Stake Conference March 2011

Today was our Stake Conference in the Mesa West Stake. Our visiting General Authority was Elder Marlin K Jensen. He was amazing. He spoke last night at the Adult session with such ease and very little hearted. Then again today he spoke about testimony and the stories he shared we wonderful!

One experience he shared.... when his kids were younger they showed up to fast and testimony meeting with papers. As they sat for sacrament he asked them what the papers were for. They replied "Testimony Bingo". Elder Jensen said that in that moment he could have told them all to put it away and sit reverent or he could see how it all played out. Obviously testimony bingo is where you write down members in the ward who you think will go up and bare their testimonies. Once you get 5 in a row you win.

He said that after the first 12 testimonies were bore, his youngest child who was 9 at the time was the first to win. He went home that night and told his children that they could no longer play testimony bingo, but he though it was amazing that even at 9 yrs old his daughter paid that much attention to the testimonies month after month to know those who would go up and bare their testimonies.

One of the thinks that Elder Jensen encouraged us to do over and over that struck home because it can go for any subject that we could be struggling with. He said .....If you want to know gospel principles ....THEN DO THEM!
He said that the only way we can know things for ourselves is to start living them today! I know I have heard this before but today it struck home!


I have to say that today was one of the best Stake Conferences I have ever been to because of two speakers. For some reason the General Authorities asked us to have to young speakers today. The first one was a little girl who was 9 years old. She hesitated going up to the stand. I really thought she might run off the pulpit, but quite the opposite. She walked up to the mic and started her talk. She spoke for about 5-10 minutes and memorized the whole thing! It was a beautiful talk where she compared her love for Snap dragon flowers to her love of the Savior! I know by the end of her talk the spirit was so strong, there were many people crying in the chapel.

The next speaker was a young man who was 16 yrs old and he was asked to speak on the For Strength of Youth pamphlet. He gave multiple examples of how it relates and helps his life but the thing that stuck out to me the most was when he said "when I read the for strength of youth pamphlet I should be reading about my life" 

I LOVE how he said that. I think that even as adults and parents that pamphlet should still be a book about us and something to guide us through these hard times. I hope that when my kids are in their teenage years they look at this pamphlet as a book about them as well!