. . . one perk of having
a husband who really can't sit,
is getting to watch
stake conference broadcasts
from the comfort of home . . .
. . . wait . . .
. . . one perk? . . .
. . . trust me ~ it's the only perk! . . .
. . . but we are thankful
for modern technology . . .
. . . and church meetings
in jammies . . .
. . . today, the entire state of arizona
~ ninety-five stakes ~
heard some awesome speakers . . .
. . . first was
bishop gary e. stevenson . . .
. . . in a nutshell, he spoke
of the importance of rescuing . . .
. . . keep reading if you want to hear
about an encounter i had with him . . .
. . . next was sister cheryl a. esplin . . .
. . . she's the second counselor
in the general primary presidency . . .
. . . she talked a lot
about the importance of families . . .
. . . i especially liked
her father's analogy of cattle traps
and how satan's tactics
are much like them . . .
. . . his rotten influence is gradual
and we hardly notice it
until we are trapped . . .
. . . then came {insert angels singing}
one of my very favorite speakers . . .
. . . elder jeffrey r. holland . . .
. . . he kind of laid the smack down . . .
. . . telling us we
"better put our shoulders to the wheel
and push along" . . .
. . . you better believe
we sang along at home . . .
{we totally didn't}
. . . and i felt pretty blessed
to be able to hear
from a member
of the first presidency . . .
. . . president henry b. eyring . . .
. . . only through these broadcasts
are so many members of our church
able to hear from these leaders
on a regular basis . . .
. . . they just can't physically visit
stake conferences
like they used to . . .
. . . which is good news . . .
. . . it tells me
the church is growing . . .
. . . the satellite broadcast
from the conference center
in salt lake city ended
and each stake
closed the meeting locally . . .
. . . i was touched
when the closing prayer
was given by our sweet friend
whose father passed away
this week . . .
. . . his funeral is tomorrow . . .
{she did much better than i would have, bless her heart}
. . . okay . . .
. . . here's my story: back in may of this year, bill and i went to visit drew and jessalyn in provo. one day, we drove up to salt lake to see and walk around the new and greatly improved downtown shopping center ~ city creek. it is lovely. after a while, bill needed a break and so we walked across the street to the joseph smith memorial building. we knew there were nice soft couches in the spacious lobby. we'd been sitting there chatting for a few minutes when a voice from behind me called, "stephanie!" {that's always weird.} it was our friend, merilee. she lived in our ward and neighborhood for several years, but had moved to utah when she married. we love merilee and her boys. anyway . . . we talked for a couple of minutes while she was waiting for her parents, her sister and her brother. they were meeting for lunch. she spied her brother across the lobby and we said our goodbyes. i had to quickly text peg and tell her/brag that i'd run into her former neighbor and bff. peg's reply said to give merilee a hug from her. so, i made my way across the large room to do just that. having delivered my message, merilee introduced me to her brother, gary stevenson. we shook hands and i said, "it's so nice to meet you, gary." he asked if i was the sister romney. he proceeded to rave about what a wonderful bishop my husband had been when his sister was in our ward. {he was!} his cell phone rang and he excused himself to answer it. merilee then told me he'd been sustained as presiding bishop of the church at general conference the month before. i was so embarrassed to have called him "gary". it was definitely an open mouth, insert foot moment for me. i have those more often than i like to admit! . . .
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