Remember

Today my stake had a special Stake Conference at the Tabernacle and Bishop Richard Edgley, the first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric spoke to us. The whole conference was so, so good! My Stake President, President Childs is so awesome. My new Stake Relief Society President Sister Peterson (Dr. Don Peterson's wife) also spoke and I just really feel blessed to have her as my RS President. The conference started at 10 but I got there at like 9:15 to save some seats for my ward with a couple other girls from my ward. Sister Peterson walked in with a couple of pots of flowers and we asked her if she needed any help bringing in more or setting them up. She said that there were a lot more flowers out in her car to bring in so we went out and carried them in. Then she asked if we would help her set them up. It was fun to talk to her and to help her set up the flowers all over the stand before everyone else got there. As we were setting them up, people started walking in and sitting down and the people sitting on the stand started getting there. I was walking off of the stage after setting one of the pots up and there was a man and woman walking up onto the stand and as I was passing them, the man turned to me and said, "Good morning! How are you doing today?" And I was just like, "Good thanks! How are you?" And I touched his arm as I walked off. Then I finished helping with the flowers and sat down and realized that it was Bishop Edgley!

Sweet huh? I mean, it's not like he's one of the 12 apostles but it is just something special to be around amazing men like him that are special witnesses of the truthfulness of the Gospel. Men like Bishop Edgley dedicate their lives to God's work and I feel really blessed to attend a college where I can see them so often. It is really amazing.

There were some really good talks but the overall theme I got out of the conference was that I need to have greater faith and endurance. I learned that any thoughts that we have that are disparaging or discouraging are not from Heavenly Father. They are from satan and are him trying to get you down and to tempt you. I find that sometimes, I feel really great and like things are going well in my life and I see all of my blessings really easily. But then there are times, sometimes in the same day as the good feelings, that I have really discouraging feelings and I just feel like there's no hope or progress to be made. But after the talks on Sunday, I understand more that those are not good thoughts and that Heavenly Father does not want me to be thinking about discouraging things. He wants me to be happy and to know that He loves me. He wants me to have hope and to be optimistic and remember the great plan of happiness that is set up for me. So, part of that plan is for me to be tempted by satan and to go through trials but the best thing for me to do is to not let temptation take over. I will be strong and I will remember what I am here for. I will remember that Heavenly Father loves me and only wants to help me. He wants me to be happy! So, I will be happy!