Not Perfect, Just Complete: My Thoughts on the General Women's Conference

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.

Awarding Journalism

So, I just found out I won an award — Kind of.

An unsigned House Editorial I wrote for BYU's Universe just won second place for Best Editorial for the House from the Utah Press Association, as reported by The Daily Universe.

I'm actually more excited than I probably should be, but I wanted to get this down somewhere so I wouldn't forget. Here's the link to the story, it's called "In the Midst of Adversity." This is one of my more serious articles, written after the Colorado shooting. The words, often, are not all my own as I pray earnestly whenever I need to write such a serious piece. I'm glad to know I was able to give some comfort to those who suffered so much.

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In the midst of adversity: 

Finding strength when trials weigh us down

The memory of last week’s theater shooting in Colorado will linger, though there has been some time since the tragic events of late last week.

It’s hard to forget the thought of a man with no motive sneaking into a sold-out movie theater and murdering, in cold blood, 12 innocent moviegoers and injuring over 70 more. For the survivors, this memory will never fade away.

At this time, we choose not to give a detailed play-by-play of the events that day. Enough time has been spent in recreating the horrible moment with unnerving detail.

Instead, we choose to focus on the road ahead, as it will be a rocky one.

The event echos much of the fear and suffering caused by a previous Colorado shooting, the one at Columbine High School. In a letter written just after that tragic event, a teacher described what the current victims and their families must be feeling: ”We have a long and uncharted road ahead emotionally. Each day is literally taken now one at a time. The worst part of the day, dear family and friends, is the wake-up moment. From some sleep and peace comes this horrible rush as everything returns again — the emotions, the fears, the restlessness.”

All of us, those close to the event and those far removed, will experience — to some degree — this “horrible rush as everything returns again.” If not now, there will be a time when an event like this touches you. Such is the world in which we live.

One morning, while traveling down this “uncharted road,” you may wake up to this rush of memories and cry out in burst of carefully bottled pain, “Lord, why me?”

There is nothing wrong with coming to this moment. There is nothing wrong with feeling this pain. But it times of absolute grief, in times of desperate anguish, we urge you — as the popular phrase states — to drop to your knees when it becomes too hard to stand.

Just after Columbine, John Bytheway visited those who at witnessed the shootings. He said he struggled to find something to say to those who had seen so much pain in such a small time, but he shared with them his testimony: “If our testimonies are strong on this point and if we feel the absolute assurance that God loves us, we will change our questons. We won’t ask, ‘Why did this happen?’ or ‘Why doesn’t God care about me?’ Instead, our questions will become, ‘What can I learn from this experience?’ or ‘How does the Lord want me to handle this?”

It is hard to imagine good coming from such an event as this, but just as persecution grew the faith and testimonies of the early saints, tragedy — when handled well — can grow our own faith and testimony.

This moment will not come quickly, however. The pioneers, one of our examples of faith in the face of much adversity, learned this lesson countless times. Though falling on one’s knees for strength can fix you in a moment, it is a repeated series of prayer, study and faithful activity that leads to being healed.

Directing faith toward the Lord will lend a peaceful state of mind. Putting trust in Him, through a repetition of that series of prayer, study and faithful activity, will begin a healing process.

While in Jackson County, Missouri, Joseph Smith was given a revelation meant to strengthen the saints during that challenging time. Doctrine and Covenants 58:3-4 states: “Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings.”

We urge you in times of uncertainty and pain, as we are currently experiencing, to momentarily casting off your “natural eyes.” We ask that you look to the world around you with a mind aimed toward the will of our Heavenly Father. He knows your pains and your struggles, and though it hurts him to see you struggle, he knows your potential and knows the glory you will receive if you make it through your tribulation well.

Our prayers and our hearts go out to all those affected by the Colorado shooting. We ask all students, staff and faculty to remember the victims in their own prayers and to reach out to any who need their help. Most of all, we urge all who are struggling during this time, whether because of the events in Colorado or for some other reason, to petition to their Father in Heaven and ask him to help bear your burden.

May God be with us all.

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After I wrote that editorial, I received a very kind note from Rich Wager of BYU Auxiliary Services. Since kind words in response to opinion columns come few and far between, I hope he won't mind me sharing what he said in response, so I will never forget.

Dear Allie,

I want to thank you for the editorial you wrote after the shootings in Aurora, CO. I was very impressed with the direction you took in the editorial. With the call to faith you invoked for all of us. Even though we were not in the theater when the shooting commenced, it does affect each one of us. You brought that out very effectively in your editorial.

The peace and faith we seek so earnestly, comes and goes as experiences happen to each of us. Through faith, we may be able to keep peace around longer. In the end it appears that peace and faith depend more upon our inner souls than on what is happening in the world. Trust in the Lord seems to help that happen.

Thank you for the editorial. It personally helped me to be a better person. I appreciate your insights and thoughts.

May the good Lord bless you and your family.

Thank you.

Rich Wager
BYU-Student Auxiliary Services

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I can honestly say that a day does not go by where I don't miss working for that paper. I learned so much and grew so much as a person. There are a million things I would do differently if I could go back, most pertaining to my maturity and ability to deal with people, but there are billions of experiences I wouldn't give up for the world.

DU Staff, April 2012

Food for Thought

I've been having some doubts about decisions Garrett and I have been making in the past few weeks. The talk "Cast not away therefore your confidence" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland are a must read.

"It would not have been better to stay and serve the Egyptians, and it is not better to remain outside the Church nor to reject a mission call nor to put off marriage and so on and so on forever. Of course our faith will be tested as we fight through these self-doubts and second thoughts. Some days we will be miraculously led out of Egypt--seemingly free, seemingly on our way--only to come to yet another confrontation, like all that water lying before us. At those times we must resist the temptation to panic and to give up. At those times fear will be the strongest of the adversary's weapons against us." -- Jeffrey R. Holland