General Conference.

This weekend was General Conference and what a lovely conference it was. For anyone who has no idea what I'm talking about General Conference is a worldwide meeting that my church does twice a year where in which we hear leaders of our church speak about lots of important churchy things.
For the past couple of years conference has been a little difficult for me to listen to I think because I've been dealing with a child. For some reason, even though I have two now it seemed like I was able to pay more attention to the speakers. There were lots of wonderful speakers and many wonderful stories.
Two of my favorite talks were by President Thomas S. Monson, the prophet, and Elder Holland , an apostle. President Monson spoke of the importance of appreciating now and not spending so much time thinking of what will come next but appreciating the little things. This struck me especially hard because I find myself lately anticipating when Cohen and Emmy will get to that next stage. They just keep on growing. I realized that I think I sometimes wish their youth away too fast. They already grow fast enough and I'm so impatient sometimes. So I have made a goal to try to appreciate the stage that they are at NOW. I often look at Emmy and can't believe how she has grown and miss some of the cute things that she is growing out of and yet I still can't wait for this or that.
Elder Holland spoke of hope he started off with a story that belonged to a friend. IN the story the friend was a young boy who got into some trouble on the farm that could have cause him danger. When he realized he was in trouble he began to pray very hard. When he looked up he saw an image of white coming towards him. He was overcome with the feeling that it it was angel. It was as if he knew in that moment that God had heard his prayers and sent an Angel to assist him. Then he heard the angel calling his name and the voice was familiar to him, it was his father. The father said that when the boy took too long he felt the need to come looking for him.
Elder Holland went on to say that we have angels all around us maybe it's a friend, a mother or a spouse. We are often times blessed in our lives to have such people.
For me this story was also a good example of the power of prayer. Cahlan and I have tried to establish our marriage, our family and our home upon gospel pricples. I have seen the hand of the Lord in our lives. Ever Since we were first married we have tried to pray and ask the Lord about those things that were big and important to us especially decisions like school, work and family and we can both testify that we have been guided to know what we should do in every situation. Sometimes the answer we recieved didn't seem like the best choice or even our top choice but in retrospect we could see the reason. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know that President Monson is the true and living prophet upon the earth today. I know that he was called of God just as every prophet before him was. I have a testimony of and love for the Book of Mormon. It has changed my life in more ways than I'm sure even I have noticed. I'm grateful for the inspiration and the effort that goes into Conference, for it is truly inspired. I know that God lives and love me. I love my Savior and hope that I might live my life in a way that be pleasing to him.