I took notes:
As I said before, Hilary Weeks was there to perform several songs. Virginia Hinckley Pearce kind of conducted the whole convention. She is a hoot! I love her!!!
She shared with us a fun little tidbit about her father, President Gordon B. Hinckley: He exercises every day! (For those of you who are not familiar with our beloved prophet, President Hinckley is 95 years old!) Because lots of people had already asked her about him, she took a moment to tell us that he is doing well. In fact, she says he is in better physical shape than he was two years ago! She says that he "works out" to exercise videos and on his exercise bike. He knows that his days are numbered but since his wife died (18 months ago), he has dedicated all of his life to "the work" and considers it very important that he keep himself in the very best shape he can so that he can keep doing whatever the Lord asks him to.
Emily Watts was the first speaker, she gave a talk called, "Confessions of an unbalanced woman". I think that this was my favorite talk - which is saying alot because they were all fabulous! She referenced a scene from the movie "Ten Commandments" where they are using a scale. Ramuses (sp?) is putting little pebbles on one end of the scale listing all the things Moses was doing wrong. Moses picked up a brick to represented why he was doing what he was and put it on the other end. Sister Watts says, "I don't want balance... I want the brick!" The small stones are all the "stuff" and the brick is the love of God.
She told about how after asking for silver earrings for Mother's Day, her husband gave her sterling silver earrings... shaped like dinosaurs. Because he thought the kids would get a kick out of them. lol The small stone - getting dinosaur earrings for a gift. The brick - having a loving husband who provides for her and their family, loves them, wanted to get a gift, and thought of the kids too.
She talked about "reverse buts". I love you but you are driving me crazy. Reversed = You are driving me crazy, but I love you. See the difference? What you choose to focus on changes your attitude. Focus on the positive. We sing a hymn that says, "I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord". We can add, "I'll see what you want me to see."
The next speaker was James Ferrell who spoke on "Nothing works but a broken heart". He confessed that sometimes he just knows that he will never measure up. Do we feel that way? Can we relate? Well, he told us a secret: No one measures up! And the "quest" to measure up is the WRONG quest! He told us we are all "broken". No one is perfect and we all make mistakes. Furthermore, there are times when our hearts (our thoughts, feelings, desires) don't work like they should. But we don't usually realize just how broken we are. We think we should be able to "measure up" without realizing that we never can.
It is impossible to keep all of the commandments. Why would God give us these commandmenst, then command us to keep them, if He knew we couldn't possibly do it perfectly? BECAUSE: If all the commandments could be kept perfectly, we would no longer need Christ and His atonement. We are given commandments, we can't keep them all perfectly, we need to repent (we are broken) - WE NEED THE SAVIOR, we turn to Him. Just as we all are broken and need the Savior, we need to allow others' their brokeness; mercy.
I bought his book, The Peacegiver and had him sign it for me. I started to read it during the lunch - I am really enjoying it. Everyone I know who has read it, loves it. (Just a plug.)
One of the speakers I was most looking forward to was the next one: John Bytheway. He kind of threw his speech out the window and did not talk at all about what he was planning on. Instead he told "the rest of the story" to a talk he gave years ago about something that happpened 23 years ago called "What's in Your Backpack?" If any of you are familiar with this talk/story, let me know and I'll tell you "the rest of the story" but otherwise, it will take too long to go into.
He finished by talking about merits. He admitted that he was not an Eagle Scout, he didn't have enough merits. Got him to thinking, 'How many and what kind of merits do I need to "get to heaven"?' So he looked it up. There were 7 scriptures that mentioned "merits", he read every one. Not a single one tells what merits you need. They all say that after all we can do, it is because of the merits of the Savior that we are "saved".
A quote he used: “Please remember this one thing. If our lives and our faith are centered upon Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right” - Howard W. Hunter
Pamela H. Hansen spoke on "Running with angels". She has had lots of trials! She has lost two children and some of her surviving children have health problems. Through her trials, she turned to eating. She was very overweight. One day she went for a walk - for 5 minutes. She did it again the next day, then the next.
Pretty soon she was walking over 1/2 hour a day. That summer she lost 50 pounds. She decided to take a dream and turn it into a goal - she wanted to run in a marathon. But she still needed to lose another 50 pounds and start running. She did. And she has participated in a couple of marathons now. She says that there were days she didn't want to train, didn't want to eat right, didn't want to run. But she received strength and did it anyway. As she ran in her first marathon, she felt like her two "angel" children were there physically supporting her when she was tired.
She shared 10 things she learned from her experiences:
1. Take time to rejuvenate yourself
2. Rearrange your priorities
3. Devise a plan and hold yourself accountable
4. Replace bad habits with good ones
5. Rejoice in even small improvments
6. Record measurments and feelings - so you can see how far you've come
7. Think more positive
8. Uplifting music can be incredibly motivational
9. Express gratitude for heavenly and earthly angels - be an earthly angel, help others
10. Learn from life's lessons - Instead of "Why me?" ask "What can I learn?"
Finally, Virginia H. Pearce spoke, "Personally Speaking". She says that she thinks people learn what the ALMOST already know. She just turned 60 (Which her father is perplexed as to why she is always announcing it. She said something along the lines of, "Oh, you mean like throwing a party at the Conference Center and sending it via satellite all over the world?" lol). She says now that she is old - she is wise :)
Things she now knows:
1. The simple things we do are the important things. Doing the simple things with a loving, happy heart is more important than doing big things with a grudging heart. "It is not about the destination, it is about who you are and what you do on your journey."
2. There are lots of right ways to do things. Specifically, there are alot of right ways to be a family. Develop a testimony and relationship with Heavenly Father and then follow Him. Use your talents, your personality, do what works for you - always acting on the guidance of the spirit.
3. "I don't want to do it 'my way'." - Do it the Lord's way! He has given us everything. The only thing we can give Him that is truly ours, is our agency. "I want to get home. And when I get there, I will answer for myself."
So there you have it! I bought a bunch of stuff (many as gifts so I'm not gonna say just what) and had got lots of that "stuff" signed by the authors. Then I had the brilliant idea to get the tote we received at the door signed by everyone!
I think it will replace my "got meetings?" bag that I use for church - that one is worn out.
Sorry for the long post - but it was such a wonderful day, I just wanted to share it all with you!
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