A District-wide Conference

This past weekend was our Stake Conference, but not of the usual variety. This was a temple district-wide conference (that's 88 stakes) that was broadcast via SLC. We had a similar conference two years ago, but it was only regional. This was for the majority of Arizona.

This time around our speakers were: Elder Bruce C Hafen (of the 70), Sis Lifferth (of the Gen Primary Pres), Elder Jensen (of the 70, but not Merril C. from Huntsville, UT), and Pres. Boyd K. Packer. I took copious notes (in the dark) for Eric, he was home sick and kept the girls with him-sweet man. I was touched by what was said in both the broadcast as well as our local adult session Saturday night. I'd like to share some of my impressions here.

From our adult session, I took away the following:

• The temples of the world are distinctive, they are in stark contrast to the outside world; they are Zion in the midst of Babylon. And to seek for the quiet moments in our lives to make our commitments to Zion absolute.
• Strengthening Families (Mom, they used your favorite scripture from Proverbs: "A soft answer turneth away wrath, ...")
• Coming unto Christ through our trials
• Service: if we fail to serve, we fail to receive the fullness of the gospel.
• And our stake president (who was left with 5 minutes instead of 20) encouraged us to go and read N Eldon Tanner's talk entitled "Consistency Among Change"

From Sunday's session:

• They all spoke a great deal about Pres Spencer W Kimball
• Sacrifice
• Our relationship with our Heavenly Father
• Lessons from Lehi and his family's travels: scriptures, marriage/family, the Liahona.
• Pres. Packer left us all with a special blessing, it meant a great deal to those of us in attendance.