We had a wonderful Stake Conference this weekend. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Bradley Foster of the Second Quorum of the Seventy spoke at our Conference. Elder Holland had never visited the church ranch just south of Orlando before and we were blessed that he chose our Stake to visit while on this trip. He spoke boldly and admonished us to do better and to never leave the church. No matter what trials may come, the Savior and the Gospel are our only means to return back to our Heavenly Father. He recognized the difficulties that many are going through whether emotional, physical or financial but told us to always turn to the Savior. He made the analogy of our lives compared to a ship in a storm that when our boat is beset by waves and we feel in the depths of despair and feel that all is lost we should never consider abandonment of the gospel or our Heavenly Father or Savior Jesus Christ as a viable option. He said that if we were in a boat in a real physical storm we should never consider jumping out of the ship. We should always remain where is safe, that this was no time to be doing a dog paddle. He also spoke to the youth on Sunday and asked them to give a tithe of their lives to the gospel not later in life but now. He stated that a life is approximately 100 years so he asked the youth for ten years of their lives. If they would commit for the next ten years of their lives for example from 12 to 22, to do everything in their power to live the gospel he would not have to worry that they would ever leave the church. He then gave an Apostolic blessing upon those who were present, and he then felt he needed to also bless anyone that we felt was in need of a blessing but was not at conference. I was impressed that he said he had a "Perfect knowledge that the gospel is true". I can't explain how emotional he got, speaking boldly and pointedly much different from a regular General Conference talk. It was like a father telling his children, and he even said to stop the whining and complaining that trials are going to come but we need to endure.
Brent said that at the Priesthood leadership session he told them what we need now to solve the problems in the world is a miracle. The only way for that to happen is through the power of the priesthood and the faithfulness of the members. We should be living in a way that we should expect miracles in our lives and collectively and if we as a church having a faith that miracles will happen the Lord will bless us. It wasn't a talk he had a discussion with the brethren, he walked around the chapel with a mobile microphone.
I wish you could all have been there, it was a wonderful conference.
1 comment:
That sounds amazing, I wish so much that I could have been there. What an awesome experience to have such an intimate meeting with an Apostle.
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