke and George walked out first, and the ushers were to escort the bridesmaids back out (which meant me rounding them up off the floor and putting them in order again).  Jocelyn had taken her lilac apart, so I grabbed the flower, grabbed the leaves, threw them in her hand and closed her hand around them. Katelyn had started to get a little restless on the floor during the ceremony, so we motioned for her to go to her Dad, Ezra, (who we sat close for that reason).  So she had to come back up front to find her usher.  It was all very cute, but I was exhausted!

Steve Woodbury, Colleen's bishop (and we grew up with the Woodbury kids), performed the ceremony.  He talked about three important items in a marriage:  appreciate, communicate, and contemplate.  Coke was so nervous, she didn't hear any of it, but Steve had a printout, and he gave it to her.

The wedding took place at St. Mary's Art Center in Virginia City, Nevada.  In the Virginia City mining boom days, St. Mary's was the hospital.  It is considered the most haunted place in Nevada (and for good reason).  The ceremony itself took place in the artist's studio up on the 3rd floor, so it was a climb. There are 4 floor and no elevators -- and some of us are OLD!  The wedding was at 2:00 p.m., then we did pictures.  At 4:00 p.m. was the party. They had asked instead of gifts, guests bring an appetizer for the party, which were spread out on the first three floors, so people went up and down and mingled, which was nice. At 5:00 p.m. we had dinner.  Food was set up in the "breezeway" which is a little hallway.  It is the area where they used to perform autopsies in the old hospital days. Then you could take your plates wherever you wanted.  There were tables set up in the "carriage house" on the other side of the "breezeway."  The carriage house is the old morgue. The horse-drawn buggies used to come to the entrance of the morgue to pick up the bodies for burial. There is also a nice long table in one of the two kitchens where people congregated to eat. (One kitchen we used just for food prep.) They also set up tables on the 3rd floor artist's studio where the wedding was held.

This is a picture of St. Mary's from their website:

This is last year's family reunion picture at St. Mary's:

After dinner, our nephew, Todd, was the DJ for the dancing.  He borrowed an expensive sound system from someone.  The only reason the man loaned it to him is because Todd is his IT guy and showed the man how to use the system.  Colleen hand picked the music -- and she has great taste in music -- so it was wonderful.  George's family all love to dance, and the rest of us were all just in party mode, so there was a LOT of dancing. Cheri's old roommate, Marsha, commented to me that brides usually hire expensive bands and nobody dances, but last night pretty much everyone danced.  My little granddaughters, Haley and Kaitlyn, were out on the dance floor pretty much the whole time doing ballet, or whatever, right in the middle of it all.

Todd with his assigned task

My daughter-in-law, Rachel, was the professional photographer, and she took a ton of pictures so I'm sure she has her hands full editing.  I only took a few. As usual, I enjoyed visiting and forgot to take pictures.  Most of the weekend my camera hung around my neck unattended.  Some of the pictures here were taken by the bride herself.

George & Rachel, our busy photographer

Coke and George are avid pool players so that was the theme for the wedding.  The bulletin board behind where they were married was covered in pink paper with two pool cues.  They didn't have a cake, only cupcakes.  The cupcakes were pool balls with numbers on them in different colors.  The cupcake table was decorated to look like a pool table.  The "cake toppers" were a bride and groom 8 and 9 balls.

The 9 ball has a really long veil in back!

Colleen is OCD and is into spreadsheets.  I go on record as hating spreadsheets.  However, I have to admit that this time the spreadsheets actually worked.  Everyone had an assignment, knew what the assignment was, and the whole shindig went off without a hitch.

The little girls in the family were assigned as "bathroom fairies" and were responsible for making sure there was plenty of toilet paper and paper towels in the bathrooms.  For the party, Coke had special paper wedding towels and rose petal soaps for the bathrooms, and the bathroom fairies were in charge of making sure they were disbursed to all the bathrooms.  Darci was "head fairy" and my brother's wife, Kathy Janes, was the supervisor (but her job was easy because Darci is pretty OCD too).  Darci had a time schedule for her fairies to check their assigned bathrooms.  Since only one of the fairies knows how to tell time, she had to round them up and tell them when it was time to go on duty.  Darci had a sign for each bathroom, such as "B1" for Bella 1, and "H2" for Haley 2.  I don't know how many bathrooms they each had, but there are a ton of bathrooms in that place.

Rooms are rented out at St. Mary's, so some of us actually stayed there. Some stayed Friday and Saturday nights, and some just Saturday night. Some commuted from other locations.  This is quite an experience -- remember it is the most haunted place in Nevada.  :)

This morning we all got packed to go home, and then at 10:00 a.m. we had an Easter egg hunt on the lawn in front of the building.  The kids had a great time.  George's daughter, Katie, was in charge of getting the baskets together and hiding the eggs.  She asked George's niece, Tricia, to help her. We hadn't met Tricia before, but she is a real sweetheart.  We all absolutely ADORE Katie!  If I wasn't old, I'd steal her for my own.

George & Katie Father/Daughter Dance

Apparently, the families introduced Tricia and my nephew, Mikel, to each other via the internet a couple of months ago, and they have been talking. They met for the first time this weekend, and let me tell you, Mikel is smitten with this girl!  Colleen and George didn't really get the "first" dance because Todd was playing music long before Colleen and George got in there, and Mikel asked Todd to play some slow dances.  They danced for a LONG time before Coke and George got there -- and they danced all night!  Mikel actually stayed at St. Mary's Saturday night!  He wouldn't do that during the family reunion last year.  (Haunted places are not for everyone.)  They were soooo cute together!

Mikel and Tricia

George had two of his sisters and one niece there.  Let me tell you, they are characters. They fit right in to the family!  They live in Michigan (3-hours ahead of us), and George picked them up at the airport in Reno Friday night. They got to St. Mary's after 9:00 p.m., which was after midnight their time. When they got there, a bunch of us were gathered in chairs by the stairwell on the 2nd floor in our jammies chatting.  Apparently, they were quite impressed by this because this is something that they would do.  They got in their jammies and joined us, tired as they were.  One of George's sisters, Denise, was quite smitten with my granddaughter, Jocelyn, and they became great buddies.

My sister, Cheri (left), with George's sister Denise

George and Colleen, may you have happiness together!  You deserve it more than anyone I know.  We love you!

Photo by Rachel at Vintage Bloom Photography

Find Vintage Photography here:   https://www.facebook.com/VintageBloomPhotography

Reveling in the Warmth

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.