The Matthews Family: Sunday November 17

Today we had our ward conference.

I really enjoyed the messages we got today.

And I finally wised up and took some notes :)

Reading my notes is a different story.....

But Bishop Keller first spoke about the opposites he found in ready the story about the tree of life.

He talked about the one path to the tree of life vs the many paths leading away.

Satan does not care what path you take...as long as it doesn't lead to the tree of life!

Then he spoke about the sweet fruit of the tree vs the mocking and hate that comes from the great and spacious building.

My favorite opposite was that when Lehi reached the tree of life, he wanted to invite others to come with him.

In the building, they mocked and scorned everyone.

They weren't inviting, they were talking trash.

How much does that sound like the world today???

Then also when we reach the tree of life, we desire others to partake.

When you are on the other paths....you are wandering and lost......again, very much like the world today.

He gave us an invitation to make any changes we need to make to make sure we stay on the straight and narrow path!

President Keihl spoke about how we may feel inferior when there are so many things we should be doing and don't feel like we can keep up.

The Lord knows there is a season for everything.

What we may not be able to have time for right now, there will be time for that later.

If we turn to the Lord we will know that he understands that and that we just need to do our best.

He spoke about how important it is to pray to Heavenly Father about what he wants us to do NOW in the season we are in.

We need to keep our priorities in alignment with the divine truths.

He ended by giving us a quote that was said by a member of our ward that passed away last year from cancer.

He said that he always strived to make a situation better by his presence.

Man, if we could all have that as a goal, how great would that be!!!!

His invitation was for us to try and have a daily devotional experience, and then to report back to the Lord at the end of the day.

They got the Youth together and had to stake YM leader speak.

He spoke about loving one another and laying down our lives.

He talked about the Good Samaritan story.

A line he said really hit me.

If the youth could just take this and run with it, this world would be a different pace very quickly!

He said, 'When you find someone in a 'ditch' that is not the time to judge or assume, it's time to show love.'

We do so much judgment of our fellow men.

We assume what peoples motives are.

But why can't we just love.

Why can't we do as the Good Samaritan did and go out of our way to help those who are struggling!

President Loveland spoke after him.

He shared the two scriptures, 1 Nephi 3:7 "I will go and do."

and 1 Nephi 4:6 "I was led, not knowing."

Both these scriptures seem opposite at the beginning.

But the more you think about it, they are both speaking of Faith.

He shared a story from his sons mission.

He had an investigator who really wanted to attend church, but because of a medical condition he could not.

When he had to go to the bathroom, he couldn't hold it, it just came out.

So the missionaries prayed and the first thing that popped in their head was to find adult diapers.

They are in Mexico city and it was almost 9 at night on a Saturday.

They didn't think they would find.

But they went and they did.

He talked about Nephi in 1 Nephi 17:7, he was probably all cozy in bed when he was asked to go up into the mountains.

At that moment when he was asked to go into the mountain, he didn't ask 'Why?'....he just went and he did as he was asked.

He was led without knowing.

In that same scripture it says that he went to the mountain and he cried unto the Lord.

Pres Loveland shared and I agree, that when he cried unto the Lord, that was probably when he was like "Why did you have to pull me out of my warm bed right now???"

The message being that it is okay to ask why...why the Lord has asked something of you....BUT it was After Nephi got up and did what he was asked, THEN he asked why.

I just love that.

We must listen to the Lord, and act immediately.

Then if we still need more information, that is when we can ask.

But we must Go and Do first!

We must allow ourselves to be led without knowing right away the why's.

Personally I can see this apply to the Youth and the world today.....

So many things we are asked to do or not do without knowing the why.

We will get hose answers.

But we must get up, go and do and be led without knowing.

We must have trust in the Lord and have Faith that his plan has a purpose and that you will be happy at the end if you will just go and do :)

After church I had a meeting for my YW girls.

Then I went on visits with my Stake YW counterpart.