Stake Conference

We had Stake Conference today. They called a new Stake Presidency; therefore, we had two general authorities attend: Elder Hammond of the Seventy and Elder Richard G. Scott of the Twelve. It was a great conference! Nevermind the fact that we had our alarm set to go off at 7:30 a.m. to allow us to get to the Stake Center and get great seats but it never went off and we actually woke up at 9:30--30 minutes before it started. Oops. No idea why the alarm didn't go off...part of me wants to think that the Lord was watching over me because I got little sleep last night and He was allowing me a few more hours...:-) just kidding. But, the funny part is, our friends who we were going to save seats for actually slept in as well...but we made it to our ward building and watched the conference via broadcast.

Anyway, there was a particular part of the conference that really stuck out to me. Elder Scott was speaking and he paused and said, "I'm going to do something out of the ordinary. I'd like to call on two people to come up here and help me, and both have no idea I am about to call on them." (Talk about holding your breath if you were in the congregation!) Well, he called on two daughters of the new stake presidency's families. So these two girls make it to the microphone and they couldn't have been more than 14 years old. So Elder Scott starts by asking, "(Name--I didn't catch it) How does your father show his love for your mother?" then he goes on to the next girl, "(Name--again, I didn't catch it) Does your family have family home evening?" He continues to go back and forth between these two girls from two different families, asking questions like, "Well who prepares the lesson in your family for FHE?", "Do you say prayers in your home?", "Do you say personal prayers?", "Why do you pray?", "I notice both of you are dressed modestly...is it hard to dress modestly?", "Why do you dress modestly?"...and then he invited the two girls to bear their testimony. (He goes, "Now, you don't have to, but I'd like to give you the opportunity to bear your testimony, would you like to bear your testimony?" The two girls just look at each other and go "Um..." I mean, what do you do?? It's not like you ca say no when a general authority asks you to and your called up on stage...)

So you get the extent of these questions. All I could think about is how on edge their parents must be as to what their daughters would say and if they have taught their daughters (and other children) appropriately. Can you imagine your daughter standing next to an Apostle when he asks "Does your family have FHE every Monday night?" and your daughter saying "No" or even if you don't and she felt like she should say yes, etc.

Anyway, the point is, there was absolutely no way for these two girls to be prepared for this encounter with Elder Scott and how grateful I'm sure they were, along with their parents, that they are studying the scriptures as a family, saying family and personal prayer, having FHE, and teaching their children WHY these things are important. As a new, new, new parent, this stuck out to me because I desperately want Isaac, and subsequent children, to be reared in the gospel of Jesus Christ and to know their Savior, and know that they are children of God and can kneel down in prayer and communicate with their Father in Heaven. And I wouldn't want an event, like having an Apostle ask the previous questions to my children, and my children go "Well, uh, not really." More importantly, the previous mentioned questions are things that I know will teach and prepare my children for life and the temptations they will undoubtedly face. I took the events of today as a reminder of how important it is to teach the gospel in our families and I'm grateful to have a worthy husband who feels the same way.