General Conference Oct. 2015

    General Conference

General Conference is where all the leaders of the church come together for a very big meeting for all the members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.  General Conference is truly a great experience.  There are many great talks, testimonies, and more.  There are many great quotes and I would like to share some with you.  One of the many great quotes was from Elder Uchtdorf from the First Presidency.  It states "Exaltation is our Goal, Discipleship is our Journey.  I thought that one is very profound lesson.  Another One, from Robert D. Hales was "Straighten Up and Fly Right".  That is a good one, because if you are not in the right path you just need to straighten up on the right path.  Some talks that I thought were very great were Ronald A. Rasband, Robert.D Hales, and Elder  Vinas.  These talks stuck out to me the most and thought were really great.  I encourage everyone to listen to General Conference, because it will bring you closer to Heavenly Father.  In Conclusion, I think that General Conference is an awesome thing and that everyone should try to listen to it.

Why is it important to prepare for General Conference?

I look forward to General Conference twice a year.  My dad always tells us to pray that the talks that are shared will help answer questions that we have.  A quote by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf says "As you prepare for General Conference I invite you to ponder questions you need to have answered"..."There are messages in each general conference given as a gift and a blessing from heaven specifically for our personal life situations." By watching general conference you can find answers to your questions. Elder Jeffery R. Holland said "If we teach by the spirit and you listen to the spirit, some of us will touch on your circumstance sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you." I like general conference because it is an easy way for us to have some of our questions answered and we can be inspired.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf shared a story about a member and a non member talking about general conference. "A fine member of the Church was talking with a neighbor who was not of our faith. When the topic of discussion turned to general conference, the neighbor asked, “You say you have prophets and apostles? And twice a year in a worldwide conference they reveal the word of God?”

“Absolutely,” the member replied with confidence.

The neighbor thought about that for a moment. He seemed genuinely interested and then asked, “What did they say in the last general conference?”

At this point the good member of the Church went from feeling excited about sharing the gospel to feeling embarrassed. Try as he might, he couldn’t think of the details of a single talk.

His friend found this troubling and said, “You mean to tell me that God speaks to man in our day and you can’t remember what He said?” 

He goes on to say that it is hard to remember every message given and that we shouldn't be embarrassed if we don't remember it all; but there are messages that are given to us as a gift from heaven. He gives us 3 different ways that we can prepare for conference. Number 1 is "Members of the Church are entitled to personal revelation as they listen to and study the inspired words spoken at general conference." It just says that we should ponder any questions we need to have answered. He says that answers to your specific questions could come directly from a talk or phrase but others maybe a word or song. "If you have a heart filled with gratitude and a desire to hear and follow the words of the counsel will prepare us for personal revelation."

His second help is don't ignore a message that you have heard before, he says prophets have always taught by repetition it is a law of learning. We hear similar messages because the Lord knows that the topic needs to be understood. 

The last point is, the words spoken at general conference should be a compass that points the way for us during the coming months. He gives the example of the Liahona that if we follow the promptings of the spirit it will serve as a Liahona. 

He tells us that general conference is no ordinary blessing. I know that general conference is a blessing to us and that if we prepare for it and ponder on questions we need answered and follow President Uchtdorf's tips that our questions will be answered.

Written by: Nick Wheeler

Overcoming Adversity

     The definition of Adversity is having difficulties or misfortune. When I first started my football season this year at SHS, we had our first game the first week of school. As we were getting ready for it and doing all the things we needed to to prepare, our Coach told us one thing. He tells the team this every time we meet as a team the night before our Varsity games. He says no matter what happens, win or lose, you have to overcome adversity. Even though it might be hard to overcome sometimes, you will always have it. So far in my season we are 5-0. But that doesn't mean we haven't had to overcome adversity. As we prepare for games each week we watch film as a team and then the rest of the week we practice the things we see and get better at them each day. Adversity could be as a team or just ourselves.
     When we prepare, we fight and get mad at each other during practice but we do it because like my coach says, we care that you get better and learn what you need to so that we can win this week. He also tells us that with opponents comes people coming to him with questions that they hope can be answered like, "Are you guys going to win on Friday?"  For me, I have to think to myself and ask: have we had a good week at practice, has everyone done their job for themselves and the team. If I do answer them I usually say, "I think we have a good chance at winning, but we just need to wait and see if we remember what we learned."
     I think that fans are one of athletes biggest problems we face each week as they prepare for a new opponent. We practice everyday for a few hours, but we're at school longer. While we're at school we have to focus on our work and then when we're done with school we have to go to practice and just focus on that. When you get a whole bunch of people asking you lots of questions it can get in the way sometimes.  You may start thinking that you are the best and that you can beat every team, but you have to forget about all the things around you and just focus on you and how you can help your team out on that Friday night and learn how to get better so that you can win and be the best team.  It all comes with hardship and struggle to become the best.
     As an athlete, I found a quote by a very popular NFL player named Jason Witten. He says, " I Will Never Quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My team expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than our competition. If knocked down, I will get back up every time. I will draw on every remaining source of strength to help my team and to accomplish our goal. I am never out of the fight."
     I also found this quote while writing this. " It is your REACTION to ADVERSITY, not the adversity itself, that DETERMINES how your LIFE'S STORY will develop." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf.  I like this quote because adversity in the end comes down only to you and the way you think and knowing you can handle your situation.  For me, my REACTION to playing football is the winning or losing a game. And how I can DETERMINE if we win or lose is up to me and how I can strengthen myself and my team to be better each day and every week.
     The last quote I found was, "I like criticism. It makes you strong."- Lebron James.  My coach was talking to us about this today before we started practice.  He was saying that when you make a mistake and you come off the field and we yell in your face and embarrass you in front of everyone, we're doing it to make you better and show you the potential you have as a player and how you can help your team out.  He also said it's the only way to show you that you need to work harder and that you can work harder so that the next week you can remember what we said and fix what you need to.
     To finish, the adversity I have right now as a player is that I'm a senior and I'm not starting on  the Varsity team like I want to. I'm playing down with the JV team. For others, they see it as--maybe he's not as good as those on Varsity. But really it's up to me to show my coaches that I can work hard every play and that  as player I need to play the way I know I can be. When I play in a JV game, all of our coaches are there. And when I'm doing my best to help my team out, I want to make sure I keep it up the whole game so that I can help my team win. When I don't do the right thing or miss an important block that could have gotten us a touchdown, I walk off the field not thinking about all the other good plays I had during the series, I think what my coach will say to me to help me get better so that when we go back out on the field I won't make that mistake again. Even though I have mainly talked about adversity in sports, it's not just for that. Everyone faces it at work, school, with friends and even more. We need to learn how to go through and figure out how we can make it better for us first instead of making sure everyone else is okay while you're still trying to overcome it yourself. You can't give up on yourself, because if you do adversity will overtake you.   You'll just go through life daily thinking you won't be able to do it even though you really can.

Written by Alex Wheeler

A Person is Just a Person

On September 13, 2015 there was a Regional Conference held at the BYU Marriot Center and was broadcast to everyone in all of Provo South area.   We were very lucky to hear from Elder Ballard at the end of the meeting.  He gave everyone listening a lot of advice to take from the meeting.  One piece of advice that really stuck with me was simple: Be Kind. All day I wondered why this kept popping up in my head and why it seemed so important. We are told this simple piece of advice every day by our teachers, our parents, our leaders, our friends or even our siblings.  So then why did it seem so important to me today? 

A few weeks ago, I met up with some old friends from High School and we all sat down to talk.  One of our friends was about to go out on her mission and told us that one of the hardest thing for her to try and not do was compare herself to other sister missionaries that she thought may have been a “better missionary,” or “more spiritual,” etc. One of my other good friends shared a quote that stuck with me since then.  She said her mission president had told them this: It is a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person. This quote has been something that pops up in my head every time I start to feel insecure or begin to compare myself to somebody.  So what does comparing ourselves to others have to do with being kind? I asked myself the same question.  I have realized lately that when we are kind to ourselves, we stop comparing ourselves to others all the time.  We should realize that a person is just a person and we are all different from each other.  Heavenly Father made us so we are each unique.  We were made in His image and He wants us to become like Him.  I believe that to become more like Him we must remember to be kind to everyone, including ourselves, and remember that a person is nothing more than a person. 

"Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time"

“Whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day.”

—Alma 36:3

As I look back on the past several years, words that pop into my mind are: trials, challenges, endurance, loss, humility, and gratitude.  I'm sure as you read that group of words, you wonder how the word gratitude fits in.  

In the past eight years, I've experienced loss in a personal way.  My dear mother-in-law, Enid Noreen Wheeler passed away unexpectedly.  I was not prepared to lose her, and I'm still sad to this day that I was unable to say goodbye one last time while she was in a conscious state.  However, I will never forget the moment when my children knelt by her bed to hug her and a tear rolled down her face.  I knew that she knew we were there.  Gratitude.  That is what came to mind in that moment.

When my maternal grandmother, Helen Money Bird left this life--it was expected.  We knew her time was coming, but I was still unprepared for the way I would feel when her physical body died.  I rushed to her bedside and held her hand while waiting for her body to be taken away.  A flood of memories flashed through my mind.  She was such an example for good, and I knew that physical death could not take away those memories.  Gratitude.  That is what came to my mind in that moment.

Years ago, when the economic crisis hit the United States--my husband and I knew that our business would be under fire.  We had ventured out on our own less than a handful of years before the crisis.  We knew that we were too small to withstand the shock of banks that weren't giving out loans.  We knew that owning a commercial construction company during this crisis was going to be the beginning of great challenges.  A few of our clients were using banks that went out of business during the building process and we were left with the expense.  It has been nearly 7 years since the beginning of that trial, but several blessings and a miracle or two made a difference.  Gratitude.  That is what I have felt several times over the years.

I often say that our family is enduring the journey, rather than the more familiar quote of "enjoying the journey".  But, I know that He is there.  I am grateful for the moments when I feel him close.  I know that we are not alone in our trials.  I do know this.  At times, my human weakness makes me not want to believe that, but then I'm quickly reminded to believe Him and in Him. 

When Elder Quentin L. Cook mentioned the time his young son exclaimed to his wife, "Hope you know, we had a hard time"--I understood how he felt.  

I am different today than I was eight years ago.  I'm more humble.  I notice others needs more and I understand how people feel that are suffering.  However, I've never felt more grateful in my entire life.  I have wonderful family, loving children and a husband that leads us righteously. 

By Kristie Wheeler

Pure Religion

Pure Religion

We learn in the New Testament, Epistle of James, Chapter 1 and verse 27, “Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world”.
During the April 2011 LDS General Conference, H. David Burton shared the following:
“Since the foundation of the world, the cloth of righteous societies has ever been woven from the golden threads of charity. We yearn for a peaceful world and for prosperous communities. We pray for kind and virtuous societies where wickedness is forsaken and goodness and right prevail. No matter how many temples we build, no matter how large our membership grows, no matter how positively we are perceived in the eyes of the world - should we fail in this great core commandment to "succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees,” or turn our hearts from those who suffer and mourn, we are under condemnation and cannot please The Lord and jubilant hope of our hearts will ever be distant.“
Let’s practice some form of Pure Religion today by following the example of the Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, by reaching out to someone around us. It doesn’t have to be a major project. It could simply be making a loaf of bread for someone or sharing a plate of cookies or anonymously paying for someone’s gas. There are so many small ways to brighten someone’s day. Starting today, pray for an opportunity to help someone. The Lord will place that opportunity in our path if we are watchful & sincere.

Mark Wheeler