Multi-Stake Women's Conference

This last weekend I went to a Multi-Stake Women's Conference. It was a conference with 9 stakes and we had Brother R. Scott Simmons, the regional CES instructor and member of the Longmont Stake Presidency, and Sister Barbara Thompson, 2nd Counselor in the General Relief Society President, as speakers. It was a wonderful and I felt the spirit so strongly. 

Brother Simmons first told a pioneer story. I do not remember the names of the people in the story but it was about a husband and wife, who had lost their children, and were stuck in a group of saints in the Rocky Mountains/Wyoming in the winter. The husband, a tall larger statured man, got terrible frost bite on his feet and told his wife he was giving up and she should go along without him. She, a short petite woman, put her husband in their handcart and pulled him through the mountains.  He then spoke on the principle of change. He said not to wait for change but to constantly move forward and instead of changing our circumstances the Savior will change us.  He then posed the question; How do you get faith enough to act/do what you need to do? He then spoke on prayer and scripture study. 

He defined and talked about dismemberment, which is to be broken or incomplete, and that at times our lives feel very dismembered. Then he spoke of bringing these pieces of life back together  which is called remembering. I had never put that idea together that to remember is to complete or pull pieces together; I really liked this analogy. He said that prayer and scripture study are ways in which we remember Savior and bring the pieces of our life back together.  

He then asked the question, "What is this (scripture) teaching me about Jesus Christ? And what is this (scripture) teaching me about my relationship with him?" He said that if we keep those questions in our mind that we will read the scriptures differently and get different things out of them than we have before. He gave a suggestion, a way in which he keeps scripture study a part of his day. He said that he will write a scripture on an index card and put it in his pocket and ponder it throughout the day; he would then pull it out to write thoughts and promptings he had about that topic/scripture on the other side of the card.  This helped him think about and notice the promptings he had from his scripture study all day. 

He ended with another story about a couple that get up really early in the morning to a visitor at the door. The visitor is the Savior and they put him in the nice sitting room (where no one ever goes and doesn't get dirty by the kids) and sat to listen to him. Then they heard the kids stir and told him to wait.  He said he could go with them to help but they refused, saying the rest of the house and the kids were just too messy. They then leave to get the kids ready, take them to school, clean the house, go to work, fix meals, pick up the kids, get them to bed and walk past their sitting room to see that the Savior is still patiently waiting for them. This story was then related to our lives; We (our scripture study, our prayer or our lives) do not have to be perfect, it does not have to be like a clean sitting room, the Savior just wants to be with us, even if it is messy and busy. He does not want to be left alone but wants to come with us through our lives. 

 I often think of the gospel as a overall idea, knowing it is true but not seeing it as real or tangible,  but thinking of the Savior literally and physically sitting and waiting for me was heart wrenching. I realized that that is how my life often is but I will sometimes keep him waiting for weeks. The idea of him just patiently and lovingly waiting for me, that he cares for me enough to not get frustrated or disappointed, has made me realize that I need to invite the Savior into my life (although crazy and hectic) and allow him to be my companion. (The Savior will not force his way in, he must be invited!)

He told a story of his friend who set his wrist watch to beep every hour. When it beeped he would take a moment to think of Christ (no matter where he was, who he was with or what he was doing). At first it was just thinking his name (Jesus Christ), then it was thinking about what he had done and who he was and then he found himself sitting and waiting for his watch to beep so that he could think of Christ. The idea here being that we should think of him and have him with us throughout our entire day. I enjoyed his comments and they gave me some things to think about and implement in my own life. 

One of my favorite quotes is by Heber C. Kimball and it says “ I am perfectly satisfied that my Father and my God is a cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured Being. Why? Because I am cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured when I have His Spirit.” Sister Barbara Thompson is a cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured woman.  She eluded the spirit and was funny and spoke so people could relate to her. 

At the beginning of her talk she said, "Hello and Hola." Then she went into to a story about trying to learn languages to speak to other congregations. She told a story about her first time speaking internationally as a member of the General Relief Society Presidency. She said she went to Japan and had a very sweet translator to help her. She was in a question answer session and had asked a question; a young beautiful asian girl in the back stood and answered the question. In astonishment she understood, she was so excited that she had the gift of tongues through the spirit that she leaned down to her translator and excitedly whispered, "Sister, I understood her." The translator looked at her and said, "Good, she was speaking English." She is so good at telling these funny stories and they littered her talk.  

She then took us to Moses 6:31-32 where Enoch, after being called by the Lord, proclaims, "Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant? And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good." She related this scripture to feelings of inadequacy and spoke about how Enoch doubted his own abilities but was told to go and act and that the abilities would follow.  

Then in Moses 6:34 it reads, "Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me." This scripture shows that even though Enoch doubted himself the Lord trusted in him and his abilities enough to say that he could move mountains. As I thought about this I thought of the analogy of life and our trials being like a mountain and we have to constantly climb towards our goal.  Then I thought about how if we, like Enoch, put our trust and faith in the Lord we can do anything, even move mountains and walk with him.  

She continued by talking about scripture study. She said that scripture study is essential for a spiritual people. She commented that you don't have to read an hour a day but any time, even five minutes. She said that there are days when she will only read 5 minutes but the point is that you read, inviting the spirit into your day, and even the smallest time reading/studying will help you in our life. She noted that we need to make scripture study exciting in our lives! She mentioned studying the scriptures with the Ensign/Conference Talks (she said there is a website in which you can click the scripture and a list of conference quotes will pop up- I do not remember this site address).

She also spoke of the temple and that we need to get to the temple as often as possible and it will give you a wall of protection in your life. She said that the blessings and miracles of the temple that are the most important are those that take place while you are in the temple. 

I didn't take as many notes during her talk because I was listening so closely but it was so amazing to hear her talk and feel her spirit. I am so glad that I was able to go to this conference and hear these messages.