Happy New Year!!! I've been slothful at blogging. I will try and do better.
I will now share with you our wonderful Stake Conference that we attended today.
It started off quite beautifully with the stake choir singing a variety of Hymns about Scriptures. They even included Search, Ponder and Pray.
Then Pres. Adams, our stake president, welcomed us. The choir then sang the opening hymn and then were dismissed to sit within the congregation! They did the same thing at our Ward Conference in Oct. In fact they sang the same song. I Need Thee Every Hour...with a beautiful violin accompaniment. As they were singing Eddie tells me, "Do you see the little girl in the back row in her Dad's arms?" I looked and sure enough, a guy in the back row is holding his daughter up. I would guess she wasn't much over 3! As I watched she was turning the pages for him....and then I noticed....she was singing too!!!! It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen at Stake Conference!!!!
So after the opening prayer they did the sustaining of officers and what not. There were no speakers sitting on the stand, just the stake presidency. Pres. Adams got up and introduced the program. Our speakers were all from the stake presidency. Including the Stake Clerk and the Stake Executive Secretary. They joked that they were gonna tells us that they were picking speakers out of the congregation. That would have been interesting because the last stake conference and this stake conference were being broadcast at all 4 buildings in our stake, so that you can go to your own ward house and watch the conference via computer hook up! It's pretty cool. Pres. Adams has been the Stake President for 5 years and one of his goals for his "presidency" is to have stake conference attendance be the same as the average Sacrament Meeting attendance in the stake. Today...we had 53% attendance at all 4 buildings which is the most they've ever had. He's very grateful for modern technology for providing the way for everyone to be able to enjoy conference!!!
So, the Stake Clerk spoke on Tender Mercies. The Stake Executive Secretary spoke on the Book of Mormon and then we had our first rest hymn. Pres. Adams wants everyone to feel a part of Stake Conference, so our first rest hymn was Book of Mormon Stories!!! It was awesome!!!
Then Pres. Skousen, the 2nd Counselor spoke. AWESOME TALK! He based his talk on something Pres. Packer had said at our regional conference we had as our last stake conference. He talked about how in these last days we would have to face Goliaths that no one in church history has ever faced. He called this guy out of the congregation...who happened to be sitting next to me. This guy was pretty big. He was 6' 5". He was Pres. Skousen's example of Goliath. Pres. Skousen brought a step stool and made this guy climb to the third step...thus adding 3 feet to him to represent Goliath!!!! Then Pres. Skousen brought up a 2 X 4 that he had cut at 9' 6". That is the supposed height of Goliath. It was pretty amazing. He then taught us that in order for us to beat the Goliath's of our days, we will need to apply the 2 X 4 principle. He then had us all take out a piece of paper and write down the 2 X 4 principle. Instead of explaining it. I'll just put it here:
1. Daily
1 - Personal Prayers
2 - Study and Ponder Scriptures
2. Weekly
1 - Family Home Evening
2 - Attend Church and partake of the Sacrament
3. Monthly
1 - Attend the Temple at least once
2 - Fast and contribute to fast offerings
4. Annually
1 - Attend Tithing Settlement
2 - Renew your Temple Recommend
Now the recomment part he acknowledged that you only have to do every two years now, but you should be sure that you are always worthy of it!!
Pres. Skousen is a hoot!!! You have to witness one of his talks to totally appreciate this!!
After Pres. Skousen. Pres. Beirs (sp?) spoke. He spoke on the Book of Mormon and he and his wife's conversion. They didn't know each other at the time they both converted. Awesome talk. During his talk Book of Mormon reading charts were passed out in all the buildings. A 44 week plan to read The Book of Mormon.
After his talk...we got to stand up again and sing: SCRIPTURE POWER!!! When announcing the program Pres. Adams told us to feel free to do what every you need to doing when singing the songs! It was the coolest thing! Everytime we sang the words, "Scripture Power" the entire Stake Presidency held up their scriptures as did most of the congregation who had their scriptures with them. It's one of the coolest stake conferences I've ever been to!!!
Pres. Adams talk was more about the Book of Mormon and his Invitation to read the Book of Mormon this year. He said, he realized that we are supposed to be studying the New Testament for Sunday School, but he encouraged us to read the Book of Mormon too. He also encouraged us to read other good books. Which was good because I got Eddie the book Jesus the Christ on CD for Christmas and he's been listening to it as he reads along. He's been very diligent. I'm glad Pres. Adams encouraged all the reading today!!!
Our closing Hymn was The Iron Rod and then we were done. Our next conference is the first weekend in June and we will have a visiting General Authority. Pres. Adams told us our we should be in Alma at our next Conference.
I love, love, loved the music today. Singing Primary songs for the rest hymns was genius!!!!
