I Love General Conference

First the mundane stuff:  I threw my back out on Tuesday morning just after getting out of the shower.  I don't know how.  I was just standing still and I felt a "pop" in my back and there I was unable to move much more than just shuffle my feet a little at a time.  So back to bed I went.  Over the week it has become better, but Wednesday morning I woke up with a sore throat, by Friday, I was in full fledged cold symptoms.  And to make it even better I developed a cold sore on my upper lip.

We were challenged to read 8 pages of the Book of Mormon per day beginning last Sunday (8 days ago).  As of this morning, I have read a total of 105 pages.  I'm a little ahead of schedule.  The plan is to finish in 65 days.  I intend to be done in less than 50 days.

Saturday, we spent the entire day recovering and watching 6 hours of General Conference.  It was wonderful.  I particularly liked two different quotes.  One from President Gordon B. Hinckley, when he was introduced to a prominent man in American Samoa, who was not a member of the church.  The man told him he needed to stay with his current religion because of his family's tradition.  President Hinckley's response:  "That's not good enough".

The second was President Russell M. Nelson who said:  "Time is running out."

Both of those quotes impressed me.  Those two expressions are what I have been thinking for some time now.  It isn't good enough to be in "A" church.  We must belong to the Church of Jesus Christ.  And, time IS running out.

I loved listening to the leaders of the Church as they explain how we can improve.  I particularly loved Elder Holland telling us to quiet down while we are in the chapels of the church.  That room is second only to the Temples of God in sacredness.  We ought to express our appreciation to the Lord for the atonement in the room reserved for the ordinances of the Sacrament not just while the ordinances are being performed, but anytime we are in the chapel portion of our buildings.  I have been concerned about the reverence we seem to disregard.  Some protestant churches use ushers to maintain reverence.  I have often wondered why we don't so something similar.

We hosted 8 young Elders and Sister missionaries in our apartment on Sunday as we watched two sessions of conference, eating a meal between and participating in gospel discussions between sessions and then after the two sessions were over.  I love having the young missionaries here and discussing principles of the gospel with them.  A wonderful time for us.  The photo below shows our missionary district, all of which were at our apartment on Sunday.


Comments

  1. katyApril 8, 2019 at 8:05 PM

    What a bummer for your back. You picked the best weekend too. I hope you don’t experience it again.
    Pres. Nelson was awesome when explained the reaction he expected from the new temples. He asked for reverence and he got it.

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