General Conference is my FAVORITE!!!!

 Since the time I was  at least 12, perhaps earlier, my family has had a fun tradition at the time for the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
  For those who aren't familiar with this, every six months in April, and in October  all of our church  in the world meets together (via satellite broadcast, Internet, TV broadcast, or for those  who can come live in the conference center in salt lake as obviously 14 Million plus people cant all be in one place at once) to hear the words of the Prophets, Apostles, and other leaders of our church. 
  So the fun tradition usually involved food. My mom said since we were having a spiritual feast, we would also have a physical feast. My earliest memories involve conference bingo with m&ms . we played bingo to listen for common words or phrases in conference, when it was over we ate the m&m markers. As I got older it evolved into everyone getting to pick their favorite food, and my mom would cook it and we would have a feast while we watched.  Over time I became more interested in what was being said, then in the food. But we always had a lot of friends over to our house to watch conference. I love this. I love being gathered with others to listen to the words of the prophet
  Now I live far from my family, and I still carry on the tradition of the double conference feast. I decided the words should be the most important part so i try to get the food out before so its not so distracting. But as I had my friends over i really enjoyed the time we spent together.  This weekend I loved listening to the talks as always, because as always it related to things that I knew me and my friends needed to hear. 
  There was a talk about single parents, especially single moms. I have a lot of friends that are single moms, and it was so neat to hear the words of support and comfort to them. I have a friend that has a 17mo old son who has a very aggressive cancer.(See http://ourbravelittlelion.org/)  there were many talks that talked about sickness, and trials and shared very similar and applicable  stories and council for those struggling like my friend with such trials.  I cried as I thought of my friend, and was grateful for the words mentioned in the talks.  There were a TON of talks about the importance of family. At least twice it was said that "Families are the most important unit in time and eternity"  As we see the break down and decay of society around us, the lack of frame work that comes from good families that love each other and work for each other is apparent.  They talked alot about Grace, Jesus Christ, and his atoneing sacrifice for us, to over come trials, sin, and also to forgive and love  others. That was another prevalent theme. My favorite talk on this subject was by President Dieter F Uchtdorf  of the first presidency of the church. His simple council was to love one another, forgive one another, and if there is hate, envy, gossip, or hurtfulness toward others simply to "Stop it". Sister Julie b Beck talked about the wonderful and amazing things that women can do if we will catch vision of what we are supposed to be. It was two days , six hours of talks and singing by the Mormon Tabernacle choir. The song Come Thou Fount  was one of my favorite sung, and filled my heart with joy.  
   I know these men and women are inspired by God, their messages, if listened to, and followed would add greater strength to families and societies all over the world if headed, by members of my church, and non members alike. If you haven't had a chance to hear any of these talks, Check it out  http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2012/04?lang=eng.
 I know that last April the words at spoken at this conference changed my life, it made me a better, less selfish, more forgiving, more loving of my family and friends kind of person, and I hope that I will apply the words I heard this weekend to do even better.  I love you all, and am grateful that God does indeed still speak to his children and give us direction, love and truth today. And I am grateful that so many friends came over this weekend to watch, and to eat food from Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia, and Poland with me. It truly was a feast in ever sense of the word.

Singles and Self Marketing: Am I Date-able?

occasionally I have days, Usually when I am sleep deprived and feeling particularly unattractive, where I ask myself questions like am I date-able? or am I marriage material? I think this is a question all single people ask themselves every now and again, hopefully not super frequently, because you should really not over dwell on that, but it is a good thing to consider every now and again if improvements in your character and personality can be made. 
I had this confirmed tonight as not just a girl problem when a guy friend of mine (not who all you out here are thinking I promise, it was a surprise one.) texted me to ask if he was Date-able.  In conjunction with this topic, a few days ago I had a discussion with a friend about how sometimes I feel like I spend all my time and energy having fun and socializing, and I wish I had something of more importance to do with my life, like take care of cute little kids of my own. 
 My friend at this moment chose to point something out to me, and that is, if I want to get married and have kids, then right now I need to be having fun, socicalizing, and developing talents so someone wants to marry me. basically she said, I am doing what I need to, and publishing it on facebook and in blogs is really a form of marketing. Previous to that I had mentioned a conversation with another friend. Last week this other friend mentioned how people like to make up stories and talk about her and her personal life, because she doesn't share that with them. 
What I learned in my studying of political science is that interacting with others is politics, whether it is trying to get something you want from someone else, trying to convince the opposite sex to date you, or marry you, convince people to be your friend, or to not be friends with your enemy (if you have enemies, I don't), or just trying to get people to spend time with you, or help you do your calling and give a lesson, all of it is politics.
 we need conflict resolution skills just as sharp as the U.N.,  We must do P.R. as great as any ad agency. I must be as good a spin doctor as any politician on The Hill.  If I don't want people to fill in the details of my personal life with those they imagine, I must give them enough to satisfy human curiosity, but not so much as to  be TMI, and then they will leave me alone. If I want someone to date me, or be my friend I must present myself as such a person as people enjoy spending time with. now, all of this may seem a bit fake, but in reality you can be your total real self, and be honest, but you do not have to show your whole self to everyone all at once.
 Being single you must master self-marketing, putting forth your best qualities, and improving upon them constantly so that they are seen, and taking your worst qualities, and editing them out of your life, and your strange qualities that you want to keep, and keeping them only for your VIP club of most trusted friends and associates, because if you want to keep those qualities, the person who you marry, and your closest friends will have to love that part of you, but sometimes its best to take your time and see if they can be trusted with those most sacred parts of your personality, rather than "casting your pearls before swine"  this is my observation this week. 
So my single friends, good luck, as my friend told me that night, being single is a part time job. time to forget yourself and get to work, and go have fun till you drop, just make sure you post it on Facebook, so those nights you went to things even though you wanted to stay home, sleep, and be a hermit are not in vain. But remember, the most important thing is to become like the kind of person you are looking to marry, to become like the kind of people you want to be friend with, because as it says in Doctorine & Covenants 88:40 " For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things."