General Conference...

Saturday, March 31st & Sunday, April 1st were General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I spent each of those mornings in Georgetown with Papa. Then I would hurry home to find Claude in the basement with the big television on the BYU-TV Channel ready to watch conference with me. 

This was an absolutely amazing General Conference for these reasons:

1. We sustained a new Prophet and President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His name is Russell M. Nelson. His occupation prior to his full-time Church service which began many years ago was a cardiac surgeon. He was world renowned. He actually trained the surgeon that performed Papa's triple by-pass years ago. 
2. We sustained two new Apostles: Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares. We have been privileged to have each of the men attend our stake at various times and for various reasons. They are amazing leaders in the Church.
3. A new General Young Women's presidency was sustained.
4. During the Saturday evening Priesthood session the Priesthood was restructured so that we will now only have an Elder's Quorum in the ward instead of a High Priest Group and an Elder's Quorum. The High Priest Group will now be made up of the Stake Presidency and the High Council, the Stake Patriarch and the ward Bishoprics. All other Priesthood holders will be a part of their ward Elder's Quorum. 
5. Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching were discontinued. Instead we will have Ministering Brothers & Sisters. Included in this will be Young Women aged 14-18 as appropriate. 
6. And, as if that was not enough to take our breath away, seven new temples were announced. One will be in Russia. Absolutely amazing.

The talks were so cup filling for me. Here are a couple of thoughts that were important to me:

• God sanctifies your most difficult days.
• God walks with us along the covenant path.
• Success is going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.
• Meekness is something we become.
• We have today to live.
• Love is a foundation stone.

A solemn assembly was held Saturday during the first session to sustain Pres. Nelson and Elders Gong and Soares. During this, members are asked to stand and then raise their right hand to sustain the person. Even in our home, I was very moved when they asked all High Priests to stand and my dear hubby and stood and raised his right hand in a sustaining vote. Then I stood when they had the Relief Society sisters stand and we both stood when they asked all members to stand. I found this very moving. The Spirit was strong even in our little home with just the two of us.

It was an excellent conference and I am so very grateful Claude and I could watch it together.