LDS General Conference

I have been listening to the general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (The church I belong to.) It is great! I will have to read it when it is printed, since it is really hard to listen with two young children.

One talk that I really liked was by the former Relief Society general president Bonnie D. Parkin. She spoke about gratitude. The first thing that she said that hit me was that murmuring makes it difficult for the Spirit of the Lord to work in us. I am generally a very positive person, but I have a bad habit of complaining about some people in my life. I really need to work on that. I need to be more loving and understanding of people's faults. She also read a scripture (Doctrine and Covenants 59:7, I think). It says "Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things." I don't think I do that enough. Especially in the adversity I have. She said we should. I suppose I am thankful for the things that I learn when I go through adversity. She made another comment that I really liked near the end of her talk. She said that our gratitude is an expression of our faith. If we have faith in God, we will be grateful to him and thank him for the things that he has given us!

Then, we got to witness a historic event. I wish we could have been in the Salt Lake Tabernacle as they spoke about it and rededicated it for use for many more years to come. I am also really amazed that they can redo the foundation and not have the whole building cave in.

Aaron and I were at the last session of conference (before this one) held in the Tabernacle. It was really neat. We were probably the last people to get ticket since they had closed the ticket office and we were late. They took us back and still let us pick up our tickets! I remember an usher making fun of us for kissing before the meeting. We had just gotten engaged and he was telling us he was going to kick us out.

I really like the effect that the Tabernacle Choir used in the closing song. They sang The Spirit of God. This song is used a lot for dedications. They started by having one man singing a solo, then adding another and another. The three were then joined by the men and then the women. It was as if it were Joseph Smith bearing testimony then a few then the whole choir as if it were the entire Church bearing testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It was awesome!

I can't wait for the rest, tomorrow!