A Trip to Utah

I had the wonderful opportunity this year to again attend Women's Conference at BYU. My good friend Penny and I went last year and thought we really needed to make this an annual event. We tried to recruit our friend Ann but her oldest daughter is getting married this month, so no luck there....but we'll be keeping her to her promise for attending next year.

If you're not familiar with this conference, the average attendance is between 15,000 to 20,000 women. It is an awesome event and you go away feeling wonderful about yourself, about being a women, and about the opportunities that your life can bring you.

The theme to this years conference was taken from Moroni 10:30-32 in the Book of Mormon, "Awake, Arise and Come Unto Him".

The opening session speaker was one of my favorite Sisters in our Church, Sister Sheri Dew. She is President and CEO of Deseret Book. She has never been married and does not have any children but I think sisters from all walks of life can identify with her and certainly learn from her wisdom.

Her talk was my favorite from all the talks that I attended. If you have a change to read her talk from this conference when it comes out next year, I would highly recommend it. She talked about us as women in today's world and how important we are to Heavenly Fathers plan. We are the Lords secret weapon. We are the heart of the family. We are the influencer's and we have a unique opportunity to change the world.

She told us to live the status-quo is easy but we as LDS women believe in progression. No one wants to stay just like we are. That a person is far more motivated to do something hard then to do something easy.

She told a great story about her traveling and trying to make a plane when she had an impossible connection. How she ran though the airport, believing she would miss her flight but she made it. And on that plane she met a fellow passenger that she spoke with and she know that this was the reason she made the flight.

She told us that We rarely understand how the Lord uses us. That we all have more influence than we think. And that Righteous Influence is a Spiritual Gift.

She gave a quote by Spencer W. Kimball which I think I captured correctly here - Much of the major growth that will come to the church in the latter days will come because of the good women in the church

And then she asked us - "Are we the Women that we need to be in these Latter Days that Heavenly Father needs us to be"

She challenged us to ask in our Prayers daily - Why has the Lord brought me here today. And then said - "Let us be the generation of Women that walks away from the World and Comes Unto Christ"

She was Awesome and though this is a long post, it's only a portion of the great comments she made.