April 5th 2008 General Conference
Apr 5th, 2008 by Bethany
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Today during the first session of General Conference we had a Solemn Assembly to sustain the new prophet, first presidency, and apostle. It was so cool to stand up and show Heavenly Father that I support and sustain these leaders. I love raising my hand when I’m offered the chance to sustain someone in church. I always feel like I’m doing something right when I do.
Our new prophet is President Thomas S. Monson. His first counselor is President Henry B. Eyring, his second is President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Our new Apostle is D. Todd Christofferson. We also got a new Young Women presidency and a bunch of new 70s. It’s always exciting to see people in new callings and I offer my support and prayers to them and their families.
I have a hard time remembering who said what. I remember Elder Nelson speaking and enjoyed his talk, but can’t remember which things he said and which were said by someone else. Oh, I think I remember that a bit of his talk was about how salvation is an individual thing and exaltation is a family affair and that was a new thought for me. Part of Elder Wirthlin’s talk was about reasons people don’t participate fully at church, and a couple of the reasons that struck me were that people feel that they are different and don’t fit in, and that people just get weary of the work. To those who feel different (and I think all of us do sometimes, to one degree or another), he said something to the effect of “God didn’t make a symphony orchestra of personalities to only let everyone appreciate the piccolo.” To those who are weary, he said something inspiring about how we need to seek for the blessings of strength and stamina from the Savior who has the power to give it. It was almost a pep talk. I can’t wait to go back and read that one. Elder Scott Spoke in the second session about abuse, to the abusers and the abused, and talked about the healing power of the atonement and how people who abuse can repent fully and those who have been abused can be completely healed of the suffering inflicted on them. Someone else spoke about the Spirit and someone spoke about Testimony (I think Elder Oaks?). I remember a lot about families, and I think it might have been Elder Nelson who talked about how to teach your children.
We watched Conference at the church building in the Primary room. The kids did really, really well considering that they didn’t have naps and Degen woke us all up at 2am throwing up all over the place. He hasn’t shown a sign of discomfort since! Maggie had a really hard time without her naps and kept falling down–that’s what she does when she gets sleepy. She bit her lip once and got blood all over my shirt. I’m telling you, it’s impossible for me to keep clean. There was another family with a Degen-aged boy with us in the Primary room during the first session, and Colin got the Nursery toys and brought them for the kids to play with. Besides a couple of fights over toys and a couple of disobedient moments that called for time-outs, they had a lot of fun and let us listen most of the time. The second session I probably only heard about 1/3 of the talks, but I considered that pretty good for a mom of two kids 3 and under. I was pleased that when we got back to the church for the second session both kids were excited to go back and watch Conference. They especially enjoyed the music. Maggie did a charming little dance during nearly every musical number.
I feel uplifted and loved and happy. When we got home, Degen asked to watch “Jesus,” which meant that he wanted to watch our Book of Mormon Stories DVD. He kept demanding more and more “Jesus” stories and watched about half of the tracks on the disc before getting bored. That made me feel good about him. Degen is such a good little boy. I love having him for a son. He’s got a great big smile that makes me feel so good!
