Listening to General Conference

Happy 2nd day of General Conference! Corey and I got texted a few photos from some members in Texas who had Wesley over at their house. 

I enjoy receiving surprise texts like these!

They also sent this one, haha ~

I replied to them joking that Wes was "listening" like most of us did here! As much as we strive to resist slumber, I confess I did doze off a few times. Today I did better at standing up to go clean the kitchen now and then when I felt it coming on. It's not that any of us think Conference isn't important or that I don't want to learn.  For me (to change a quote I heard once) it's because "When I work, I work hard. When I think, I think hard. When I sit, I fall asleep." If I sit still, sleep takes over. I struggle whenever I start reading to the kids too. I would have probably done better staying awake for all of Conference if I'd been outside raking while I listen, or cleaning in the basement. Cleaning up in the kitchen helped, but yeah, that pic of Wes above happened to me in a few of the messages. I'm glad that most of the talks are easily available online so I can review them right away. 

Exciting news: Santiago in the Dominica Republic is getting a temple! Ethan was there for the last session of conference today, and I teased asking him if he was one of the people who whooped and hollered at the announcement (when Pres Nelson once again specifically said to be reverent!) Well, I can't blame anyone for being excited. 17 new temples announced: 

Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico

Santa Ana, El Salvador

Medellín, Colombia

Santiago, Dominican Republic

Puerto Montt, Chile

Dublin, Ireland

Milan, Italy

Abuja, Nigeria   

Kampala, Uganda

Maputo, Mozambique

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Queen Creek, Arizona

El Paso, Texas

Huntsville, Alabama

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Summit, New Jersey

Price, Utah

Are you excited Natalie? 

Natalie had a VERY fun time during this second session today - she got to babysit cute Luke, the adorable baby of one of Corey's friends. They are from Brazil and living in Logan, but had never been to conference before, so we were excited to help. Ethan and Bella got some tickets last minute with a friend of theirs from the DR, and had two extra, so Abi and Sophi went down with them too. After the session was over, we went over to Wayne's house for dinner with extended family. Spaghetti, garlic bread, and I contributed one Greek Salad, and then birthday cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Corey stayed back to wait for his friends to come pick up their kids, and then after they came, he stayed to watch the Jeremiah movie (Corey is studying about the Josiah Reforms). After dinner, kids gathered around their screens, as usual. 

I think Mel was showing photos of some of her recent dates, to see if her sisters and cousins approve. 

Peter playing with toys - 

And legos in the front room. 

I'm excited to review the messages. There's so much to take in, it's like drinking from a firehose, but my main take away (based on my main question "What does God want me to do") was "BE A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST!" Yeah, looking forward to going over the talks to find the nuggets that all contributed to that feeling. 

Update 10/11: Joseph shared this "word cloud" today from Conference! Wow! 

It really was an especially CHRIST Centered conference! "Christ" 360 times, Jesus 326 times, then God, Lord, Church, One, life, father, love, Savior... etc etc, so cool. <3