Stake conference

Elder Bednar is here for our stake conference. He gave an AWESOME talk. I was just overwhelmed with his talk. He said he didn't know what he was going to talk about until the speakers talked. Then he said he was going to talk about covenants, atonement and conversion.

He said that we don't set the precedents of the covenants, the Lord does. (he said A LOT and I really wish I would have brought something to write down with, but I am so used to being with kids and not having a free hand to even think of taking notes)

Atonement: There are two point to the atonement - to cleanse us from our sins, and to give us the strength to do what we couldn't do on our own. He then told us to turn to Grace in the bible dictionary and this in in there: It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This really struck home for me! I never thought of it like that. I can receive strength to be a better mom or a better missionary. I know that I should always rely on the Lord, but I didn't realize it was the power of the atonement. He said a lot of other really great things...

Conversion: He said that having a testimony doesn't cut it. He said that we needed to do all we could, keep out covenants and rely on the strength of the Lord. He talked about the 10 virgins. It wasn't that the 5 foolish didn't have a testimony, they were not fully converted to the Lord.

There was also a story my friend Rosie told that I think is AMAZING.

I am going to try to tell it as good as she does. About three years ago my friend Rosie was going about her day as normal. It was nap time for her 2 and 4 year old, but her four year old asked if they could PLEASE watch Scooby-doo together. She didn't usually crack under the pressure and usually nap time wasn't optional but she said that sure they could, but only today. She realized the storm outside was getting worse and the sky was getting really dark. The lights started flickering and she got up to look outside. She and her four year old looked out their back window and saw their wooden play structure fold up and fly away. At that time she knew that this was not an ordinary storm. She told the 4 year old to go to the basement, she ran and got her sleeping 2 year old from the couch and ran to the basement. She slammed the door shut and thought they were fine but not a second later the door flies open and her 4 year old flies across the room into the kitchen. She and the 2 year old are trapped under the door and she is watching in horror she is yelling as loud as she can, but her daughter can't hear her. Then she sees her 4 year old across the room trying to crawl across the floor. Later she said that she just held to the cracks in the floor. (she said that the fridge ended up a mile down the road! How did this 30 lb child make it out unscathed!) She reached her mom and her mom was able to get free from the door. They went down to the basement and were in 2 inches of water when her daughter said, oh man now we have no shoes. What a touching story! Their house was completely destroyed but they were safe! Heavenly Father does have His hand in all things.