General Conference - October 2008

Every 6 months the leaders of our church speak to the entire church. It is broadcast throughout the world so that those of us who can't travel to Salt Lake where they are actually speaking can still watch and listen. I always look forward to these conferences. Not only do the prophet, his two counselors, and the twelves apostles, all speak to us, teaching us the things they have been prompted by the Lord to say, but many other great leaders as well. It is a spiritual feast. It lasts for two days, Saturday and Sunday, and that means I get to be with Ryan during all that time and share that experience with him. Soemtimes in conference there are recurring themes in many of the talks. One theme I noticed was that as we get closer and closer to the Second Coming of our Lord and Saviour it is becoming increasingly important that we develop Zion-like attitudes and build unity in our communities, our church families, and our families. My parents have always taught us how important it is to live this type of lifestyle, and it was just interesting to hear so many church leaders stress it so much.

I know that it is important to reach out to those around us in a spirit of unity and I am going to try harder to do this. I also recognize that it is not one of my gifts to automatically recognize the needs of those around me, nor is it one of my gifts to be extroverted. It is extremely hard for me to make phone calls - even to my family who I love talking to. The ONLY person that I call easily is Ryan. EVERYONE else I have to prepare myself to call. I am not a drop-by kind of person, meaning it is not easy for me to drop by someone's house. But I love to talk to the people I care about (or more jsut listen because I am not much of a talker) and I love visiting with people, either at their house or mine. I am social, I am just not good at making the first move or thinking up conversation topics. I also LOVE doing service. I LOVE to babysit. I would love to help people run errands, or whatever. My point being, I would love to help any of you, am more than willing, most likely have time, and am probably available, but am bad at approaching you about helping you. So please HELP ME build unity by letting me know when I can HELP YOU. Thanks so much.

Anyway, all the conference talks were great and I would recommend listening/reading.watching them.