Every six months the LDS church holds a General Conference for any who would like to listen. The leaders of our Church speak on many subjects that they are inspired to speak on. This conference there were many wonderful talks. I was surprised at how many shared sweet experiences of losing a loved one-- and especially of losing children. But there was one talk that I truly felt was just for me. How this sweet man stood and gave this talk without bawling his eyes out I will never understand, but it really meant a lot to me to hear the things he shared. You can
read it ,
listen to it,
watch it, and even
download it. There are other talks from the conference posted at that last link, but I don't think everything is up yet. There was also a big announcement made in the first 5 minutes or so of the first session of the conference. One I'm excited about, and also a little wary of. In the LDS church young men are asked to give two years of their lives to serve a proseliting mission, teaching people about our beliefs. Up until now most young men haven't been allowed to go until age 19, but many exceptions were being made and young men in many countries were going sooner. So they made a change, now every young man can leave at age 18, or as soon as he graduates high school. This is exciting in many ways because it means a young man doesn't have to interrupt his schooling to go, they have less time to think about exactly what they are giving up, and this also lowered the age for girls to go (previously 21, now 19). But I'm wary, I have a little man. One I am not all too anxious to have grow up. And now it seems that he will be doing some things that mean he is growing up even sooner than I thought he would. I realize that this is a way down the road, but all the same, this announcement made my little boy one year closer to a mission and I don't know how I feel about that. So I'm going to try to put it out of my mind and just snuggle my baby for as long as he'll let me and I'm going to ignore that he's getting bigger and more independent every day and just live in this moment, because it's really all I have.
So, don't forget... if you are at all curious about what the "Mormons" believe, or if you watched/listened this last weekend and would like a refresher go ahead and
click. I know I will be reviewing some of the talks that were given.
4 comments:
oh my gosh after pres. monson gave that announcement, brett said everton will be going on a mission in 16ish years! i told him to be quiet and to never say that again :) seriously freaked me out. p.s. my dad served in the philippines from 1979-1980. so i guess my dad's a little older than your dad huh?
I found out about the mission age change from my friends -- it's different.
We thought Elder Bowen's talk was amazing too, don't know how he did it. It was a blessing to all of us. But we were amazed that Lawrence could speak at Ethne's funeral and are amazed at all that both of you have done since to bless our lives and others too.
I was listening to conference again today. As Elder Bowen's address began I thought immediately of your post and hope that his words are comforting you today, and in days to come, as much as they did when they were spoken. We love you!
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