I Love General Conference

I LOVE General Conference! I love the way it makes me feel - motivated, rejuvenated, empowered, humbled, inspired, more loving, more loved. I feel the Holy Ghost, and I feel my testimony grow each time. I love it! I actually did get to go to the Conference Center this year for the Young Women general broadcast, (but this is just a random picture off the internet).

I always try to make General Conference special for my girls too. I know most of what is said is over their heads, but if they'll just stick around I think they'll feel the spirit of it. And hopefully, the excitement of Conference treats and Conference traditions will later evolve into an overall excitement and love for General Conference. We don't make them stay and watch, but these past two conferences they have chosen to watch most of it.

This General Conference we did something I've wanted to do for a long time (and something I think we'll do forever after) - we put up our big huge camping tent in the family room. This was awesome - the girls LOVED it and honestly, I was just as excited! Of course this was not an original idea, but we were being like King Benjamin's people when they faced the doors of their tents toward the temple to hear him speak. On Saturday morning we gave the girls little treasure chests filled with treats and conference activities. Then we asked them to listen for "treasures" as they watched conference and to fill their treasure chest up with those real treasures. (That activity lasted about half way through the first session, but it was cute while it lasted.) Here is one of Ellie's treasures: "President M is nis & sili"

We slept in our conference tent Saturday night (or should I say the girls slept, and Aaron and I tossed and turned until we finally got in our own bed at 5:30am).

Our camping tent is HUGE - it sleeps probably 10 people. So, we put some comfy chairs in there while we watched. In this picture, Aubree is singing the hymn opera style and cracking up Carly and Ellie. :)

Rough Economy

Right now Aaron and I are trying to decided where we want to end up in the near future. Gratefully, Aaron still has a job - there are so many people in this sort of field (landscape architecture) without jobs right now - a little scary! In fact, in the past month the firm Aaron works for has laid off about 7 people and Aaron's entire group got 10% pay cuts and 36 hr. work weeks. (I'm excited about the 36hr work week, but trying not to think about the pay cut.) Aaron is so talented and such a hard worker, but if there's no work, there's no work and they have to let even good employees go. Aaron's pretty sure the lay off's aren't over. We're trying to be optimistic, but we also have to be realistic and plan for if he lost his job.

(I tried to upload some of Aaron's work, but the files are too big I think. So, hopefully I'll be able to put them up in a future post.)

Aaron's dream has always been to teach at BYU-I someday (which is why we did the master's program in Moscow, only now BYU-I really encourages new hires to have a doctorate). So, we've been looking into some PhD programs hoping to find one that will allow him to get the degree without having to be on campus and still be able to keep his job here (not much luck with that). We've actually looked into some of the PhD programs at the U of I. It would be really weird to go back there - not in a bad way - just weird because we never thought we would ever see Moscow, ID again and a lot of the friends we had there are gone now. The ONLY reason we would even consider a PhD is for Aaron to have the opportunity to teach at BYU-I. But, we obviously can't guarentee ourselves a job there just because Aaron has a PhD. It would be so awful to go back to school (the irregular hours, the homework, the loans, etc) and not get a job at BYU-I and then try to find another job (especially if the economy is still bad).

Aaron has talked with some of the professors at BYU-I to get their advice and feedback about getting a job there. They have asked him to come and teach (sub.) this coming fall and spring while one of the other teachers is taking a sabbatical. Sounds like a great opportunity but, we would be out of a job afterwards. So, Aaron has told them no. For now we're just going to stay with his job here (hoping it lasts).


It seems like a lot of the talks in this past conference were about making it throught these rough economic times. Here are a few things from Conference that really comforted me:

In Pres. Eyring's talk "Adversity" he spoke of a man who had recently lost
his job.

"When I asked his wife on the day he lost his job if she was worried, she
said with cheerfulness in her voice, 'No, we’ve just come from the bishop’s
office. We are full-tithe payers.' Now, it is still too early to tell, but I
felt assured as they seemed to be assured: 'Things will work
out.'"

I am grateful for the peace it brings me in knowing that we pay tithing! Even if we did lose our job and face some hard times, I know we would be okay.



In Elder Christofferson's talk "The Power of Covenants" he told of a family who had lost their home and ALL their belongings in an earthquake. When the wife was asked how she could still have a smile on her face, she said,

"I have prayed and I am at peace. We have all we need. We have each other,
we have our children, we are sealed in the temple, we have this marvelous
Church, and we have the Lord. We can build again with the Lord's help."

There were also so many talks about going to the temple. We don't need to be afraid if we are worthy to go to the temple and go often.

In Elder Stevenson's talk he said that even young children are encouraged to touch the temple because Pres. Monson said, "as we touch the Temple, the Temple will touch us". So, for FHE this week we took the girls to Temple Square and let them touch the temple.

Carly

Ellie

General Conference Favorite

Sunday Morning Session - "Finding Joy in the Journey" - President Monson



“I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and non-existent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now.



"[From The Music Man:] ‘You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays.’


“If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.


“Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume…”