Ten Things I Think Are Important

1. Daily Personal and Family Prayer
2. Reading and Pondering the Scriptures
3. Attending my church meetings especially Sacrament meeting & partaking of the Sacrament
4. Attending the Temple on a regular basis
5. Being Trustworthy and Honest
6. Being Kind and Considerate
7. Giving acts of Service to Others
8. Become a Member Missionary so that others might enter into the Baptismal Covenant
9. Holding weekly Family Home Evenings
10. Following the Living Prophet

If I do these things I will be building my foundation upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God. (Helaman 5:12)

I'm the last to know

Not having children in the home anymore, I have not kept up with the Friend or the New Era.  I had no idea the neat things that the church has on line for our youth.  Are you looking for quiet activities for your children in church.  There are coloring pages and stories you can print off.  Want a family home evening idea.  They are there.  Remember the Mormonads?  You can not only find them but you can print them off if you want.  How about Scripture Mastery?  There are games and activities to help youth master their scriptures.  The church has some great resources for our youth.

Still thinking about conference

Between the lesson that I will be teaching next Sunday and Conference this past week, I have been doing a lot of thinking about Prophets and Revelation.  I really wanted to know what the Prophet would have to say to us.  I wanted to know if I would be willing to follow the Prophet or stone him.  I know, I know that sounds pretty harsh.  I just wondered where I stood with the Lord.  Would I be willing to follow the words He gave to the prophet or would I want to ignore what the Lord had to say through His prophet.  I figured if I ignore the Prophet's counsel then I will be stoning him.  To tell the truth, I don't want to stone the prophet so I need to heed his counsel.  

As I listened to President Monson, I felt a stronger testimony that he is a prophet of God and that what he had to say was direct revelation from God.  I enjoyed what President Monson had to say about change.  We need to be ready for change.  Our would is in an uproar.  There will be  change in each of our lives rather we want it to happen or not.  As I think about the changes that have happened in my life, I feel like Jacob when he says our lives pass away as it were a dream.  It was just yesterday that Bryan was a baby.  Now he has babies of his own.  It was just a minute ago that I had six children around the house.  Now there is just David, Dad and me.  The house is so much quieter now.  When the grandchildren come and play in the backyard among the trees or out past the garden I get very melancholy.  Sometimes I think I spent too much time worrying about where the next meal or clothes were going to come from and not enough time enjoying the journey.  

President Monson told a story about a Vietnam war veteran named Brother Hess.  Brother Hess got to write home to his family.  He wrote: “These things are important: temple marriage, mission, college. Press on, set goals, write history, take pictures twice a year.”  I agree with him.  Those are the important things.

So my words to you are:  Enjoy the journey!  All too soon the journey is over and you will be alone.  I am thankful for the journey I have been on.  I love my children, their spouses, and my grandchildren.  My husband, my parents, my brothers, my sister, and my in-laws have been a great help to me in my life.  I have always been able to lean on them.  Thanks to all of you who are sharing this journey with me.  What would I have done without family?

Conference

I loved conference.  I took notes on the talks and put stars by the ones that I wanted to listen to again.  (I had a lot of stars.)  I will be listening to them in the mornings before my kids come into my classroom.  I also had my list of things I wanted to know about or questions that I wanted to have answered.  It worked.  The Lord answered every question.  

One question I wanted to know about was how to be a better teacher.

William D. Oswald told how to be a successful teacher.  He said that the sons of Mosiah and Moroni were a successful teachers.  Here were the three things he said we need to be a successful teacher.
1. Show love to those you teach and call them by name.
2. Teach from the scriptures.
3. Encourage the pondering of gospel truths.

Now I realize that during school I cannot teach from the scriptures but I can use truth to teach and I can encourage students to ponder those truths.  As I search the scriptures my mind will be opened to truths that need to be taught to my students and I will see ways to teach them.

I loved Dallin H Oaks talk about sacrament meeting.  I plan on making my sacrament meeting worship time more meaningful.  He said we could get revelations and direction for our lives as we worship during sacrament meeting.  I have already listened to his talk three time.

Oh I had too many talks that I liked to write about all of them here.  I can hardly wait to hear them again.

General Conference Challenge

I read a blog about the "General Conference Challenge."  I had never really heard of it before.  You are to take your worries and your questions and write them down.  As you watch conference your questions will be answered one by one.  

It is a little late for me to be thinking of this but I do have some questions and concerns so I started writing them down.  My next concern is will I be willing to listen to what the Lord wants me to know?  I hope I will be humble enough to listen and to DO!

Enjoy Conference!