Happy General Conference Weekend!

Henry and I look so forward to the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, of which we are members. It happens twice a year in April and October. The prophet, apostles, and other general authorities give such incredible talks that give us comfort, guidance, and warning in this sometimes difficult and confusing world. We believe that their messages are inspired of God, and are what He Himself would say to us at this time. It is wonderful and incredibly comforting to have knowledge of modern-day revelation in addition to ancient scripture. I believe with all my heart that God loves His children as much today as He did the people of old, so why would He not continue to communicate with us? 

Here are the things that stood out to me most in this morning's session of Conference: Richard G. Scott spoke about the importance of the scriptures (we count the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and words of our modern-day general authorities as scripture). Elder Scott said that the scriptures heal the emotional part of the soul, and even speed up physical healing. He said that reading the Book of Mormon consistently gives you an added measure of the Spirit. This caused me to think about my own experience with reading the Book of Mormon again this year. Mom told me something she learned about reading scriptures with a specific purpose. She said to put a sticker with a question you have on a new copy of the Book of Mormon, and read it through looking for answers and underlining things that stand out to you pertaining to that question. Anyway, I decided at the beginning of this year to read focusing on finding freedom and healing from the depression and anxiety that had plagued me for about a decade. I realized today in listening to Elder Scott's talk that I have been depression-free for longer than I think I ever have been in my life. It's been months, and I feel the happiest I've ever felt in my life! I feel that reading the Book of Mormon every morning with real sincerity, searching for answers has indeed brought me an added measure of the spirit and played a huge part in my healing!

The other thing that popped out in both the morning session and the afternoon one is families. We hear this phrase in the church often: "the family is central to Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness," but I never really thought about it much until President Packer said it this morning. I have a lot of pondering to do about this phrase to tap into the full meaning of it, but I do think it is very neat how the family unit is kind of a miniature model of Heavenly Father's plan--something we can relate to in order to better understand our spiritual existence and destiny. I don't know if I can put it into words quite right, but it seems like if God is our father, it only makes sense that He would want us and help us to learn, make good decisions, go through beneficial challenges, and eventually grow to be like Him.

President Uchtdorf's talk also stood out to me. He spoke of Heavenly Father's great love for each of His children individually, how even though man is nothing in comparison to God and the universe, we are everything to Him. 

In between sessions, Henry and I took the car for an oil change then walked to his aunt's house for a quick visit. I love walking! You see things you would totally miss driving, like the awesome color combination of burnt orange and magenta...       

Ok, so the railing wasn't really magenta, but the flowers were and it caught my eye! I like to take note of color combos I like for my crafting.

We watched most of the second session at Henry's parents house, and I didn't have my notebook to jot things down. It was an awesome session though that I felt much of was meant for me to hear. I think it was Elder Anderson who spoke a lot about the importance of having children in Heavenly Father's plan. I guess  I just feel like some people these days look down on women who choose to stay in the home and dedicate their time to raising children and making the home a nice place to live in, like they weren't skilled enough to make it in the career world or something. I liked how Elder Anderson emphasized the noble and greatly important calling of raising children.

The speaker after him talked about time and making the best use of it. He challenged each of us to ponder about the unneeded distractions we can eliminate from our lives in an effort to spend time on the most imporant things. He said to ponder on how we can balance our time with God, family, work, and wholesome activities.

  Click the link at the beginning of this post, and listen to a talk while you're getting ready for the day or something. You won't regret it!