October 2018 General Conference

This past weekend was General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

 With new revelations comes changes.  I have never been good with changes.  Not even good ones.  I usually use the example of Rexburg, Idaho in these cases to prove how bad I am at good change.

 I went to Ricks College (before it changed into BYU-Idaho) and it changed my life spiritually.  I am in love with Idaho, to this day, because of it.  So, after graduating from Ricks College and having to leave that wonderful place, you would think I would do anything to get back there, right?  And in words, I would!  David applied just after we first got married and got accepted (we were living in Utah at the time) to BYU-Idaho.  But all of a sudden I had to talk myself out of telling David all the reasons we should NOT move to Idaho.  Yes, that is how bad I am with change.

So, new good changes were made at conference and I was nervous.  So much so, that I had David give me a blessing because I knew these new changes would require more from me than anyone out of my family.

But I am doing it and hope to continue to do so.

 Before I go into one of the things that I have learned, I wanted to share this picture.  It goes perfectly and our family got it just in time for this post.  A while ago, my neighbor gave this tree to our family.  It is made of wire that came out of the temple.  The temple that David and I were married in.  The temple, that now David is working in restoring.  So this little tree means a lot to me.

A few days later, I thought I would ask a friend from church to make me a pot to put it in.  When she came back with her work of art, I almost felt guilty with having David glue this tree in and then cover it with the sand and shells that we took from our vacation at Dauphin Island, Alabama.  The inside of it is beautiful!

I love this tree so much.  It tells a story of our time here in Oklahoma.

It also makes me think of the Tree of Life, spoken of in The Book of Mormon.

So when President Nelson asked us to read The Book of Mormon by the end of this year, I started on it that night.  Just within a few pages of beginning it, is the story of the Tree of Life.

It hit me hard as felt it described my life and so many other people that I know who try hard to follow Christ through many trials.

1 Nephi 8:5-12

5 And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me.

6 And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him.

7 And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.

8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.

9 And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field.

10 And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.

11 And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen.

12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy

There are some people who know suffering for the majority of their lives even when following Christ.  They know joy here and there but as much as they pray for it to go away, the depression or illness or loneliness or whatever it is that they suffer from just doesn't go away wholly.

And the hard part to accept from this is that it won't until they leave this life.   And they have to live this life just having faith in that very realization.  

But they also have joy in that very realization.