Stake Conference

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!!!!

WOW!

The only thing to survive on the interior after the Provo Tabernacle fire:

Now that's a Christmas Miracle!!!

We drove by the Tabernacle Sunday night. It's so sad. The walls are still standing but it's an empty shell! Well, except for the 9 feet of debris inside!!!

The smell of fire was still in the air. Just so sad!!!

Be sure and listen to the song that I posted in the next post!

To Quote Linus Van Pelt: "That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown!"

Becky Kelley - Where's the Line to See Jesus - OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

Santa Baby!!!

Today was the Ward Christmas Party!
Santa didn't traumatize ALL the kids!

Some liked sitting on his lap!

Some asked for a ride in his sleigh!

I love the little kid sitting at Santa's feet!!!

When Santa first arrived a little tiny girl, I'd guess under two, ran up and gave Santa a hug! It was adorable!!! They had little bells on strings at the tables and when Santa got there a bunch of little kids took the bells to Santa!!! Hilarious!!!

Lots of crying kids!!!

Santa can be very traumatizing! I was traumatized by Santa once or twice!

When I was much younger, I was sitting in Primary, minding my own business! Nellie Holguin was my teacher. Unfortunately I was sitting next to the door when someone knocked on it, so I got to answer it!!! Much to my trauma...I opened the door to find Santa Claus leaning down to my height. Scared me to death!!!! Not a big fan of people in costumes!!! What made it worse was Santa had my mother's eyes!!!!

One little girl gave Santa her letter! This isnt' the little girl, but it is the letter in his hand.

Someone happily sitting on Santa's lap!

More Trauma!!!

My second traumatic experience with Santa: My Mom was Primary President and for the Ward Party the Primary was doing "Twas the Night Before Christmas" The El Rancho Choraleers came to sing while the primary children acted it out!!! Santa didn't show!!! Guess who got to be Santa!!!! The pains of being the Primary President's daughter!!

More happy faces!!!!

Needless to say, when I first saw this Santa...I was actually a little scared! The whole issue with people in costumes!!! I softened up and took him home with me!!!

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!!!

Great Quote

A friend posted this on Facebook and I thought it was something we should read everyday!

"There is a divine purpose in the adversities we encounter every day. They prepare, they purge, they purify, and thus they bless." James E. Faust

Catching Up!

This is a picture from our first snow. It didn't last very long! Melted the same day. Eddie's happy that we got dumped on this weekend, but we don't have pictures yet, cuz we need batteries!
On Friday, our beloved Elder Ben Major wed Tasha Johnson in the MT. Timp. temple. It was one of the best sealings I've ever witnessed. There weren't a lot of weddings that day, so the sealer was able to take a lot of time. It was awesome!!!! We got to see Elder Perruci at the reception that night. He got married 4 months ago. Eddie gave him a very bad time about not inviting us to the wedding!!!

On my way to California, the Camry hit 99,999 miles!
I was in Baker when it rolled over to 100,000! Great little car. It's taken us to Nauvoo twice and back and forth between California and Utah, and Pico Rivera and Reno a bunch of times!

This was in front of the house on the corner of 800 West and Center St. in Orem.

I didn't know the Who's dressed up for Halloween!

I loved passing this corner!!! Very festive!!!

I Spy Thanksgiving!

A Thanksgiving quiz!

What is this a picture of?

What was missing?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

This was my favorite costume at the ward party. Great Russell!!!
Cinderella! Her princess shoes even lit up blue!!!

This is little red riding hood. She had a crocheted cape with hood! Very cute!

This was the best!!! Pirate Mom and Dad! Little girl was the parrot!!!!

There's a family in the ward whose oldest boy is named Dash, so naturally they came as the Incredibles. This is Jack-Jack!

I went to Betty and Duane's for a while Halloween Eve. Adam and Tessa were a BYU football player and cheerleader. Very cute!

Tessa's a hoot!

The Queen Mum!

They went outside to go trick-or-treating and of course had to go and Ma & Pa's house first.

Cutest picture of the night!!!!

Trick - or - Treat!!!!

A definate Treat!

It's Autumn Time!

We have been up the canyon 3 times in the last week.
These first few pictures are from a week ago when we went to Heber.

Cool shot of the tunnel.

The colors are so pretty!

It was a nice little trip.

This is a house over by 400 West and 400 South. The first time I saw it there weren't any for sale signs for the pumpkins and I just thought it was a crazy halloween house.

Earlier this week we went back up to Heber. We actually drove through Wasatch State Park I think that's what it was. More cool colors.

The yellows, oranges and reds are so cool!

It was very pretty.

We stopped at the visitor center by a golf course and watched the ducks and geese.

They were cute. They do not like Tots!!!

Vibrant colors!

Today we had a High Priest social at Southfork! It was so pretty.

The weather was perfect!

We had delicious food! Cajun beans and rice!!!

The red on the mountains was so cool!

It was a pretty drive and it's amazing how the colors change in just a few days!

Welcome Fall!