“I doubt there will be very many people in the celestial kingdom who aren’t kind.”
-Elder Marlin K. Jensen

Sharleen P. Campbell

• I am a believer–I am a follower!
• Example of King Benjamin–Mosiah 2:14 “And even I, myself, have labored with mine own hands that I might serve you.”  Service is work!  It is a labor of love.
• Alma 1:30 “And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did not send away any who were naked, or that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no respect to persons as to those who stood in need.”  How can we be more liberal in or service to others?  What does that mean to you?
• Instead of judging others, we can spend our energy on doing what we can to help.
• Am I using my resources to build up my own kingdom or the kingdom of God?
• The gospel is not convenient, but when we live it, great blessings will come!
• Give of yourself at all times.
• You will have to step out of your comfort zone to give sacred, selfless service.

Karen Gasparac Dissel

• Why do you give service?  What are your motivations?  Do we sometimes do it because we hope to get something in return?  When we are doing this we are giving gifts with strings attached.  (She had a great visual aid for this–a beautifully wrapped present with strings all over it and notes attached that said things like, “I hope you will praise me,”  “Then you will owe me one,” etc.)
• Ephesians 6:6 “Not with eye service, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”  Are we serving to please men or to serve Christ?
• We are seeking to Bless–Not Impress!
• It is the Living Water that will soothe and bless others.  Our job is to be like the bucket brigade and take His love–His Living Water–to others.  How do we do that?
• Initiative–Notice what is going on around you and anticipate the need.  Don’t wait to be asked, because most of the time people just don’t ask!  Elder Bednar counseled, “Be quick to observe and quick to respond.”
• Compassion–When Pharaoh’s daughter saw the basket she asked for it to be brought to her and she had compassion.  She was an instrument in the hands of God because she followed that compassionate instinct, even though it may not have made sense or been convenient.  What can you do to be guided more by your spirit of compassion?
• Gratitude–Have an attitude of gratitude.  It is the eternal antidote for a grumpy heart!  Do we feel gratitude to the Lord and gratitude to those in our lives?  She referenced the song “Because I Have Been Given Much”–”I’ll show that love by word and deed, Thus shall my thanks be thanks indeed.”  To whom do you owe a debt of gratitude?
• Love–If you want to love God you must learn to love those around you!  If we don’t love God and neighbor, whatever else we do will be of little consequence.
• May we all have living filled with giving!

http://www.arbinger.com/downloads/parenting_pyramid.pdf

Suzanne Petersen

• She told a story about her girls going on a road trip and having a huge problem with the car’s alignment.  She explained that to be properly aligned the tires need to be perpendicular to the road and parallel to each other.  She likened this to our souls and how we need to be properly aligned, with heaven and with those in our lives.
• What are the symptoms of spiritual alignment?  How do we keep aligned?  With our head, heart, ears, and hands.
• The head won’t hear anything the heart does not want to understand.  The head will learn tomorrow what the heart learns today.
• Write a letter of the burdens you carry (those things you can’t change) that sap your spiritual energy and then give it to the Lord–surrender those things!   It is a tactic of Satan to try and get us to take these things back after we have surrendered them.  Be consistent in letting Him keep them.
• Often our prayers are of three sorts–Fix it!, Find it!, or Remove it!  How can we be more open to communicating with the heavens?
• How does the Lord answer prayers?
• 1.  The Lord will strengthen you.  She shared a story of her emotional condition in the midst of her awful divorce.  She would pray for strength to do what she needed to for 20 minutes.  Then she would get up, set a timer and work.  When the timer beeped she would return to her knees and pray that same prayer again, continuing until she got the things done that were required of her.
• 2.  He will soften hearts–others and our own.  He will help us see the love of God for those we are angry with or hurt by, and He will help us feel His perfect love for us.  This charity will change us!
• 3.  He will send someone to help us.  She shared the story of a friend bringing her a gift labeled “BDB–Bad Day Box.”  Inside were special things that could help lift her, cheer her, and invite humor when she is having a bad day.  What a great idea!  I need one of those!
• 4.  He will lead you away.  Listen to the Spirit and the promptings to flee.
• 5.  He will remove the problem.  This is the one that we ask for the most but that happens the least!
• We can hear it, know it, and feel it, but it does us no good if we don’t DO IT!
• WE can do hard things (their family motto).  We–us and the Lord.
• Enjoy the journey–stop to help others.

Elaine Walton

• She used the metaphor of music–an orchestra.  Musicians must listen to other musicians and themselves to stay in tune and create harmony.
• Harmony in our lives is elusive.  Why? We expect too much of ourselves, we are impatient, and we listen to too many external voices.
• How can we listen with focus?
• 1.  Shut out the voices that are irrelevant, inappropriate, or untrue.  Tune in to the ONE voice that matters. “My sheep hear my voice.”  We learn to hear His voice by spending more time in the scriptures.  The scriptures give us centering points through the stories they tell of how real people learned to have the attributes of courage, faith, determination, forgiveness, etc.
• 2.  Learn to listen to your own voice.  90% of the helping process (in counseling) comes from listening to ourselves, and yet we so often forget to listen!  And, likewise, the most beneficial thing we can do to help others is to just listen and reflect back what they are saying so they can learn their own answers.  We are so often concerned with what we are “supposed to do” to help solve the problem that we just forget to listen.  We need to practice using feeling words to reflect back to others.  “I can see you are very dissatisfied with how things are going.  Tell me more.” or “You seem very discouraged!”
• Real listening requires you to tune out the unhelpful voices in your own head.
• You have to listen to your own notes (voice) to know if you are in tune.
• Learning to listen to our own inner voice is so important.  The more our hearts are changed the more our inner voice will mirror the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
• Does most of my teaching come from within or without?
• In discounting our own inner thoughts and feelings we lose our sensitivity to those promptings.
• Take time to listen, think, and give a measured response.
• Reconnect with your inner voice.  Make a list of all the times you have a thought about your needs–anything starting with “I wish…,” “I would like…,” “I want…,” or “I need…”.  Be aware of what your inner self is trying to communicate to your conscious self.  The more sensitive we are to the little things, like needing a drink of water, the more in tune we will be for the bigger things.
• Do I choose the hard road or the natural path?  Life doesn’t always have to be hard.  If we are listening to our inner voice we will be lead in the most natural path.
• Are we so focused on who we think we are supposed to be that we forget who we are.  Tune out the opinions of the world and tune in to your true voice.
• If your larger desires are good, your smaller desires will follow as good–trust yourself.
• Triangle of truth–the scriptures, the prophet, and your feelings from within.  Seek to have those three be in harmony.
• The Spirit of the Lord invites to do good, love God, and serve Him.  That is the pure and simple way to judge if our inner voice is on target.

Good stuff!  The ideas they discussed are so important to our daily walk in the Light!  I love the concept of tuning into my own inner voice!  May the Lord bless you on your journey!

Rene Butler

• We are not just here on earth for a sight seeing vacation or a shopping trip. Sight seers are those that hear the counsel of the Lord and have a great time watching others live it, but are not motivated to DO what they know is right. Shoppers are those that buy into the word’s views about what is important and what will bring happiness (possessions, wealth, fame, etc.). We are here to come to know the Lord and to help others come to know Him.
• Are we spending more time worrying about what we have (and don’t have, but want) and not about who we are?
• Doctrine & Covenants 25:10 “And verily I say unto thee that thou shalt lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better.”
• If we love the Savior first and foremost, we will prize what the Lord thinks and not what others think.
• She shared the life story of Lydia Knight, wife of Newel K. Knight. She was an amazing example of someone who put the Lord first and consecrated her life to following Him. Once she was seeking an answer as to why a certain trial was necessary, and the answer that came was, “Be patient…in time you will understand why.” I loved that. So many times I fight the circumstances of my life, only to realize later that those very experiences I resisted or complained about were the ones God used to mold me into what I want to be. He knows what He is doing in our lives! We just have to trust Him!
• She suggested doing a spiritual checkup–just like we have physical checkups. It is a personal inventory of sorts. What brings me joy? What are my highest priorities? How am I using my discretionary time? Is there anything that is a part of my life that I should not be doing?
• She shared the comment of a friend, “I try my best not to over schedule my life so that when opportunities come to serve, I am ready, willing, and able.”
• Allowing time each day for opportunities to assist another is a sure way to feel the influence and approval of God in our lives.
• Pleasing God must be more important that pleasing anyone else in our lives–including ourselves.
• We are spending our lives where we are spending our time.

Joy Haffen (Marie’s daughter-in-law that shared her experience with having triplets)

• People often ask her how she does it (being a mom of 6, including a set of triplets). Her response–I don’t do anything else!
• How she dealt with the new addition of triplets–I simplified my life, eliminating everything extra and became simply the mother of my family. That is what mattered and that is what brought her joy.
• She shared a wonderful analogy–this was one of my favorite teaching moments in Women’s Conference. There is the path I am on and the pack that I carry. The path we are on has to do with the direction of our lives, the plan that we are here as a part of. It is constant, set forth by the Lord. the pack we carry is defined by our experiences. It changes. Some things the Lord puts into our pack and somethings we choose to add to our pack. She had many wonderful insights about the pack we carry in our lives.
• Trust that the Lord will only put things into our pack that are for our good and that we are strong enough (with His help) to bear.
• Don’t put things in your pack that distract you from staying on the path you want to stay on.
• Beware of the subtly of good things. Just because something is good is not reason enough to give a part of your life to it.
• Material possessions add a lot of weight to our pack. We don’t need to cumber our journey with more things.
• Adding service to others to our pack will lighten our load!
• Only add thing to your pack that are of eternal worth.

Marie Haffen

• She shared the story of two of her pioneer ancestors, stating, “Maybe their stories can help us with ours.” These ancestor was asked by Church leaders to sell their beautiful home and help colonize a new area–”The Muddy”. After a few years it was determined that the area they were sent to was not a successful venture, and they returned to nothing. As she and her husband stood outside their old home that now belonged to someone else, her husband asked her if she wished they had never gone. She boldly replied, “I would rather live in a dugout with our mission filled than in a fancy house with our mission unfilled.”
• If you don’t get out of your comfort zone you won’t learn. If you don’t learn you won’t grow. And, if you don’t grow you will never know true joy!
• Life is a set of problem to face. Everyone is either in one, coming out of one, or heading into one!
• The gift of problems is that they make us choose and prioritize what is most important in our lives.
• God is not so interested in comfort as character, in happiness as holiness.
• Learn to say no to yourself and be content.
• Mormon 8:39 “Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life?”
• 2 Nephi 25:26 “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”
• May we seek to live out of our comfort zone, stretching, growing, running to the Light!

I loved her last reference to running to the Light! This class was a wonderful reminder that our only true joy and peace can come by seeking to know and serve Jesus Christ with all our hearts!

Sheri Dew is an example of a person who is “devoted to the cause of Christ.”

• “I believe in who you are too much to soft pedal the truth.” We may all have different circumstances and challenges that prevent us from living the ideal, but that doesn’t change that it is truth, and the truth must be proclaimed boldly!
• The status quo is uninspiring. We are more motivated to so something difficult than we are to do something easy. Jesus did not command us, “Be ye therefore mediocre.” We must stretch and strive. We must rally to the most difficult, arousing, inspiring cause—Come Unto Christ.
• To come unto Christ we must walk away from the world!
• Miracles sometimes come into our lives not just to bless us, but to bless others through us.
• We are sleeping giants and it is time to wake up and unleash the influence of covenant keeping women!
• We have far more influence on those around us than we think! We are here to influence the world, not to be influenced by it.
• Don’t buy Satan’s lies that distract us from the true definition of womanhood. We are endowed with sacred power to accomplish great things for the Lord. We are the Lord’s secret weapon.
• We have an inherent nature to nurture that we must listen to and follow. The world won’t tell you these truths, but the Spirit will!
• She quoted President Spencer W. Kimball (in Ensign, November 1979) saying, “Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world (in whom there is often such an inner sense of spirituality) will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world.”
• Live it! Don’t just quote it! We must be more distinctive!
• 2 Nephi 25:26 “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.” (This scripture was quoted many times at Women’s Conference! It all points back to Jesus Christ!)
• Are we women on a mission?
• Step forward and claim the fullness of your potential.
• We are not the first generation of women to be influenced by the world, but we must be the last! The time has come to put on the armor of Light. That is what we must pass on to the next generation!
• We must follow the example of Jesus Christ. He came to minister, and if HE came to minister, then so did we!
• It is not about doing more things, it is about doing things differently.
• What is your ministry? What is your legacy? What of Christ are you passing on?
• Be quick to observe the example of President Monson. Following President Hinckley’s burial, President Monson went and personally shook hands with every member of the extended Hinckley family. He is an example of ministering one by one.
• We won’t become perfect in this life—give that up already!!! But we can become increasingly pure and holy. Choose purity. Choose holiness over the things of the world.
• Look to the prophets for counsel and direction, not celebrities and worldly influences. Seek truth from true sources.
• No matter how much good someone is doing, they are an anti-Christ if they deny the divinity of Jesus Christ, spurn at the covenants we make with Him, or strive to keep us out of the temple.
• Four elements we need in our lives: Purity—keeps us a pure receptacle for the Holy Ghost to influence us, Scriptures—teach us the language of truth, Temple—where we can literally leave the world and enter His presence, and Personal Worship—take a little more time to be a little more holy.
• One friend had a deal with her husband that she got 30 minutes free every day while he was responsible for the kids. She would spend 15 minutes reading the scriptures and 15 minutes in prayer. How would my life be changed if I spent 15 minutes in meaningful prayer, communicating with the heavens?
• Ask God to teach you His voice to you, and He will teach you!
• The way to come out of the world is to live continually under the influence of the Spirit.
• What is the one thing you can do, you are willing to do to come unto Christ in your life now?
• Pray for one experience to share your testimony and be a missionary for the Lord this year. We are the force behind the spiritual and the numerical growth of the Church. If everyone committed to this and really did it, what would the result be? What influence would we be for the Lord?
• Don’t stop until you get the job done for the Lord!
• Walk away from the world! Awake! Arise! Come unto Christ!
• The power to have righteous influence comes when the atonement changes our hearts!

It is hard to communicate the power of the Spirit that accompanied her talk. I pray that you will have the Spirit as you read to help you feel the truth of the principles she taught and help you learn what will help you in your desire to live in His Light more fully!

It was a remarkable experience to listen to a Prophet’s voice on Friday. Since President Hinckley died in January I have been praying for a witness from the Spirit that President Monson is a Prophet of God. I had a very powerful “lightning bolt to the heart” experience as a young college student confirming to me that President Hinckley was a Prophet of God, and my soul desired that same witness for the new Prophet. Despite my desire, my prayers, and many experiences with listening to President Monson speak, that witness did not come. Then at Women’s Conference on Friday the woman conducting was introducing President Monson. She gave some biographical information and then read the testimony he gave at the first General Conference following being ordained as an Apostle many years ago. As she read that simple, pure, powerful testimony, I felt a deep peace in my soul—the Spirit witnessing to me that President Thomas S. Monson is a special witness of Jesus Christ. I know that he knows Jesus Christ lives and is our Savior and Redeemer. That feeling within me spread, simply and silently. It wasn’t a “lightning bolt to the heart” experience, but it was the Lord answering my prayer. The witness that came is different, just as the man is different and his ministry will be different than President Hinckley’s. I look forward to being led by this great Man of God.

At the opening session of Women’s Conference on Thursday, President Julie B. Beck gave the opening remarks. She said that all that would transpire the next two days was all just preparation for us to sit at the feet of a Prophet on Friday afternoon. I loved that! It put into perspective for me the importance of his visit—the cornerstone of all the wonderful instruction that was offered those two days. That is why I want to share his message first—because it is the most important message for us to hear and heed!

These are some of the points from President Monson’s address that touched my soul.

· Don’t let the important things pass you by. Find joy in the journey NOW!

· Every day in your life is a special occasion. Make a reason to celebrate every single day!

· “Never let a problem to be solved be more important than a person to be loved.”

· He spoke of the threads that create the tapestry of our life and focused on two particular threads: the thread of adversity and the threads of service, love, and kindness.

· The thread of adversity—He was very quick to encourage us that everyone has dark times. That is a necessary part of life. The test of life is not to see if we can avoid them, but to see if we will endure them well.

· He talked about the metaphor of a stone tumbler and how the stones become beautiful and polished by being tumbled so that all the impurities on the outside and the rough edges get worn away. He likened that to our adversity and how it is the mechanism through which the Lord can purify and polish our rough edges.

· “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!”

· He quoted Orson F. Whitney, “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father [in heaven].”

· He quoted the poem, “Good Timber.” (author unknown)

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
That stood out in the open plain,
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king,
But lived and died a scrubby thing
The man who never had to toil,
Who never had to win his share,
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man,
But lived and died as he began.
Good timber does not grow in ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees.
The farther sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength;
By sun and cold, by rain and snows,
In tree or man good timber grows.
Where thickest stands the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both,
And they hold converse with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife;
This is the common law of life.

· He quoted Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. “

· When he talked of the threads of service, love, and kindness he said that these are the golden threads that we weave through our lives—the most important and most beautiful part.

· He encouraged us to pause and reflect o all we do and realize how significant all of the small and simple things are we do to serve our friends and families.

· He quoted Acts 20:35”…It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

It was a blessed opportunity to hear our living Prophet teach us and express his love for us. We are led by a Man of God. May we hearken to his counsel!

–Sheri Dew