BYU Women's Conference

I believe that BYU Women's Conference is just about the best two+ days of the year! Where else can you spend time with a bunch of women laughing, eating great food (not to mention yummy treats like BYU Brownies, fudge, and chocolate covered cinamon bears), bonding together, and best of all sharing insights and learning how to better live the gospel. We had a tremendous time!

This year I was able to share my room with two of my favorite people, Cyn and Jalyn. Jalyn's sister-in-law, Debbie also joined us. I didn't know her well before the conference, but soon grew to love her too! We were in the same motel (The Travel Lodge) as Marilyn, her mother, Wanda, her sister, Lynn, and nieces, Hope and Grace. All of us got together the first night to have dinner at the Brick Oven - a tradition that Marilyn's family has had for many years! Since it was very close to Marilyn's birthday we just had to have the waiters sing for her and bring her a special treat. YUM! Following dinner we drove up to the campus to scope out the bookstore - a very dangerous place. I always tend to spend way too much money there, there are so many wonderful prizes! Great books, many authors arriving to sign their books, BYU clothing and parafanalia, pictures, tons and tons of wonderfully inexpensive bags, and music of very talented performers.

To bed early that night (ha, ha! There is no such thing as early at Women's Conference! Except of course early in the morning!) Most of us had committed to join the instant choir which meant that we had to arrive at the campus by 6:30 IN THE MORNING! With four of in the motel room to get ready, that meant that we had to start getting up at "O dark thirty". (For those who do not know millitary time, that means too blasted early!)

Instant choir is amazing. We each printed our music off the computer when we registered, and we instructed to go through it several times prior to the rehersal. Of coure, many of us neglected to spend much time doing that, so the rehersal at Women's Conference pretty much was the first time we had heard the music. It is so very amazing to me that with the right talented people leading us, and obviously with the Lord's help, 500 women who came together at 6:30 in the morning could sing two songs so beautifully that it literally brought tears to many eyes in just 2 short hours. It is incredible!

I was so very fortunate to attend several absolutely fantastic sessions, but I decided that I would just post one of favorites entitled “The Atonement and Personal Revelation” The speaker was Colleen Terry. She began her presentation by telling us that from her perspective most of the lessons we learn are learned from the mortal body experiences such as illness, appetites, and passions. Sister Terry is a cancer survivor and she gave us a wonderful analogy she learned while undergoing radiation treatment. She told us that when she had radiation the doctors had to make sure that they were always administrating the radiation exactly in the right place, and in the same place each time. To ensure that they were in the right place they tattooed little dots on her body. In addition, they created a special mask for her to wear. This mask was molded perfectly to her head and was bolded to table during her treatment so that she couldn’t move. One day as she went to the closet to get her mask, she noticed that the shelves were full of other masks belonging to other cancer patients. She then realized that there were many cancer patients, each like her receiving treatment to achieve the goal of becoming healthy. Each patient had the very same goal – to beat the cancer. However, every treatment was individualized for each patient. She could not use someone else’s mask because it wouldn’t fit. Each patient had to use the treatment that was specifically tailored to them to help them achieve their goal.
Each of us on earth also has the same collective goal, to be exalted and to live again with our Heavenly Father. However, each of us has our own individualized way to get there. Every one of us has our own things that we have to go through to achieve our goal. There is no way that I could take my sister’s road, I have to use my own. Heavenly Father in His wisdom knew exactly the right things to give each of us to help us achieve the goal of eternal life.
She quoted part of a wonderful talk by Elder Richard G. Scott in the November 2005 Ensign. Entitled “Trust in the Lord”.
When you face adversity, you can be led to ask many questions. Some serve a useful purpose; others do not. To ask, Why does this have to happen to me? Why do I have to suffer this, now? What have I done to cause this? will lead you into blind alleys. It really does no good to ask questions that reflect opposition to the will of God. Rather ask, What am I to do? What am I to learn from this experience? What am I to change? Whom am I to help? How can I remember my many blessings in times of trial? Willing sacrifice of deeply held personal desires in favor of the will of God is very hard to do. Yet, when you pray with real conviction, “Please let me know Thy will” and “May Thy will be done,” you are in the strongest position to receive the maximum help from your loving Father.
Sister Terry said that when she is having struggles with life she will do as Elder Neal A. Maxwell counsels, to emulate Moroni and ask myself if I am sufficiently humble and also what weakness do I have that I can turn into strength? What am I to learn from this experience? In fact, she amazed us all by stating that when she found out that she had cancer she thought, "wow, the Lord must really trust and love me to give me cancer!"
When Christ was suffering on Gethsemane, we often think of Him kneeling in prayer, mostly due to the paintings we have seen of the event. However in Matthew 26:39 we read, “And he went a little further, and fell on his face” His suffering was so intense, so painful that He spent most of the time on His face on the ground.
Again from Matthew 26:39, “and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Christ clearly put the first commandment first, He loved God and was willing to do whatever God wanted Him to do. We should always do God’s will first.

Nevertheless is a very powerful word. If we want to have true personal revelation in trials, we must do as Christ did and say, “nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

In Luke 1:38 we read about the mother of Jesus, “And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word”. The first part of that statement reminds us that Mary was humble, she knew that she was the handmaid of the Lord, she loved the Lord and was willing to serve Him. The second part, "be it unto me according to thy word” shows us how willing she was to put the Lord first. If we truly want learn and grow from our trials, we should make those same statements each morning in our prayers, reaffirming to God that we are His handmaidens and that we are willing to do as He asks.

She then taught us what she calls in the “Principle of Excavation” where in the Lord uses trials to expand our capacity for joy. She held her hands together and extended them out forming a big circle. She asked us to imagine that this circle represented the Grand Canyon. Since the Grand Canyon is made of walls of rock, in order to increase the capacity of the Canyon, one would have to use a hammer and a chisel. It would require lots of hard work. Meek suffering is the hammer and chisel. A great talk to go along with this is by Elder Neal A. Maxwell in the November 1999 Ensign.

President Ezra Taft Benson said, “When you choose to follow Christ, you choose to change.” As you do this, you will increase your personal revelation. He said, “Brothers and Sisters, there isn’t any more! God will give us all!” Sister Terry challenged us to embrace our customized mask of trial and don’t compare it to others. It was created for each of us individually. As we do so we will be have our capacity for joy increased. She concluded by reading Alma 7:11-12, “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

The 2nd day Cyn and I spent most of the day watching video feeds of speakers while we worked on a service project. We were able to make little baby booties for children in 3rd world countries.

I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to attend Women's Conference. My cup was filled in many ways, my testimony strengthened, and my resolve to do good increased.