Conference this weekend brought new and renewed insights and hope.  I learned some things, had some confirmed and reaffirmed.  And I think I am ready to let go and move on.

This conference also brought many opportunities to see so many of my friends as they sang with the choir.  One of my friends, C. David Belt has gone viral as he shared his testimony of Jesus Christ and the atonement through song.

There is a reason I blog about this song and link to it so often.

http://www.ldsdaily.com/personal-lds-blog/the-powerful-story-behind-the-choir-member-who-cried-at-conference/#.VwKUqor-pto.facebook

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Indeed

Confernce Sunday

As I have contemplated this conference I wondered what message I would take away. Here we are with one session left and I have been so fed by the message contained for me. I spent the week before praying that I might hear what I needed to hear to facilitate the healing I want for my life. From President Monson's opening joke to the closing song of this morning's session, I have been filled with message after message telling me that I am on the right path and to continue on. And if I cry anymore my eyes may never not be puffy. I have been so prepared that quotes, stories, songs, and even words uttered in my prayers and then later the prayers of the conference have been given to me beforehand.

Yesterday I was thinking about what to post knowing that I will not post my thoughts and impressions from this conference because they are to personal right now. Instead I chose to post the song, Come Thou Fount. I was not surprised when the choir sang it today, another confirmation to me of the myrid of knowledge given to me the past two days.

Think about that. The Lord as a source or fountain of unlimited, ever giving supply of blessings if we will recognize that He is our stone of help and allow our wandering hearts to be bound to him.

Hearken to the words

I grew up in a small map dot of a town in southern New Mexico. It was a very different life than the everyday life here in Utah. As a member of the LDS church (and a white person) I was an oddity- strange and peculiar if you will. I got up very early in the morning, before the cock even crowed, to drive to town and attend my seminary class. If I wasn't there, Karl or Jill would have to play the piano and if one of them played the piano, then who would lead the music for the other, um, 5 or 6 students (3 of whom were siblings of mine)?

Here in Utah, the students are released from school for 1 class period to attend seminary. And there are enough of them that there are 6-7 classes held each and every class period each and every day! And many of the students that are not members attend these classes as well. Amazing to me.

In April and again in October, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds a general conference where our leaders speak to us. It always storms the weekend of conference. Don't believe me? Look outside. Storming. This happened even in New Mexico. Often enough that the first week end of April or October would find non-member friends asking me if it was time for my church's conference because it was storming.

I didn't pay a lot of attention to conference as a young person because it was something happening in Salt Lake thousands of miles away from me. If I wanted to know anything about it, I could read it in the church magazine, The Ensign, in a month when it came. I usually didn't.

When I left home to attend Ricks College, now BYU-Idaho, I was amazed that conference was piped in to all the buildings on campus so that students could listen no matter what they were doing. Even more amazing was the fact that the grocery stores also piped it over the sound system. And I began to pay attention.

As a young mother, I was anxious for my children to not repeat my childhood inattention. I turned conference on in every room in the house and we listened. (I am sure my parents would have listened or watched had that been available to us, but it wasn't) On Sundays we all sat together on the couch and watched and listened and sang the songs and discussed the lessons. And it was good.

Then big trials hit my family and I was sure I could not go on. And it was conference time. And I listened and I cried and I recieved answer to prayer and it was sort of good again. Until the trials became even harder than the first time. Then I learned a valuable lesson concerning conference. Don't just watch and listen- Hearken to the voice of the prophets.

Hearken means to make an effort to hear something- to give heed to when listening. I think it also means to hear and then do. So now, instead of just tuning in and listening and shushing the kids, I prepare beforehand. I take stock of what it is I need to do, learn, change etc. and then pray to find the answer during conference. And that, my friends, has made all the difference.

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Indeed.

Harvest and Planting

As conference was ending today, I listened to the closing prayer. (I am not sure who gave it) The apostle that was praying spoke of how it is a time of harvest in part of the world and a time of planting in other parts of the world. He then asked for a blessing that we can use harvest and planting for balance in our lives.

I thought about this and wondered how to use it in my personal life. Of course there is the literal meaning- plant a garden and then harvest it to use. Or to take the harvest that others have planted and store them up in my storage. That is easy to do with so many case lot sales going on.

However, I felt that there was a deeper meaning to my life. What if I need to plant more gospel truths and acts? What is lacking in the balance of my spiritual life that I need to find the seeds and plant there? Is there something in the lives of my children that I have forgotten to sow in their young and tender spiritual gardens? Do I pray about that often enough and then take the seeds given me and plant them?

Then to harvesting, what is there that is ready to go from me. Harvesting is not complete only at death. To balance our lives is what he said. Well, if I am going to plant something, wouldn't I have to take something out in order to make room for that which I am going to plant? Harvests are also oftimes abundant. If I have an abundant harvest, shouldn't I share it with others?

But I could also have a harvest of weeds and unwanted plantings. Things that I have allowed to grow and fester unchecked. Things that maybe I didn't plant or plan on planting, but things I allowed to grow once the winds of life blew them in. Shouldn't these be harvested out as well?

And so I begin this harvest season planning not only what I will physically plant in my earthly vegetable and flower gardens next spring, I am pondering what it is that I need to harvest- good and bad- from my spiritual garden, how to either share the good or dispose of the bad, making room for more beautiful spiritual plantings.