Can you believe it's October already? I swear it should still be July, and the weather here agrees with me. Matt and I are looking forward to the days when the weather actually cools off and we can trade out our flip flops for some boots (okay, that part is just me). And in the meantime, we're jealous of our friends who live in places *cough*Utah*cough* where the leaves are changing colors and warm days are fading into crisp evenings. Of course, we'll only be jealous until Winter rolls around and then we'll be glad we're in the sun instead of constant cold. Anyway. We ushered in the new month in the best way possible: watching General Conference with good friends.
It was an incredible weekend. For those of you who don't know, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) holds a semiannual General Conference which is a series of special meetings that are broadcast worldwide. There are six two-hour-long meetings total: two on Saturday, two on Sunday, and then one each for men and women. During these meetings, leaders of our church speak for about fifteen minutes each and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir provides the music. The talks cover a wide variety of topics, like faith, family, adversity, hope, education, the Holy Ghost, the scriptures, and numerous aspects of the Savior's life and His Atonement. They provide comfort and counsel relevant to our day.
General Conference is always a peaceful and uplifting experience for everyone who listens to it. One of our favorite talks this time around was Richard G. Scott's address on faith and being a person of strong character. This particular quote rang true to both me and Matt: "We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become." It's so simple yet so profound at the same time. After the meeting was over, Matt and I set specific goals for October to make sure we're being the kind of people we want to become on a daily basis. We walked away from last weekend's conference feeling so refreshed and spiritually fed. If you missed it and want to listen to a talk or twenty :-), you can find them online here.
Conference was awesome!
ReplyDeleteYes, Ash, we loved watching conference also!! What a blessing we have to be able to have the gospel in our lives and to feel the peace it brings. Think of how many people there are in the world who don't feel peace...it is so sad. I thank Heavenly Father, even several times, daily for the peace that I feel in my life. What a blessing!! You and Matt are starting your marriage off right!! What a great thing for you two to set goals after listening to conference and starting the work of becoming even better. We think a lot of both of you! And, we love you lots!
ReplyDeleteLove, love, love General Conference!!
ReplyDeleteYou did such a great job describing what General Conference is to readers who aren't members of the church. I think your blog is a great example of one that shares the gospel and explains our church to non-members. Good job! I want to copy and paste your description into my conference post!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Conference was awesome! That talk by Elder Scott was actually largely taken from a talk he gave in May 2003 on Faith, Character, etc. I had been studying that talk the last month or so, so when he started speaking I was like, "I know this!" It was a great talk, both times.