On Wednesday I cleaned the house with determination. I almost did 7 hours of solid cleaning and laundry folding and sorting as I listened to the April 2020 General Conference to prep my spirit for this weekend. I listened to 3+ sessions on Wed and finished listening to the remaining sessions yesterday morning. It helped make Wednesday an especially great day! I worked hard, I fed (gorged!) my soul spiritually, and I'm still enjoying lots of natural dopamine from looking around my house and seeing all the great things I did!
Here are some of my take away's from the April 2020 conference. President Nelson's "Hear Him" talk is one of the most important messages. Another talk that I remember being very powerful in April and now listening to it again, it brought tears to my eyes both times was Elder Renlund's talk "Consider the Goodness and Greatness of God". Listen to it, and I'm sure the part that made me cry will make you cry too - it is a very powerful story. Another quote that has stayed with me was from Elder Holmes' talk "Deep In Our Hearts": "Our Heavenly Father’s goal in parenting is not to have His children do what is right; it is to have His children choose to do what is right." I've also thought since April about Elder Soares invitation: "To all who hear my voice today, I invite you to be part of the marvelous coming forth of the Book of Mormon in your own life. I promise you that as you prayerfully and consistently study its words, you can partake of its promises and rich blessings in your life." I feel like that has happened these past few months.
I am very much looking forward to General Conference tomorrow. If the world is looking for a contrast to what we witnessed in the first US Presidential Debate on Tuesday night, then look no further than General Conference! As I shared on my facebook yesterday: "Every year I look forward to the first weekends of April and October when I get to listen to timely messages from a living prophet and the Lord's living apostles! If you are looking for hope and direction for your life, your family, your country, you will find it at the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ! Come and see!"
I know that these men are led and inspired by Jesus Christ! They are his living prophets and apostles and the messages they have prepared and will deliver this weekend are the words we need to here to help us as we press forward through this mortal life. Here is a video that Corey's dad sent to us that I really liked. We are so blessed to have a prophet on the earth! We are God's children and He still speaks to us!
In that video, at 1:57, are two of our favorite people, Elder and Sister Christofferson! We were so blessed to know them personally and to see them up close in many situations, like mowing his lawn, speaking with our children as they walked home from school, or watching a lunar eclipse with them from the street. Our kids were able to grow up watching them for 10 years until they moved in 2018. Here is a fun General Conference story about them in April 2017 with our friends from Chile, that was really fun. I know that we can look to the leaders of Christ's church for guidance to help us through these latter days before Jesus' second coming! As Elder Rasband said at the April Conference "We live in that time prophesied; we are the people charged with ushering in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ; we are to gather God’s children, those who will hear and embrace the truths, covenants, and promises of the everlasting gospel. President Nelson calls it “the greatest challenge, the greatest cause, and the greatest work on [the] earth today."
Also, during my listen through this week, and since I've been doing quite a bit of family history research, Elder Bednar's talk "Let This House Be Built unto My Name" took on new meaning and was pretty amazing. Especially this quote: "Planting in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers—even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—turning the hearts of the children to their own fathers, conducting family history research, and performing vicarious temple ordinances are labors that bless individuals on both sides of the veil. As we become anxiously engaged in this sacred work, we are obeying the commandments to love and serve God and our neighbors.13 And such selfless service helps us truly to “Hear Him!” and come unto the Savior." I've found and reached out to some cousins, their dad Mark is my Grandpa Hibbert's little brother, and Mark died alone and was an alcoholic and their life was really hard, but I hope their hearts can turn to him as we learn more about him, and I hope that he will accept the temple work that has been done for him! I want to do what I can to bring my relatives on this side of the veil closer to Christ.
And another light hearted source of relief for me are the Holderness family's parodies, they help us laugh as we keep doing the best we can. Here are a few of their other quarantine parodies that help grin and bear it. These are really fun:
But again, more than fun songs, the words from the prophets are the Word of God that we need to cling to. They will get us through mists of darkness and to the Tree where we can feast on the Love of God and find true and lasting happiness - the most joyous to the soul. Stay at the Tree!
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