women's conference

This post is a bit late, but a week ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend women's conference at BYU with some of my sisters and my mom. We had a great time. I will remember great speakers, hustling across campus to classes, mint brownies, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, shopping, being silly at all hours of the night, and fun memories with some of the best women I know. Whenever I get together with my sisters I am always acutely aware of my sisters who weren't there and it makes me miss them even more. We want to make this a tradition, so we need to see if we can fly Lucy, Cora and Anna out next year, so we can all be together.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the two days I was there. First the funny ones.

"The Church is not “a well-provisioned rest home for
the already perfected” Barbara Thompson quoting
Elder Neal A. Maxwell.

"I didn't say it was your fault, I only said I want to blame you." Barbara Thompson

"Ideals are stars to steer us by; they are not a stick to beat us with." (Title of a class)

When speaking about our trials there was a quote about gratitude, "Be grateful there is no light at the end of the tunnel, because it could be an oncoming train." Nora Nyland

Some serious quotes:
"Keep it small, keep it simple, give it time." Virgina Pierce talking about prayer

"If our troubles lead us to God, then we can be grateful." Virgina Pierce

"Prayer doesn't miraculously change events or circumstances but instead teaches us how to converse with the Lord" Virgina Pierce

"When we compare ourselves with others, we don't become better, we become bitter...The only person I have to be better than is what I was yesterday." Barbara Thompson

Someone quoting President Hinckley, "Our lives are the only meaningful expression of what we believe and who we believe."

"We need to change the expression I can do hard things, with I do hard things." Julie Beck

"Gratitude is not a grateful gene but a grateful home, we can all learn to be grateful." Nora Nyland

"Articulating gratitude brings the divine into our lives and our relationships." Nora Nyland

"If we only concentrate on the stones in our path we will miss the flowers and streams." Janet Peer

Jewish saying, "To degrade and diminish ourselves, degrades and diminishes God."

"When we make right choices, even when they are hard, we become a portal to inspiration." Shauna Thompson

"Without a test there is no testimony." Shauna Thompson

"The pattern of doing small and simple things, even the mundane things, will bring about extraordinary things." Elder Bednar

Elder Bednar drew a comparison with irrigation. There are the powerful sprinklers that spurt lots of water quickly but then have long periods of time without doing anything. The drip systems bring sustained water to the root of the plant over extended period of times. Sometimes we are "spiritual spurters" we have high concentrated effort we can't sustain and then long periods of time where we don't do anything. We need to make small and simple efforts but make them continuous. "Measured steadiness is better than spurts and slacking."

I loved women's conference. It was a good motivation without making me feel overwhelmed and unworthy. I loved feeling the spirit and having a renewed determination to make today better than yesterday and when that doesn't always happen,to forgive myself and try again.

This picture is just to illustrate some of the silly things we did between the spiritual. We went out to dinner one night and passed by a bar, we thought we'd be funny and take a picture in front of it. Quite the contrast to our spiritual meetings. Notice we posed outside it, and didn't go in. We weren't completely corrupt. :)