Saturday I got the wonderful experience to view the General Women's Broadcast. It was seriously amazing — not just because of the spirit. Here are a list of things I loved about the conference.
1. Holy #Hashtag — literally. In the opening sequence where they show Temple Square and all of the pretty flowers and such there was a grayed out hashtag in the bottom left corner of the screen. Don't believe me:
I love the Church's effort to reach out through social media. If you for some reason cannot watch conference next weekend, check out the hashtag #TwitterStake or #LDSConf. I truly believe that the internet is one of those miracles that, though dangerous at times, can do so much to hasten the work.
2. Adorable 8-year-olds. Seriously guys. Meetings just got 10x cuter. I don't know what my favorite part was— watching the choir moms sing with their arms around their daughters, the Beehive that gave a totally bomb opening prayer (Beehives are 12, btw) or the other Beehive who played the violin better than I ever could.
Actually, It was probably during Sister Wixom's talk. She asked all of the 8, 9, 10 and 11 year old girls — those who had never attended a meeting like this — to stand up and sing a song she was going to hum the melody to. Almost instantly, all the adorable little girls in the conference center, and the more adorable girls in the Stake Center where I was, started singing "Teach Me to Walk in the Light." Their little voices joined together in a strong choir of tender testimony. Next, Sister Wixom asked everyone else in the room, while these young girls remained standing, to sing the second verse of the song. The first line really stuck out to me:
"Come little child, and together we'll learn."
The song doesn't say "Come and I'll teach you everything." It says that we learn things together. In other words, I have just as much to learn from those 8, 9, 10 and 11 year old girls as I have to teach them. Probably more.
3. Spiritual Multimedia. I already brought up the Twitter hashtag they had, which was incredible, but the Multimedia Department of the Church was busy before conference. They had two amazing videos that still made me cry this morning when I watched them again. The first was of women from all around the world singing "I am a Child of God" in their native tongue. From little children to adults, it reminded us that we are all children of God no matter our age.
The other video showed the stages of a woman's life from baptism until death. I can't do it justice writing anything here. Please take a moment to watch them. I was in tears.
4. Striving for Completeness. Sister Burton talked about the rich man who wanted eternal life, but wasn't willing to sell all his things and join Christ in his journey. At one point, Christ tells the man to "Be Perfect." Being perfect is normally something that gets all the women feeling really down on themselves and beating themselves up — but it doesn't have to be that way. Perfect, in that passage, was translated from the Greek word meaning Complete. All the Lord asks is that we try to be complete.
5. The Spirit. There was such a special spirit during that meeting. I am so grateful I went. I am grateful for living prophets and apostles who help guide and direct us. I'm grateful there are sisters like Sister Wixom, Oscarson and Burton who take so much of their own time to strengthen others. I am ready to start working to be better.
If you ever have any questions about my beliefs (I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) please feel free to ask me. Or you can press the button on the side column. That will lead you to Mormon.org, which is an awesome resource for any questions you may have but are too afraid to ask.
And, don't forget to join us for General Conference next weekend. All the details can be found here.
