Thursday morning I got a call from my relief society president asking me if I would like to go to the conference center in Salt Lake city, for the general Relief Society meeting. I said that I would love to go, but that it would depend on whether I can find someone to watch my five kids. So I tried getting a couple of young women from our ward, but they were busy. And anyone else that I could think of that I would ask to watch my kids, should be going to the meeting too. So I asked Kyle if he would just ASK his manager if they could work something out that Kyle could be home Saturday afternoon so I could go. Well I got really lucky, because Kyle’s manager told him he could just take Saturday off. So Kyle was home to watch our kids, and I got to go to the meeting with some other women in our ward.
It was just wonderful to sit in the conference center, undistracted by kids or anything else. And it was just beautiful to sing with and hear all the women that filled the conference center, singing “There is Sunshine in My Soul Today” (Hymn 227).
I’ll just share a couple of things that seemed to be directed at me and caught my attention during the meeting:
- Eliminate the non-essential things in our lives
So often we get caught up in all the things we have to do, that we either don’t have time, or forget to do the things that are most important. And personally I know that there is too much clutter in my house, and it seems to suck up a lot of my time and my energy and my happiness. It’s just got to go!
- Visiting teaching needs to me more of a way of life than just a task.
It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking ‘well I already visited my sisters this month, so I’ve DONE my visiting teaching’ when really we should be looking out for our sisters, and being their friend all the time. And I just wish my visiting teachers would just VISIT me, let alone anything else. Sad huh?
After the meeting, everyone in the conference center stood to watch the first presidency leave the room. A whole bunch of sisters were waving at the prophet, and he waved back. So more ladies waved, and he waved back. So President Monsen waved at the choir, and they waved back. And so he waved to different sections of the conference center, and in turn each section waved back. It was so cute, and just a wonderful experience to be there tonight.