General Conference!

I love General Conference weekend.  Every year, in April and October, we have an entire weekend where we get to hear messages from the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The word of God, from His living prophets right to my living room!  It's a peaceful weekend for us (maybe it's just because we don't have small children to occupy for basically 8 hours of church meetings :).  Whatever your circumstances, I completely invite you to browse the archives--you can watch, listen, read (soon), or download any talk of interest from the lds.org website, HERE.

I always find I get a whole lot more out of Conference, though, when I come with a question or concern or something that I really need.  After praying about this problem and asking the Lord to inspire even just one of His servants to speak to my needs, I am always surprised, again and again, that He actually answers these prayers so directly!  He has never let me down, not once, as long as I've done my part to prepare. 

Lately I've been overcome with emotion as I meet with the Primary presidency to discuss various children and their families' needs in our ward.  I've worked over the past two years at forgiving others and myself for things that happened in the past.  I've struggled with Caida's seizures and fear every night for her safety.  I worry always about our own little family--am I doing enough?  Are my expectations too high?  Will we ever have children?  How do I balance the worldly demands and my spiritual yearnings?  The list of concerns goes on and on, as I know it does for everyone.  I've realized recently that my emotions are almost overwhelming many days, though, to the point that I can't reason through a problem or recognize those gentle promptings of the Spirit as much as I would like. Many times people have asked what I think about something or other and I have found myself speechless, just a bottle of emotion welling up and about to burst, and I have no idea what to do with all of it.  As I've struggled to find a voice for my hurt, anger, envy, frustrations, caution, and self-consciousness, as well as my elations and excitement and love, I've realized what it means to WRESTLE with the Spirit.  I've realized the many ways my faith falls short and the miles I have yet to travel along this path toward eternal life.

If you are anything like me (and chances are that at least ONE of you are), here are the talks I found particularly and especially inspiring in these sessions:

Elder Richard G. Scott's talk about feeling the Holy Ghost. (Saturday Afternoon Session)
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk about forgiveness. (Sunday Morning Session)
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk about justice, mercy, and not being envious of other's successes. (Saturday Afternoon Session)
President Henry B. Eyring's talk about adversity and trials as a means of strengthening our faith. (Saturday Morning Session)
 

More on all of this later.  :)  Stay tuned for some more impressions and even some Conference-inspired printable art sure to come soon!  Hope you all enjoyed your Sundays, wherever you were and whatever you were doing. But I know that listening to the words of the prophets is the best thing I could've done this weekend, and I'm so grateful to have made the small sacrifices it takes to listen...I always get so much more out of it than I put into it.  And that is why I believe.

To the many of you who also participated in Conference weekend--what was your favorite part?