April Conference 2018

I was asked yesterday what callings I have had that no longer exist.  I was called as a statistical clerk as a freshman at BYU.  This should have only been given to an elder, which they thought I was, until I asked to be ordained an elder!.  I fulfilled that calling for two semesters before my mission.  Got all my reports in on time.  That calling disappeared when computers began to be used.  I have been a High Priest Group Leader twice and an assistant twice.  I have been a home teacher.  This weekend has made all of these callings obsolete.

I was ordained a High Priest when I was called as the Stake Clerk.  Now that calling will not even be part of the High Priest quorum, nor will ward clerks or executive secretaries, both of which I have been.  The only calling I've had that would be in that quorum now, was the three years I served in a student ward bishopric (well, I was a high councilor for two weeks before that calling came).

Another subject, I used to think repentance was for when you did something very serious.  I have now come to see that the atonement, including repentance, should be used constantly.  We should be repenting often - of things we say and realize we shouldn't have said them.  Thoughtless acts, selfish acts, and even thoughts that we know Father in Heaven would not want us to think about.  And things we should do and haven't done.

We should keep on repenting, even when falling back at times, until we finally conquer them.  If we keep up on our prayers, scripture reading - including conference talks, and trying to stay close to God, He will bring us there, even if we have to suffer some things to get there - which by the way is all worth it.  If we hang with Him, even when we start to sink in the waves, He WILL pull us through.  He will not give up on us, even when we would give up on ourselves.

Please keep trying in the battlefield of life.  I want you there in the next life.  Sometimes the only reason I have kept on in my own trials is because of you.  I want each of you.  I want us to be together as families.  The saints are the sinners that keep on trying!

What a marvelous and exciting time we live in!  How blessed we are to see it and be in the thick of it!  Write it down.  Write down your thoughts of this weekend.  I just finished.  I want my descendants to be able to see it through my eyes, and know me connected with the events of the day.