General Conference – April 2016

Today was the second day of General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In all there were six sessions during which there were excellent speakers and music. The first session was held on March 26^th and was specifically for the girls and women of the Church from age 8 and up. There were two general sessions and then a session for the men and youth ages 12 and up on Saturday. Today, there were two general sessions.

Thanks to technology, we don’t have to wait for videos to become available in order to watch Conference. If a member is not in Salt Lake City, they have the option of watching it on television (in some areas), satellite (if you live near a chapel that has one), and internet (high speed is the best choice although there could still be some glitches). Over the internet, you have your choice of lds.org, The Mormon Channel, U-Tube, and BYU Television.

One of the best things that happened today was that President Thomas S Monson announced that there will be 4 new temples built, two in Brazil, one in Peru, and one in Zimbabwe. As of two weeks ago, there are 150 operating temples throughout the world.

One of the speakers spoke on service and, in particular, assisting refugees. He gave some ideas of community service for both locally that can be done by local members and world wide project, one of which was announced last week, labelled “I Was A Stranger”.

The final speaker spoke on adversity and the need for it. Adversity helps us to become the people that we should be. Without adversity, we would never stretch our limits.

If you want to watch and find out what was taught, the videos are now all online at lds.org. Enjoy.

The Drive Home

Earlier today, I drove into Grand Falls-Windsor from Gander. It usually takes approximately an hour to do so. I had a number of things that I needed to attend to, the last of which was to watch a recording of the women’s session of General Conference for church which took place last Saturday. If there is a broadcast slated for anything after 6 pm Central Time, we make arrangements to get together within a few days to watch the video. Since today was the day that we planned to do this, I decided to go into Grand Falls-Windsor to do the other things that I had to do. A couple of them did not take very long, but another visit that I wanted to do would take perhaps an hour, maybe more. I was able to complete the smaller tasks, but, unfortunately, I was not able to do the last task. Someone else was to be involved with it and, because I had a problem contacting this person, I was not able have a meeting with her.

In the meantime, Samantha called me to see if I could give her a ride to the Chapel on my way in. She did not realize that I was already there and we made arrangements for me to meet her at her house.

Because we have a member that lives in Gander but spends part of her workweek in Grand Falls-Windsor, the decision was made to have a potluck supper before watching the video so that Evelyn would not have to go all the way to Gander and back. Evelyn was looking forward to this activity. However, something came up so that she was unable to attend.

Samantha and I had a good visit while we were waiting for others to arrive. We had five women ready to sit down when we received confirmation of Cathy coming. We felt that we would not have enough for all of us, so the decision was made to order in a pizza. Cathy arrived just as we were ready to eat, so we started with what we had and the pizza arrived about 15 minutes later. We finished our meal with banana bread, maple mini cupcakes, and apple pie.

Within 15 to 20 minutes, we had everything cleaned so that we wouldn’t have to do it late and started the video. It was agreed that all of us enjoyed it. It was worth the effort that we made.

We walked out of the door about 8:30 pm and were greeted with about a half inch of snow on the ground. The car had to be cleaned off. I took Cathy and Samantha home, which was easy as they live on the same street. Then Henriette and I started the drive back to Gander. That’s when the “fun” started. It was dark. The snow was blowing. The road was potentially slippery. Most of the trip was done at less than 80 kilometers per hour with a good chunk of time at just under 70 kilometers per hour. There was a couple of spots that I could go as high as 95 to 100 kilometers per hour. What should have taken approximately an hour took at least 90 minutes to do. We finally reached Gander and both gave a sigh of relief. We were blessed.

The next time this happens, I am going to a motel and calling my husband to tell him not expect us back until the next day.