"The Future is As Bright as Your Faith"

Our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has a semi-annual Conference where the leaders of our church speak to us and give us direction, counsel and messages that are inspired by God. Although I enjoyed many of the talks that were given, my favorite talk came from President Thomas S. Monson, Our Prophet. I just love President Monson, he is such a wonderful, inspired, positive person. I will paraphrase some of my favorite parts of his talk, and put in some of my own thoughts. He addressed the hard times that are in the world today. He said that many of us are going through hard times, challenges and tragedies, that are not easy. But we are on this earth to learn and grow. {We grow from having struggles and trials and overcoming them}. He said that we need to FOCUS on our BLESSINGS. That will help us get through the tough times.

He said Men are that they might have JOY. And that the Lord is with us and stands by us. He said we should make the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of our lives, so we can meet our struggles head on and come out triumphant. The gospel gives us strength. He quoted Jesus Christ and said, "Be of Good Cheer, for I have overcome the world". {This gives us strength because he knows exactly what we are going through. He suffered it all in Gethsemene. So we should never feel alone, because we are never alone. He knows us each personally.} This should give us faith, courage and determination. We receive peace and joy from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. This will help us be faithful and be true to the end. The gospel comforts and sustains us. My favorite part was..."Nothing in this world can overcome us. The future is as bright as your faith."

I also liked Dieter F. Uchdorf's talk, and especially when he said, "...Our Heavenly Father loves us, even with all of our flaws, even if we give up on ourselves, our Heavenly Father never will..." He also said, "It is always the right time to walk in His way, it is never too late." He also said, "Strengthen your family by commiting to live the gospel."
It was said in the afternoon session that Our Homes should be sanctuaries and be like the temple. A place of peace and comfort.

{We watched the first session on Sunday of General Conference live over the internet at byutv.org, in the comfort of our own home. :) Then we went over to have a special dinner with Mark's side of the family and then watch the second session with them.}

I really love Conference. It is always so uplifting, inspiring and wonderful. Everything that was said was things that we needed to hear at this time of confusion and struggles in the world. I appreciate the knowledge that I have that Jesus Christ's true church in on the earth, and that God still speaks to us in our personal prayers and through His prophet and leaders of His church. There is peace and comfort in studying the scriptures, and the direction you should be going is found in there also. I know that Christ suffered for all of our sins and that if we just look to Him, and rely on him for strength, we will be brought through any struggle or trial that we have on this earth.