o heidi of little faith

what was once one of the most dreaded weekends of the year is now one of my most favorite weekends of the year. general conference weekend is the weekend where we as Latter-day Saints, are able to listen to the prophet's voice and the words of his servants. what was once so boring and tortuous as a youth, is now a treasure trove to me. this general conference weekend had a bonus. my dear friend, amy, (running partner extraordinaire) was sealed to her family for time and all eternity in the columbia, south carolina temple. we believe that families are forever and that families are sealed together by the keys of the priesthood in the temple. 

Matthew 16:19  "And I will ^agive unto thee the ^bkeys of the ^ckingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt ^dbind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

however, getting to the temple an hour and half away on a friday afternoon is easier said than done. it took some planning and a lot of faith, but miraculously, thomas was able to get away from work meetings to come home and i pulled the kids out of school early to accomplish this goal. it was stressful and i kept thinking that trying to accomplish such a worthy goal should be a lot easier! i had given up about 10 minutes before thomas walked in the door. o heidi of little faith. in retrospect, it worked out perfectly but it was not how i thought it should go and that is what makes things hard. i had to concede that i don't know everything and i don't have to have control over everything to make things work. 

needless to say, it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. 

i know families are forever. these families units are not coincidental or simply a good idea. they are divine and inspired. 

i was a bawl baby during the entire service. it was a wonderful reminder of how i need to work to make my marriage work and the beauty in the marriage covenant.

the most touching quote of the day was from amy's eldest daughter, noel. she was overcome with tears in the temple. it softened my grizzled, tough heart. when asked about her tears she said, "i knew the Spirit would be strong, but i thought it would be like at a baptism. i didn't know i could feel the Spirit so strongly." out of the mouths of babes!

my dear amy

and what we are really like:

my dear friend karina. 

at the same time on thursday, karina and i both received a text from amy talking about how excited amy was to be ironing all the kid's clothes for the temple. karina and i had been discussing how we were going to get to the temple with 7 children between the two of us that need to be picked up from school at various times and required different childcare needs. after amy's text we both knew we just had to make it happen. so we plotted and planned and it worked. james 2:17 Even so ^afaith, if it hath not ^bworks, is dead, being alone. we can't sit on our hands feeling sorry for ourselves that our situation is not ideal expect things to work out how we would like. we have to facilitate miracles. we can't drive a parked car. 

after the temple experience, enjoying conference was icing on the cake.

the kids were sort of reverent so we could listen to most of the talks on saturday and sunday. i enjoyed so many speakers, but a few talks really spoke to my heart. elder uchtdorf was wonderful and i especially loved elder christofferson's talk. elder nelson was so inspiring i acutally heard a whip cracking: self-mastery is reason over appetite. freedom from self-slavery is true liberation. and elder eyring said some wonderful thoughts about marriage that really hit close to home.  

and lest ye think we all sat quietly and absorbed every iota of instruction, this is what a lot of our time together "listening" and "watching" looked like:

and instead of uplifting and educational activities for the kids to do, i just tried to keep the fighting to a dull roar. i did take the time to straighten both mine and scarlett's hair during a session. SO LONG!!!

                                  

one of my best weekends for sure!