A Generally Amazing Conference Weekend

Meeting Will Marshall with the family

This weekend was one of the best two weekends of the year--General Conference.  I absolutely love Conference.  It's amazing to get to hear the words of living prophets received through inspiration.  Conference has long been one of the times that I am most able to feel direction for what I should do in my life.  In fact, my favorite Conference feeling is a good rebuke by the Spirit by which I learn things I need to change, but also leave with a resolution that I can indeed do better.  I actually didn't get too much of that feeling this time; mostly it was just a reaffirmations of things I'm already have a decent understanding of, though I am still working on.  That is a useful thing too, however, and I'm still coming out of Conference with my normal sense of a spiritually full gas tank ready for the continuing trip ahead.

On Saturday, I was able to see the first session on my own at my apartment.  This was pretty nice, because my preference is very little or no conversation or movement during the sessions as this helps me to concentrate and feel the Spirit most profoundly.  Even when I watch on TV, I feel like I should more or less treat the experience as though I were personally in the Conference Center to get the most out of it.  Most people, I've found, don't share my preference for silence and stillness.  I enjoy the feeling of watching with a group, even if they don't share my peculiar views, but sometimes it's nice to be on my own where I can better control external distractions.  I watched the second session with one of my roommates.  That was fun too, and she told me about how she was almost in the Orem Institute Choir that sang for the session, but it didn't work out with her schedule.

I was pretty struck by the running theme in the general Saturday sessions that the world is essentially getting worse and we are going to become more and more unpopular, yet it will become increasingly important that we compassionately and kindly stand for God's standards despite what is accepted by the world.  It seemed like practically every apostle touched on this principle along with several of the others.  It has made me pretty sick at heart over the years to see how many of the good LDS young people I know have expressed support and acceptance for causes, like gay marriage especially, that are not in line with God's commandments.   I know that they do so out of good intentions, but in many ways this just makes me more sad because I feel like that could make it even more likely that the road will end in disbelief or outright apostasy before they even realize what has happened.

My feeling is that marriage is not a right that has been to mankind, but rather a gift.  God has blessed us with this gift for a very specific purpose, for the creation and eternal sustaining of families patterned after His own.  While marriage can and most often does provide personal satisfaction to spouses, that is not the primary purpose.  In fact, every marriage will almost certainly go through times when it provides little or no personal satisfaction to either spouse, but the eternal purpose remains.  In the vast majority of cases, I think that it is those difficult times that will eventually render the marriage stronger when weathered righteously.  If we can only have the eternal perspective in those times to see beyond the difficulties of the moment, we can qualify to receive an eternal well of happiness in the eternities.

Molly wanted to take pictures

The sad truth is, many of us will not enjoy the blessing of marriage in this life.  I myself haven't received that gift from God so far.  I can honestly say that I know how heart-breaking and lonely that can be.  It isn't something I would ever wish on anyone.  Yet at the same time, I also know that it is possible to still be happy and still find fulfillment in mortal life even without that supernal gift.  I hope the Lord will bless me with it soon, but if in His wisdom, He chooses not to, it will not change my knowledge of eternal standards or my resolution to live in accordance to them.  I know that the Lord will bless all those from whom that gift is withheld and make them able to bear it if they rely upon Christ.

With this conviction of God's eternal truth, for me it becomes clear that I cannot in any way condone or support other philosophies espoused by the world on the subject.  I will always do what I can to teach and represent what I know to be true, even if it becomes very unpopular to do so.  This in no way means that I don't respect and love those with differing opinions and hope that they will experience kindness and happiness in their life.  I will do all that I can to help them as children of a loving God to find those things in their lives, but only insofar as it is consistent with the Lord's commandments.  I hope the same courtesy will be extended to me.  I also hope that many of the rising generation in the church will take the messages delivered in Conference to heart and reconsider if necessary their position.

On Saturday night, I watched the Priesthood session streamed live on my computer in my room.  I'm glad they are now making them available in real time to everyone who is interested, as the Priesthood session has long been a standard favorite of mine.  I guess that's partially because they tend to crack down and call the Priesthood to repentance more forcefully, and as I've already said, I always like that because it helps me repent and be better.  I loved Elder Oaks talk and plan to review it carefully to better understand the principles he discussed.

Gerrit dragging the kids...

...and dumping them off afterward

On Sunday, I was able to watch the last two sessions of Conference with Gerrit and Elisabeth's family.  It is a different, but wonderful experience to watch Conference with little children.  Both Miles and Molly were quite good throughout.  I think Conference can be pretty trying for kids.  I remember how interminable each session seemed to be when I was growing up!  Fortunately, watching at home means that they kids can still hear the sessions while also being easily able to do other things as necessary to keep them occupied.  This is a win-win scenario for both the adults and the kids!

There were many good talks, but I think I appreciated Elder Uchtdorf's the most.  I have been impressed with the high-quality thoughts he consistently delivers and I thought his discussion of gratitude was very insightful and uplifting.  I've certainly learned in recent years how gratitude is essential in affliction.  In fact, if anything I think my afflictions make me feel even MORE grateful to the Lord for all I have been given.  The moments when I feel closest to God almost entirely consist of overpowering gratitude to the exclusion of all else.

In between the sessions, I got to play with Miles and Molly.  This mostly involved activities with the big blanket, including "sliding" on it off the ottoman, rolling them into giant burritos or cocoons, giving them "rides" by dragging them around the room on it, and swinging them in it as a giant hammock.  Most of these activities required some pretty exhausting effort on my part, but fortunately Gerrit was able to take over for some of it.  However, both of us were required for the hammock, which left my hands aching when I curled or uncurled them for awhile afterwards simply from gripping so tightly to avoid dropping them!  Despite this, it was still very fun.  I always love seeing the kids.  They are very good children and have almost never given me reason to feel frustrated with their behavior.

I've probably engendered hate by wrapping this present...

...in this paper.  Hope Emily, Joel, and Will will forgive me

After Conference, we had dinner and talked to Mom and Dad before going to see Joel and Emily at the hospital.  Emily went in to have a c-section delivery of their first child, Will, on Saturday.  Although I'm really not technically connected to them, it was nice to be invited to see the baby with the rest of the family.  I do know Elisabeth's family much better than most people know their sibling's in-laws as I've seen them pretty often since Gerrit and Elisabeth got married, especially recently.  Will is a very cute little baby and I was honored to get to hold him after everyone more important had had a chance.  I'm glad that Gerrit and Elisabeth's family will now not be the only one's with children on both sides.  It is better for kids to have some cousins of more similar age.

Overall, it was a great weekend.  I felt the Spirit, learned some good things, and had many uplifting experiences.  I'm grateful that this wonderful opportunity comes not only once, but twice a year.  It is another evidence to me of the Lord's tender mercies!