General Conference

Hooray for General Conference! It always makes for such a wonderful weekend. This Conference I took a page out of our Mia Maid leader's book and asked the Beehives to listen to General Conference looking for a favorite talk that they could share with each other this Sunday, and us leaders were to do the same. But as I listened, there wasn't any one talk that really just stood out as my "favorite." (In retrospect, I don't really think that I usually do have 1 single favorite just after listening, except for last October Conference. I absolutely LOVED President Nelson's talk on joy, and I have loved rereading and reviewing it over the last six months.)

I did, however, have a few favorite challenges that were given this Conference, and I am striving to be better at them in my day to day life. First was President Monson's challenge to read the Book of Mormon every day. He said, "If you are not reading the Book of Mormon each day, please do so," and "I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day." You can't get much clearer and direct then that. And especially with it coming from the prophet himself, and being one of the only things he stood and said this Conference, I felt I had better listen and obey. I do read from the scriptures every day, but lately I have been working my way through the Old Testament (and by lately I mean off and on for the past 2 or 3 years....), and sometimes I use the scriptures and material from an upcoming lesson I am teaching for my personal study. But for the past week I have made sure to also read at least 1 chapter from the Book of Mormon. Nothing overly profound has happened, but I have been very grateful for the counsel and the challenge. I just love the spirit of the Book of Mormon; it is just so familiar to me and so easy to understand. It has really helped, too, for the days when I don't really feel like studying. Instead of continuing to put off my scripture reading, I start with my one chapter from the Book of Mormon, and then even if I am just casually reading it, it more fully invites the Spirit, and puts me in a better place to really study other scriptures or prepare my lesson.

Which brings me to the second challenge that I heard and loved. Elder Rasband spoke about always having the Spirit to be with us and how we can make that a reality. It was his fourth suggestion that I took as a challenge, to act and be confident in the first promptings that I receive from the Holy Ghost. I think that probably everyone can relate with his comments that, "sometimes we rationalize; we wonder if we are feeling a spiritual impression or if it is just our own thoughts." But what followed played a large part in my determination to act. He said, "When we begin to second-guess, even third-guess, our feelings - and we all have - we are dismissing the Spirit; we are questioning divine counsel." Again, can you be any more clear or direct? I loved everything Elder Rasband said in that section of his talk: to act, and 9 times out of 10 we will get it right, that first promptings are pure inspiration from Heaven, and especially his caution to not expect "fireworks" because "you are about the work of the still, small voice." As with following the challenge to read the Book of Mormon each day, nothing overly profound has happened this week as I have tried to act on my first promptings, but I have felt more confident about my choices, and more satisfied at the end of each day that I have done what the Lord wants me to. Like I was saying about my scripture reading, instead of setting aside and dismissing the promptings I may receive during the day to stop what I am doing and read my scriptures because I don't really feel like it at the moment, I am now doing better at acting the first time, pulling out the Book of Mormon, and reading, which prepares my heart and mind for further study when I take the time to do so. And if I don't do any further studying, I have still at least read my scriptures for the day and followed that first prompting.

Truly, what a blessing it is to live in a day where we are guided by living prophets and apostles with modern revelation. And how remarkable that within a week of first hearing their words, we have access to read, listen to, or watch their talks again as often and wherever we want. I have been studying the Restoration lately in preparation for the combined young women lesson I am teaching next week and those blessings have been brought to the forefront of my mind. That we have again a living prophet, and that we have access to his words, and the words of those before him, that we are able to read them in our own language, and we can carry them with us everywhere we go by downloading them to our phones. These are all such commonplace things to us now, but what miracles and gifts they truly are.