General Conference, Day 1

Ok - I'm feeling like a "spiritually out of tune" slacker or something.  Typically, the Saturday morning session of conference knocks me off my feet!  Today's conference sessions were good,  and I learned things I needed to hear,  but nothing that fit into the "balm of Gilead" category for my soul - as in recent years past.  Might have had something to do with the fact that I have had most/all of the kids in the same room as me, and was helping them with their conference packets, etc...  Or maybe it could also have to do with the fact that I have had some great spiritual experiences in the past couple months, so maybe I wasn't so desperately in need this time round?  who knows?  (Could also very likely have been that I was SUPER tired and was fighting hard to stay awake! - not really conducive to divine inspiration...)

I did take notes,

From Elder Perry I was taught that I need to do better myself and in teaching my children to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Sister Steven's talk just made me grateful I had so many great years with the children of the 10th ward

Elder Gonzalez reminded me how to be a "true follower of Christ." 

Elder Richard's talk was about the purpose of pain and trials in our lives, and how the Atonement is the source to overcome pain, both physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, etc...

Elder Cook gave a great talk about power of a righteous woman and how the women in the church are incredible!  It was inspiring to recognize the power and influence that woman can have and a good reminder that I need to be better at wielding that power in righteous ways.

Elder Eyring spoke of caring for the poor and the needy.  I figure I'll be pulling out this talk when the YW want to plan service activities :)

My favorite part of President Packer's talk was his story about "John, leave it alone."  Taking offense is a surefire way to hurt yourself -

My favorite two lines from Elder Nelson were "our faith NOW becomes part of our posterity's faith LATER."  and that we cannot take the "cafeteria approach to obedience."

I had some bountiful basket issues that had to be resolved in during the next two talks, so I missed both names, and I missed most of the 2nd talk...but the topics of the first talk was the doctrine of Eternal families.  He warned of three of Satan's big tools to destroy families. Selfishness, Greed, and Pornography.  I am certainly guilty of selfishness far to often and need to work on that as well. He also reassured that weekly FHE, daily prayer and scripture, difficult though it is, WILL fortify the family.

Elder Oaks gave a great talk on the power of our DESIRES.  We must lose desire to sin (this is a choice we make) and must "readjust our desires" to put eternal things first.

Finally, Elder Ballard spoke on the essential principle of CHARITY, the pure love of Christ.
#1 - charity begins at home,
#2 - Charity in our wards ("there is no place for gossip" - jumped out at me, another upcoming lesson in YW's I'm sure;)
 #3 - charity in our communities.

It was a good conference.  I was REALLY REALLY tired, having gotten to bed after midnight, then woken up at least twice that I remember by Caleb, and then up at 5:30 for BB.  I guess I'm lucky that I got as much out of it as I did.

While Tim was at Priesthood session, I met with one of my sweet Beehive girls and did my first personal Progress... uh, would it be called an interview???   Whatever you call it, it was good. I love to see the faith and hope of these beautiful young ladies.  T.  is a GREAT young lady and I look forward to getting to know her better and watching her grow.

all in all, a good day

Honor and Beasts

GREAT news on the academic front - 

For the first time EVER, Aaron made the honor roll.  (2 B's, the rest A's.)  We are super proud of him.  He set the goal and worked hard.  (plus a little extra prodding and encouragement from parents, but HE DID IT!)

Another great piece of news with Aaron is that he FINALLY found a book (series) that he likes!  He has started reading the Beast Quest Series by Adam Blade.  In the past 3 (maybe 4) weeks he has read 10 books!!!!!  You have NO idea how WONDERFUL this is to me.  Up to this point, I would be hard pressed to think of ONE book that he read, cover to cover, on his own.  Granted, these books are pretty short (under 100 pages) and simple, but that is beside the point.  The point is - that he found something that interests him and that he WANTS to read.  I am praying that this will serve as a springboard to launch him into other books, but regardless of where we go from here - he found a book, read a book, comprehended the storyline of a book, and wanted MORE...   

 

HALLELUJAH!!!!!

 

a quick funny...

I have so much to do today, I shouldn't be on here at all, but since i am trying to play blog catch up, I'll just share a quick FUNNY Katrina moment.

It was about a week or so ago, and I don't recall what evactly she was talking about, but Katrina was talking to Tim and said something like

"I haven't be able to do (whatever it was) for 500 hundred million days."


Tim - "you haven't even been alive for that many days."

Katrina - "I know dad, I was just abbreviating."