BYU Women's Conference

On Thursday I was able to steal away for a day! I was able to attend the annual BYU Women's Conference. If any of you have been before you know how neat it is. And if you not gone before take your first chance to do so when you are not nursing (no babies or children allowed). It is such a fulfilling experience! It's a 2 day conference full of lectures, lessons, service, entertainment, food and socializing. It's wonderful!
I chose to go to the first day only. The parking is crazy, you get a work out from booking it across campus. I LOVE the BYU campus. It's beautiful, well manicured and I feel at home there. And there are A LOT of women of all ages and every stage of life. It's awesome!
They day started with a talk by Sherri Dew. I always love to hear Sherri Dew speak. She is so straightforward and honest. She spoke about the theme "Awake, Arise and Come unto Christ" She shared the "unvarnished truth" with us about being a woman in the Gospel. She mentioned several times that it is a process and that we "won't become perfect in this life" so "give it up, will ya," she reminded us. We need to arise, focus, minister, be pure, walk away from the worldly things, and look at the prophets for guidance not celebrities that clutter our magazines. She said there is no secret formula (though women are the Lord's secret weapon, you've heard her say that before) to hearing the spirit. She just said to go to the Temple, study the scriptures, and be pure. She mentioned that we, women, have the greatest influence on the world. That if we took out all the sleeze, immodesty, and other impure things the world would change overnight because of our power if would just "unleash" our power as women. I love Sherri Dew!

Then I attended 3 1-hour classes. The first was for young moms. I LOVED it! Just what I needed at this time in my life. In a nutshell they said that our children need to be first priority (like you and I were talking about the other night, Melissa) and that our "To-Do" lists need to include them first. And that we should care more about what the Lord thinks of us and not the other women in our ward. I am guilty of that....Another sister talked about her obsession with tennis. She was thinking about her ego more than her children. Even when she was home she was just there physically. "But how are we supposed to develop our talents while being a mom?" She wondered, as I do too. She knows are hobbies are good but they become bad when they take too much time away from our children. That's a hard one for me when I think of all things I could be doing to develop my talents in a bigger way than just at home. We need to joy in the journey of motherhood.

The 2nd class was about creating scripture traditions in the home. They were both great speakers and I don't want to go into a lot of detail but one said, "try not to become discouraged by setbacks [in patterns set up for scripture reading together] because it is not an event but a process." We need to search, ponder and pray. We can also use tools such as re-enacting the scriptures stories. Dress up and film them to help the children have fun and learn the stories at the same time. Buy them their own set of itty bitty scriptures. Those cheap covered handheld size. It's perfect for their little hands, even if they can't read them yet they feel like they're participating. This one family only took 4 minutes a day to read the scriptures. They chose one scripture for the week and each day they would do a "scripture dance" (they have an 8, 3, 1 year old), read the scripture, highlight it, talk about it briefly and then pray. The end. Pretty simple, right? We'll have to try that one.

The third class was about stress and it was my least favorite so I won't share anything.

Then President and Sr. Bateman spoke (previous Pres of BYU, GA emeritus and now Provo Temple President). They spoke about the importance of temple work. He compared the Temple to our homes. 1. It's quiet/soft voices. Harsh shrill voices do not mix with the spirit. 2. House of learning and training. It's important to teach our children in the home. Teach them tasks. 3. Every shift begins with prayer. Pray morning and night together. 4. Place of order. Everything has it's place and it's clean. And orderly home demands respect from the children. Later he spoke about a specific experience about a woman who did over 2500 temple ordinances!!!! Wow! But I was very touched by this story and realized the importance of doing work for the dead. Some have been waiting for a long time! It was a nice to hear them speak again. I saw them on campus, just walking through the Wilk one day when I was a student. They are a foot apart in height but they were holding hands and there was an aura around them. Like a halo of white light surrounding their whole personages. It was incredible to see. I know they are holy people.

After all of these uplifting, inspirirng and empowering lessons, I ate dinner (which was a little disappointing), did some service of assembling newborn kits and school kits and then saw a viewing of "Errand of Angels" which starred my friend Erin Chambers. Then after the show I was able to chat with her and her husband.

Although I went by myself, I wasn't lonely. Everyone was friendly and I got to choose which classes I wanted to go. And I after each one I saw a friend I knew! April Cobb, Brittany Hall and my cousin Lynette to name a few! It was fantastic! I am grateful to my husband who enjoyed the day with the kids. They were happy to see me but are more attached to Tyler now. It's great! Again, I apologize for this long post. I just wanted to share w/you some things that are on the minds of our great RS leaders. And go if you can next year!!!!! It's so worth the sacrifice!