Thursday, April 8, 2010

My Cup Runneth Over

As I listen to a beautiful arrangement of "For the Beauty of the Earth" I am overcome by feelings of gratitude for the beautiful earth that our Heavenly Father has created for us.  The spring time here in Maryland is beyond description.  All of the blossoms bursting in their various colors (popcorn popping according to Madelyn)  The lush green, and all the blissful sounds of so many different kinds of birds I never knew existed.

I am also grateful for the spiritual recharging I got from Conference.  I still feel the uplifting messages in my heart even days after they were delivered and they give me hope for the future.  In spite of all the chaos and calamity in the world I feel so blessed to have a family that I love and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have been blessed with a beautiful wife and equally beautiful children.  Is it any wonder that the family is central to the plan of happiness.

Monday, April 5, 2010

General Conference April 2010

General Conference this year was by far one of the best ever for me.  I got to watch every single session including Priesthood.  The kids were relatively cooperative so I only missed a moment here and there and with DVR I could rewind.  I can't wait for next month's Ensign to come out so I can reread all of the talks.  Every talk was very good.  Elder Neil L Anderson (who will be speaking at our Stake Conference in two weeks) told us that there are no assigned topics so each speaker chooses their own topic.  As such it's not surprising that many of the same topics were covered by multiple people but they were all great AND clearly those topics were important since many were inspired to speak on the topics.

I plan to read or listen to at least one talk each day until I've gone through all of the talks again and some will be worth doing this two or three times.

I was so excited to get home from Priesthood and share the talks with Liz on Saturday night.  I knew that she would be anxious to hear what we heard and that just added to my own excitement to share the wonderful messages I got to here first hand.

When Carter turns 12 I am going to take him to Salt Lake for the Priesthood session.  By my calculations that will be April 2013.  I hope that both Grandpa's will be able to attend with us but I will certainly make it happen for Carter and I.  Living where we do it's much easier to get tickets to Conference so that part won't be a problem, we'll just have to save up for the plane tickets.

Even writing about it now I am overcome with the wonderful spirit I felt at this April Conference.  I am so grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the blessings of the restored gospel.