Mission Conference!

Do you ever have one of those super wonderful awesome perfect days? Today is one of mine! There are 140 of us missionaries serving in western Kentucky and middle Tennessee right now and we were so blessed today to join together for a conference where we heard from Elder D. Todd Christofferson, an apostle of God. Apostle you say? Like in the Bible? Apostles like Peter, James, Paul, and John? Yes! We have 12 living apostles on the earth today in the same order and organization that Christ established during His ministry!

(Picture taken by Kate Lifferth)



We only had a few hours to join together and listen to several talks shared by our Mission President and his wife, an area authority, and Elder Christofferson and his wife. We then had a chance to ask a few questions.

Most of what I learned during this meeting was the importance of spiritual preparation on a daily basis.

I have 2 hours set aside every day to study the scriptures and I have seen that time in my morning change my life. Sister Christofferson compared that vital scripture study time to charging a cell phone. If you don't charge the phone you can't talk on it! And if you don't study the scriptures you're not going to be prepared to hear God's answers to your prayers! Funny how I've been hearing that all my life but now it's really starting to sink in.

It's Gonna Take WORK!

Its been a while since I've had a chance to read Emily Anderson's blog, I just love that family so much! Since today is Thursday I have to join in on her weekly "embrace the camera" posts. A great part of my week was visting Timmy! The first Sunday of every month at our church is a bit different from the rest. Instead of having a regular planned program anyone who wants to share their testimony of the gospel of Christ can go up to the podium and share it with the rest of us.

Timmy gets up every month to share something that has strengthened his faith. This last time he shared his feelings on Elder Holland's talk from General Conference. He shared a very personal testimony of the importance of missionary work and echoed the call of Elder Holland for each young man to prepare himself to be worthy to serve a full time mission. We went over to Timmy's house that evening to thank him for his loving boldness and the man sure loves having a picture taken with his missionaries! Another fun thing, if you haven't heard the new cd The Work by the Nashville Tribute Band you better give it a listen! Timmy's favorite song is #8. Work. We dedicate it to him every time we sing along to it :)

I love having a little weekly reminder to share a picture from a great time in my week. What are you up to this week? Get out there and embrace the camera!!

Forget Not

Please allow me the chance right now to be the most corny and stereotypical Mormon blogger as possible.

The highlight of the General Relief Society broadcast this week was President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk about the things we should never forget. Click right HERE to watch it!

Yes. I think that it was extremely cheesey of me to make this little picture (and yes, I did do it with picnik! How did you guess??) but it really is a great reminder for me.

My heart was touched by the words that this Apostle of the Lord shared. Sisters we are often too hard on ourselves!

So the part of the talk where he mentions Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was probably my favorite. I grew up loving Roald Dahl's stories and I will now make it a goal to not focus so much on finding the perfect moments in life [golden tickets!]

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And instead enjoy the life [chocolate!] that those moments are found in!

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I know this little comparison is funny and I haven't had much time to really write out any deep or profound thoughts, but if it is good enough for President Uchtdorf then it is sure good enough for me!!

This weekend is General Conference, an opportunity to have 8 hours of wonderful spiritual upliftment just like this talk. Absolutely everyone is invited to attend or to watch via live streaming on the internet! You better believe it when I say that future blog posts are going to blossom from things I hear this weekend!