Conference Weekend

Getting tickets for LDS General Conference is near to impossible in Utah.  

In the span of my 24 years of being alive, I have never been to a conference session.  Ever.  And I live 45 minutes away from the conference center.  It's that hard to get tickets.

Our ward got 6 tickets this year to give out.  Tyler and I booked it up to one of the counselors in our ward after sacrament meeting this year to grab 2 of them.  It was a miracle that we got them.  What was even better was that they were for the Sunday morning session!  Those are prime-time tickets!  

The morning started off a little rough for us trying to figure out where we could park in Salt Lake for the conference without a parking pass for conference event parking.  I was ready to just turn around and go home.  T was a good sport about it all and was prepared to throw me over his shoulder to get to conference.   Best.  Husband.  Ever.

After finally figuring out where we could park without a parking pass for Event parking, it was smooth sailing and a happy day.  We walked to the conference center and we were incredibly impressed with how smoothly and quickly we went through the security checkpoints and how flawless everything went.  There were helpful volunteers around every corner to help you get to your seat and we didn't meet one ornery or mad person.  They were all cheerful, happy, and helpful. 

We had amazing seats on the first terrace in the conference center.  It was fun to see the profile of the speakers from where we sat, even though we sat furthest to the wall.  We sat by a couple that came all the way from Hong Kong just to come to conference!  

We were wondering if President Monson would speak during our session and he did!  What an amazing experience to be in the same room as the Prophet of God as he spoke his message on the importance of obedience.  Our other favorites from the session were President Uchtdorf, Elder Perry, and Sister Wixom.  

I especially loved Sister Wixom's talk.  I've been questioning how to instill more confidence in my students and it seemed as though her talk was directed completely for me.  She even talked about a 2nd grade teacher who taught her students that it's okay to make mistakes!  That's my class motto and it made me smile when she began her talk.  

Loved every moment of the session.

Especially with this handsome hunk.

I could've spent all day there and then some.  It was spiritual, uplifting, and enlightening.  I was rushing to write all of the notes and personal revelation that seemed to come pouring in this year.  

It was even better spending it with my best friend.

A couple of days before conference, we found out that our very good friends delivered a full-term, stillborn baby.  It was a saddening experience that breaks my heart.  I don't know how anyone who doesn't have the gospel in their life could go through such an experience.  Our friends are strong members of the church and have been incredible examples to us of knowing that we have a loving Heavenly Father who knows us each individually through our trials.  We love them and I'm so grateful for the power of prayer and the blessings that the priesthood brings in our lives.  

Knowing that families are forever and that we can be sealed together forever is one of the foremost things about the gospel that I love and hold onto.  It is one of the main things that gives me hope for my future when we begin our own family.  

I loved conference weekend.  I love the gospel.  

With all of my heart and soul.

a day of reflection.

I've never had a problem with swearing.  That's always been an easy commandment/guideline to follow.  

However, unkind, pessimistic, and sarcastic remarks tend to easily flow from my mouth.  

Sometimes, a little too easily.

Which is why I love Elder Holland's talk on "The Tongue of Angels."  I listened to it this morning and it changed my entire outlook on my day.  Absolutely incredible.

If there's one thing I want to remember from his talk, it would be the following:

"The sin of verbal abuse knows no gender. Wives, what of the unbridled tongue in your mouth, of the power for good or ill in your words? How is it that such a lovely voice which by divine nature is so angelic, so close to the veil, so instinctively gentle and inherently kind could ever in a turn be so shrill, so biting, so acrid and untamed? A woman's words can be more piercing than any dagger ever forged, and they can drive the people they love to retreat beyond a barrier more distant than anyone in the beginning of that exchange could ever have imagined. Sisters, there is no place in that magnificent spirit of yours for acerbic or abrasive expression of any kind, including gossip or backbiting or catty remarks. Let it never be said of our home or our ward or our neighborhood that 'the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity . . . [burning] among our members.' "

{Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Tongue of Angels," Ensign, May 2007, 17}

I think that I've made it easy for myself to slip into joining in with gossip and backbiting.  I never want the words coming out of my mouth to be abrasive and acidic.  

I'm fixing it.

Today.

On Angry Birds and Forgiveness.

Today I taught Relief Society for the first time.

I was terrified.

I made myself sick over it this morning.  [And the past 3 weeks for that matter].  

You see, when Tyler and I moved into our first apartment, it was in my parents ward.  Which means, I wasn't just teaching Relief Society to a bunch of random sisters that I barely knew, I was teaching people I knew.  People I've respected.  Sisters who have been my leaders and teachers.  

But surprisingly enough, the lesson went great and I didn't completely toss my cookies during it.

I learned a lot from preparing for it.  Forgiveness seemed like an easy enough topic to teach about, but it was hard to narrow it down.  I finally figured out an idea that resonated with me and I thought the sisters would gain something from.

It may just be the teacher in me, but I love relating gospel topics to real world things.

Which, in this case, meant relating forgiveness to Angry Birds! 

 [who doesn't like Angry Birds?]

There's some fantastic freebies out in cyber world of Angry Birds!  I whipped up some condiment containers with the Angry Birds Cheese Nips in them and slapped on a cute little Angry Bird.  The sisters got a handout I made up to go along with it.  

[Angry Birds Exhibit #1]

[Angry Birds Exhibit #2]

The handout was an idea that I found on Pinterest [of course!] that spurred my idea and remade it to fit my purposes.

Thanks to the guidance of the spirit and thoughtful comments from the sisters in my ward, the lesson directed itself and hopefully everyone learned something from it.

Because I know I did.  The spirit of forgiveness is a wonderful gift that should never be wasted or forgotten.  It's a gift that I will use over and over again and thank my Heavenly Father for it on a daily, minute-to-minute basis.