Bicycles and Walking Shoes: 4/27/15 Stake Conference

I LOVE Saturday session of stake conference! I mean, Sunday session is good, but the adult Saturday session was just so powerful and spirit-packed it was amazing. I'm not sure if they were just following the trend of General Conference or the Spirit really needs to drill this in, but the theme throughout the whole thing was on families, marriage, and temples. Seriously, it was powerful. Sister Gonzalez and I both had the same thought as we drove home: something big and and bad has to be coming. What in the world lies in the future for the family, if so many of the Lord's chosen revelators and seers are drilling this into us? But then I started thinking about the past two weeks, and I realized: oh, the attack has already begun. We are helping 2 less actives who are dealing with getting a divorce and watching it slowly drive them further and further away from peace and the Spirit has been really hard. I love both couples so much, the husbands and the wives, and it hurts. But through the hard times, both of the women are turning into the Lord for help. One of our investigators is considering divorce. Most of our investigators and several of our recent converts and less actives are single parents, or have only single parents. Oh, no wonder.

I loved how the focus for Sunday session was the temple. We need to have the temple as a focus in our lives. Our children need to know the temple is important to mom and dad and they need to know it is important to them as well. I need to be better at going to the temple on a regular basis when I get home. The things that it teaches and what it reminds us off is that families are forever. Families are vital for our Father's eternal plan for us. Families are the most important social unit in time and eternity. Families are a place of peace and safety and learning. Families will not be easy or always joyful or love-filled, but they are always essential for the joy that we can expect when we cross that heavenly finish line. The goal is not to win the race first, but to get everyone across. And the temple is the booster engine forward, and seat belt that holds us in, together, and safe. I am so grateful for the family I have. That my parents love each other and that we never had a doubt about it. That we are sealed together for time and eternity. That I was born in the gospel and my parents taught us that gospel daily through example; their devotion to God, each other and us. One day, I will make those same commitments to my own husband, and I will never let anything come between me and those commitments I made to him and to God. I want to live like my parents, so one day, we can be next door neighbors in the Celestial Kingdom :)

Sister Garver