Stake Conference

A Few Nuggets:

(from Elder Hammond)

* Our youth are "drenched in destiny, they just don't know how wet they are!" and "their greatest weakness is that they don't know how great they are". Somewhat of a different take on the "chosen generation" that we have heard since I was a youth. A reminder that we need to live up to it, both as their parents and as the youth of the chosen generation.

* We don't want to be "fringe" members. He shared with us a personal story of watching an antelope herd being stalked by wolves and which of the antelope would be picked off. It wasn't those in the heart of the herd but those on the fringe of the herd. He then elaborated on where we stand and how Satan picks off those who are on the fringe and undecided or not quite committed to living fully the commandments. Where do we stand in the gospel?

* Choose ye this day: this I will do/this I will not do, this I am/this I am not

* He also shared a story of going to a lake on a hot summer day and dipping our toes in the water to see how cold/warm it is before we jump in. The challenge put to us is to take the plunge into the gospel, not to be toe dippers.

A Few Details:

Today we attended a combined stake conference with the Sugar City Stake at the Hart building on campus. During the meeting they released most of the stake leaders in the 2 stakes, created a new stake taking several wards from both our stake and the Sugar stake, and called/reorganized 3 stake presidencies.

It was a very long session of conference being in our seats for 3 hours and taking 45 minutes to get home because of all the traffic but it was an uplifting session as well. The music spoke directly to my soul as the choir sang an arrangement of "I Stand All Amazed". It carried through the Hart building in such an inspiring way that the entire room (packed tight!!) was silent - even the babies. Both Nathan and Hyrum were so good today that we didn't even have to leave the meeting, a record that he have not yet met during sacrament meeting.

Our new stake president is someone that I have never met and yet I was drawn to him immediately. He reminded us that we each have a temple story, even our kids do, and to share our temple stories with one another. Whether it be the chandelier in the Celestial Room, the murals on the walls of the ordinance rooms, directing traffic in the freezing cold weather, helping with booties, attending the open house tour or our first time attending a session there.

Our current bishop was called to be one of the counselors in our new stake presidency. I was a little sad about this, not realizing until that moment how attached I have become to him as our Bishop. Since I met Bishop Hayes in January I have grown to really appreciate his leadership and wonderful support and concern for our youth. I was also struggling with the fact that they left our ward in Hibbard as the only ward in our area, all of the other wards being on the far east side of town. It really didn't make sense to me.

Then our Bishop, now a member of the stake presidency, shared his testimony. He was extremely emotional as he shared with us his sustaining support of these boundary changes. My silent grumbling was brought to a calm halt as I listened to him share his testimony and I felt that no matter how odd the changes may seem, that Heavenly Father is leading in this change and that there is a purpose for doing it this way. Bishop Hayes told us that the original Hibbard ward was called the Island Ward because it was surrounded by the forks of the Snake River. Now we are somewhat back to that - the Island Ward - because we are completely separate from all the other wards in our stake.

So now our ward members have a week of guessing, wondering, speculating and maybe even a bit of nervousness as we prepare to sustain a new bishopric. Changes, changes everywhere!