New Beginnings

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and General LDS Authorities at the
LDS General Conference.

What an amazing weekend. I have had the opportunity to learn and grow, to feast on the words of Christ through His apostles and prophet on the earth today. I am so grateful to have these worthy men speaking about what the Lord would have me and the rest of the world hear. Each one of these men that I have listed below is an apostle of the Lord, a special witness of Christ. From them, I have learned. And I have a desire to change. And I want to share with you what I am going to do to change.

Henry B. Eyring, inspired me to serve. A lot. Serving brings me closer to my Lord and Savior. It helps me become more like my perfect example. Christ spent His whole life saving and serving men. I need to do that! And I want to do that. Everyone around me is my spirit sibling, another child of God. With that perspective, I think it may be easier to serve them, knowing that they too are loved by a Divine Being.

Richard G. Scott, issued a challenge that made me stop and think. He said "for every text you send, read a verse of scripture." In thinking about it, that would be a lot of verses to read!  But me, being the stubborn person I am, want to do it. I tried it out, but I failed miserably; however, it taught me that I need to read and value the scriptures more than I am. With the world swirling around me and so much going on in my life, I often find myself reading only a few verses. The scriptures are the Lord's words! They, too, are inspired, and I need to study them more frequently, more diligently, and with more desire to learn!

One thing that David A. Bednar, said that really stood out to me is "Love increases through righteous restraint." I love that. So much. It's a testimony to me that keeping myself pure and worthy is good and so worth it. I love love, so I want an abundance of it when I get married! But that only comes from keeping myself pure and worthy to enter the house of the Lord.

Neil L. Andersen, exhorted us to pray for countries that don't have the gospel in it. He also exhorts us to pray for missionary opportunities in our everyday lives. This is something I've been trying to do for the last little bit, but I don't do it often enough. It's something that I want to work on, something that will prepare me to serve a full time mission within the year.

Jeffrey R. Holland, said "when doubt comes, don't be afraid to ask questions." This is one thing I have a hard time with. I flat out don't like asking questions; it makes me self-conscious. I made a goal at the beginning of the year to not be afraid to ask questions, and I haven't done so well. So this is a reaffirmation to me that I need to ask questions. It will help me to better understand what's going on around me, keep me safe.

Enrique R. Falabella, challenged us to send text messages of love and/or gratitude. It's not a hard thing to do. It's something small and simple that we can do every day. Every day. It's a small act of kindness that will make a person's day a little bit brighter. It will help us to redeem people from their sorrows, as D. Todd Christofferson suggested we do. Save people from their sorrows by loving them, uplifting them, complimenting them, doing what we can to do the things that Christ would have us do, because we are His hands here on the earth.

This is just a small portion of what I learned. This weekend was fraught with inspiring messages of love, service, gratitude, obedience, purity, kindness, effort, and so much more. I'm going to study it out and do what I have been inspired to do.