Better Than Christmas!

Saturday morning, April 6th, 9:50 a.m.:  I realize that I am feeling more excited about the start of General Conference in a few minutes than I feel when I wake up on Christmas morning! I realize that I've been looking forward to it for weeks now with the same eager anticipation usually reserved for Christmas. I can hardly wait to hear the words of the prophets and apostles. I feel like the guy on the desert, army crawling toward a mirage - only this isn't a mirage, it's living water and it will quench my thirst for faith, hope and new perspective.

We are watching Conference on an old couch in our missionary apartment. Our screen is a little monitor on top of a missionary desk because we don't have a TV.  It's all we need, though, because we are GRATEFUL to be able to stream all the sessions of Conference - both sight and sound. A computer, IPad, or phone, an HDMI (or other) cord, and ChurchofJesusChrist.org on the Internet are all anyone needs to listen to General Conference anywhere in the world. And we can replay any talk we want to hear again in any language we choose (!) within a few hours after it has been given. 

What a joyous blessing this is! When I was a child, I remember when the Sunday morning session of General Conference was broadcast on television in Los Angeles for the very first time. It seemed like a miracle to be getting a live broadcast of one session all the way from the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

Our General Conference broadcast.

Now, it's Sunday night and General Conference has ended. Could it be over so soon? I feel strengthened and filled with hope and love and new insights and understanding. I feel deeply nourished by the Spirit and the truth of what I have been taught this weekend. I am no longer thirsty, though there is a longing inside of me for more. But wait! I can access the words I have heard over and over, as often as I want to! I can listen to them while I am driving. I can listen to them on my IPad in the morning as I am getting ready for the day. I can read them in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. Computers, phones, and other devices, as well as the magazine that will come in a few weeks - the words of the prophets and the scriptures are all there, day and night, anytime I choose to read or listen, any time I need another drink, and I will. 

The world is getting more confusing and complicated. We are being told that the time is hastening toward the Second Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I don't know if I will live to see that time, but I do know that we have been counseled to stand in holy places and be not moved. I am so very grateful for Church leaders who pay the price to learn the Lord's will for us and teach us how to face the times in which we are living. They speak the truth. Praise be to God for the scriptures and for living prophets and apostles and others who have spoken to us this weekend and given us inspired instruction and counsel and guidance for our individual circumstances. Their messages have been tailored for such a time as this. How will I take advantage of these divine messages during the coming six months? How will you?

General Conference comes not once a year, like Christmas, but twice. Unlike Christmas, there is no wrapping paper to throw away, no buyer's remorse, no unused gift to store in a closet. Unlike Christmas, General Conference can be lived over and over, as often as we desire. General Conference is the gift that keeps on giving.

We had a wonderful breakfast with our friends, the Wildes, this week!
It was great to see them when they came to drop off a package
at our Mission Office. Their granddaughter is one of our
sister missionaries in the California Anaheim Mission. 

The Rhines, Simpsons, and Carpenters -
the three senior couples working in the Mission Office
at the California Anaheim Mission.

          --Pat--