The words of the living prophets

Good day, family and friends-

If you where not aware, a general conference of the church was held this weekend. The Prophet and other church leaders spoke.

General conference is always an inspiring and unique experience- one of the two chances annually to hear the voices of the watchmen on the wall, those holy Prophets and Apostles of God who speak the words of the Almighty. This weekend I was impressed to prepare myself to be more spiritually receptive to the messages given through fasting and prayer, that my invitation to others to participate in the conference might be more sincere since I was really applying it in my own life. and although almost none of the people that we urged and invited to listen to the words of the Prophets actually followed that invitation, I found myself deeply impacted by all of the many messages shared (My hand is still cramped from frantically scribbled notes that are probably completely illegible to anyone but me)... Family and life at home was as strong theme throughout the conference, which I found myself relating to my companionship and the ways I can improve in my love and compassion and the other ways I direct myself to my companion. Also, my favorite quote from the conference came early on, from President Boyd K. Packer- "the end of all activity in the church is to see a man and woman happy at home, with their children, sealed for time and all eternity." It can be so easy to forget that everything we do to build up and establish the church is done only to bless the lives of individuals and allow them to create families that will last beyond that cold and unforgiving grave. "It is hard to see the forest for the trees," said one of the general authorities who spoke in Spanish- and I thoroughly agree. If we overlook the true purpose of our daily labour, attendance statistics and lesson numbers can quickly block out the real motives of our endeavors- rendering them totally and completely useless. God will not support anyone who is working to put up "Potemken Villages" as Elder Uchtdorf put it. The Kingdom of God is established as people are truly converted to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which brings ever-so necessary water to the spiritually fainting world, and live faithful to their personal covenants in their personal lives.

On the other side, I wish to invite you all to watch and share this video that centers on the resurrection

of Jesus Christ and the universality of the blessings this provides for each and every one of us.

Also, saw this on Mormon.org and it made me laugh. takes much better notes than me.

Well, keep safe and happy and in-tune and dancing,

Elder Backstrom