General Conference Blessings

 Did you watch the Women's Session of General Conference?  It was outstanding.  Sharon Eubanks hit another homerun.  She was passionate and so powerful.  How can you not be persuaded of what she speaks?  There were several exceptional talks.

On the downtime today, I made some soup and a dessert.  Two of our YSAs are coming over to watch the Sunday morning session at 5 p.m. (It's live here at that time).  They are both new in the church and it is so much nicer to watch with other people.

In the middle of the night I had a flurry of texts with our grandson Andrew.  I love that guy.  My texts haven't been going through and I don't know why, so I tried message on Facebook and he responded right back.  It was brief, but so nice to connect with him.

I am keeping a running list of things to purchase at Costco.  It is an hour away, and so we don't go often. But as we have more and more young people here for eating, I have decided that we need a fairly good supply of staples in the freezer, among which should be frozen rolls.  With young people, you have to have a filler like that!  Today is Sunday, so there will be no hurrying over to the store for bread or rolls!

Even though SK is doing so well at driving, I don't think driving to Costco is his favorite thing to do.  "I could drive all day!" he says.  And he sincerely means it....but he is referring to wide roads (often separated roads - like freeways) when he drives on the left side of the car and on the right side of the road.  The really nice news is that he doesn't have to take the driver's license test, because you only take it if you are here longer than a year, and we will never have been here longer than a year in one time period.  

That reminds me....we both often speak of the uncertainty we live with.  The entire time we were in Gilbert, nearly six months, we were uncertain if our mission was over, or if we would be going back.  We didn't know what ward we should consider home, since there were four that we could have kind of considered our ward.  And now we are back - and so very happy to be back, but with the decision by someone somewhere, the visa situation is still up in the air, and so the uncertainty is still there hanging over us.

It is now 8 p.m.  Our two young friends came, we enjoyed conference together, and then ate soup and quesadillas.  They just left to return to their college housing. Both are under 20, away from home for the first time, attending the same college, new converts and both are from London.  I think it was an answer to prayers that they have found each other. They live 2 minutes from each other and so can go to all church-related activities together on the same bus.  I think both have been feeling depressed and alone, and what a sweet answer for them each!

A year ago, this little living room was full of YSAs watching conference.  Today, we had two young women sitting quietly on the couch to the right, and SK and I sat on the left, keeping our social distance.  How very odd this is.

SK is doing the dishes, and then we will settle in for the last session of conference.  I think Elder Stevenson and Elder Holland will be speaking...two of my favorites.  This conference has been very encouraging in so many ways.  It is a time of refreshing, of renewing and restarting good habits.  I always love it, and I always love October Conference in particular.  Oddly enough, two of my favorite people in all the world passed away near October Conference (my brother Larry and my father), and my mother passed away the weekend of April Conference.  You would think it would have left me feeling like I never wanted to watch another.  But it has been a source of strength and inspiration to me throughout my losses, and I am always grateful when it comes around each April and October.

A new week with new adventures lies ahead!

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