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Listening to the Prophets and Apostles

I listened to most of conference today and I thought I'd write some thoughts before they leave me. It is always frustrating when you think of so many things that uplift you and make you want to do better and then you forget. I wrote notes and so I hope I will go back and look at them and set my goals to be better.

I loved all the talks I heard but there were a few talks that really stuck out to me the most. The first one is by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. He spoke of Hope. I was so grateful to hear his words. I feel that I am blessed with always having some hope in things. I don't feel like I'm a negative person and I try to see the good side of things instead of the bad. It still is hard sometimes to find hope in the future when it is so unpredictable. President Uchtdorf talked about how hope gives us eternal happiness. How could we be happy if we do not have hope? He also said that "with hope we can have patience and go through our afflictions." (I didn't write down notes word for word so if you happen to be looking for his exact words than you'll have to find those somewhere else.)

The part of his talk that really hit me the most is that happiness and blessings will not only be given in the next life but in this one as well. This is something that I've heard time and again but it didn't mean as much to me as it does now. I was thinking that I can't wait until after we are out of this world so that we can experience all the happiness and not be burdened with the temptations of Satan and the many trials that the earth brings us. I still am excited for that, but I needed to be thinking more of the happiness that I can have on this earth now. I do experience so much happiness and it seems like it always comes from family. They give me more happiness than I could ever get from any worldly experience or thing. So I want to have more hope in this life that I'm living right now.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson spoke a great talk about Zion. That is something that I've been studying about with my husband and so it was nice to hear from an Apostle about the same subject. His main points of what Zion consists of is that the people have unity, Godliness and charity. He talked about a lot of things I liked and I wish that our stakes could have more of these attributes to make our own Zion. We are able to do it. There shouldn't be anything stopping us. I realized that I should be working on being better so that if there is a Zion then I could be apart of it.

Now the last one that I'll mention was from Elder Bednar. I like listening to him. He is straightforward and easy to understand. He talked about prayer and why we should have morning prayers. He said that the Lord said that he created everything spiritually in heaven before it was physically on earth. He related that to our morning prayers. We should start our days spiritually before we go through our physical responsibilities. We need those prayers to help us during our days in all the decisions we make. Then he said that evening prayers are like a report of our day of how we did. We should give thanks for the Lords help that day and to repent of those things we did wrong that day. I have realized how easy it is to sin and how many reminders we need all day to keep us in line. Everything that Heavenly Father has commanded us to do: pray morning and night, read our scriptures with our family and by ourselves, have family home evening, go to church every week, and go to the temple are there to help us. Heavenly Father knows how easy it is for us to forget and how powerful Satan is tempting us.

Well tomorrow is more conference and I'm excited to hear more. I'm excited about the 5 temples that were announced today. It is wonderful to see the church getting bigger all the time. I wish I could let people know what they are missing. We are all so loved by our Lord and His Son. I'm so overly grateful for them and for the Holy Ghost to help me day after day.

Comments

Patty said…
I never look at this blog but I plan to begin. I enjoy the little reminders and the new education that comes. I liked the talk by Elder Bednar as well because I need a constant reminder to pray in the mornings. I have always had a hard time with this and I plan to start my goal yet again. Thanks Michelle.

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