Spring Conference 2014 and David Archuleta
This past weekend it was General Conference, and yes I did watch all sessions of general conference this time (well except for the priesthood session obvs...priesthood session is for the men)
So basically I thought conference was especially amazing this year. First off, my Facebook feed was blowing up with conference quotes, memes, videos, etc. This just made me get into the whole mood of general conference and I love the fact that so many people, just like me, are around the world watching these inspired messages. I don't know why but lately I've been a real moody brat, and maybe conference was there to change my outlook on a few things.
First message I got was to remind myself not to succumb my own will, but God's. For those reading this that believe in a God, he's not going anywhere. And he doesn't purposely sit back and watch us suffer. It probably saddens him at the most to see us make wrong choices and face these consequences, or have something unfortunate happen to us when we have absolutely no way of stopping or preventing it. And I'll bet he's glad once we've learned from our sad and painful experiences. But anyways, I'm kind of getting off track. In order to be happy, we should ground ourselves with what God would expect us to do. We really can't get around his laws any other way and it's the only way to truly be happy.
Second message was from a talk I really enjoyed. *Searches notes for quote...and finds out I didn't write it down but mentioned something about it on my twitter* Ah, okay so his name was Elder W. Craig Zwick (interesting name by the way) and he talked about Communication a little bit in his talk. As a Comm major, this excited me greatly and I love to discuss this topic, so please let me get all this out. He explained that in order to avoid corrupt communication, we must listen to each other and try to understand another's perspectives. I cannot stress how correct this statement is. Too often do we think that our way is the only way. I think this is not only apparent in our homes, but in the world and society for that matter! Even if we don't agree with another person, that doesn't give us the right to disrespect another person's opinion. Opinions are great! I absolutely love them! It gives us our voice in the world. I write to express my opinion. Other people speak, or march, or dance...or anything else that gets the point across. There's a problem with our world though, and I'm seeing it more often today. We attack people personally instead of listening to their opinions. We assume just because a person believes something that we don't, they are of the devil or something. Well, next time we do that, let's consider something: we could be wrong. Also, let's be courteous.
Third message: Holland. Holland gives the greatest talks, and he's like, my number one pick for a motivational speaker. A quote I actually wrote down from him this conference says,"Defend your beliefs with courtesy and compassion, but defend your beliefs." Maybe this kind of ties into the second message, but it's true. Do I need to even explain this because it's pretty self-explanatory. If you want to be a confident person, defend your beliefs and don't back down from what you do belief. Don't half believe in something. You're either in or you're out. Trust me, I need to work on this and so maybe this is what I needed to hear. But yes, when you defend those beliefs, don't go about it in a disrespectful manner, like I said. Jesus shared his beliefs in the perfect, compassionate way and people STILL hated him. But we can't help that. What we CAN help is the fact that we share our beliefs in a way that we don't cause even more confrontation than is needed. We don't need to yell or get angry to get our point across. And fighting fire with fire...well...you know the rest.
One last thing. In between sessions on sunday, there was a special on tv about David Archuleta coming back from his mission in Chile and it was called "Called to Serve". It was pretty exciting for me considering there's my future husband right there (unlikely) but it inspired me so much. When he talked about the sacrifice required for a mission, and the selfless service you give, it made me even more excited to go on a mission. Or maybe kicked that excitement back into me since it's possible I just forgot that excitement. It reminded me of the reason why I even wanted to go on a mission in the first place. Besides the fact that I wanted people to know about a God who loves them, I also wanted to go on a mission for the opportunity to completely forget myself and serve someone else. Rarely do I ever take the opportunity to serve someone, but I think this is one of the best ways. I want to go to my mission and love the people for every imperfection they have and I want to have an experience where I can learn and grow with these people. I want to know what it feels like to love like Christ did, and I want to know more of God's children. I want to develop relationships with these people and I want to serve them with all my heart, whether it be physical labor...or spiritual. Well, I'm out. Peace and Love.
-Ali :)
So basically I thought conference was especially amazing this year. First off, my Facebook feed was blowing up with conference quotes, memes, videos, etc. This just made me get into the whole mood of general conference and I love the fact that so many people, just like me, are around the world watching these inspired messages. I don't know why but lately I've been a real moody brat, and maybe conference was there to change my outlook on a few things.
First message I got was to remind myself not to succumb my own will, but God's. For those reading this that believe in a God, he's not going anywhere. And he doesn't purposely sit back and watch us suffer. It probably saddens him at the most to see us make wrong choices and face these consequences, or have something unfortunate happen to us when we have absolutely no way of stopping or preventing it. And I'll bet he's glad once we've learned from our sad and painful experiences. But anyways, I'm kind of getting off track. In order to be happy, we should ground ourselves with what God would expect us to do. We really can't get around his laws any other way and it's the only way to truly be happy.
Second message was from a talk I really enjoyed. *Searches notes for quote...and finds out I didn't write it down but mentioned something about it on my twitter* Ah, okay so his name was Elder W. Craig Zwick (interesting name by the way) and he talked about Communication a little bit in his talk. As a Comm major, this excited me greatly and I love to discuss this topic, so please let me get all this out. He explained that in order to avoid corrupt communication, we must listen to each other and try to understand another's perspectives. I cannot stress how correct this statement is. Too often do we think that our way is the only way. I think this is not only apparent in our homes, but in the world and society for that matter! Even if we don't agree with another person, that doesn't give us the right to disrespect another person's opinion. Opinions are great! I absolutely love them! It gives us our voice in the world. I write to express my opinion. Other people speak, or march, or dance...or anything else that gets the point across. There's a problem with our world though, and I'm seeing it more often today. We attack people personally instead of listening to their opinions. We assume just because a person believes something that we don't, they are of the devil or something. Well, next time we do that, let's consider something: we could be wrong. Also, let's be courteous.
Third message: Holland. Holland gives the greatest talks, and he's like, my number one pick for a motivational speaker. A quote I actually wrote down from him this conference says,"Defend your beliefs with courtesy and compassion, but defend your beliefs." Maybe this kind of ties into the second message, but it's true. Do I need to even explain this because it's pretty self-explanatory. If you want to be a confident person, defend your beliefs and don't back down from what you do belief. Don't half believe in something. You're either in or you're out. Trust me, I need to work on this and so maybe this is what I needed to hear. But yes, when you defend those beliefs, don't go about it in a disrespectful manner, like I said. Jesus shared his beliefs in the perfect, compassionate way and people STILL hated him. But we can't help that. What we CAN help is the fact that we share our beliefs in a way that we don't cause even more confrontation than is needed. We don't need to yell or get angry to get our point across. And fighting fire with fire...well...you know the rest.
One last thing. In between sessions on sunday, there was a special on tv about David Archuleta coming back from his mission in Chile and it was called "Called to Serve". It was pretty exciting for me considering there's my future husband right there (unlikely) but it inspired me so much. When he talked about the sacrifice required for a mission, and the selfless service you give, it made me even more excited to go on a mission. Or maybe kicked that excitement back into me since it's possible I just forgot that excitement. It reminded me of the reason why I even wanted to go on a mission in the first place. Besides the fact that I wanted people to know about a God who loves them, I also wanted to go on a mission for the opportunity to completely forget myself and serve someone else. Rarely do I ever take the opportunity to serve someone, but I think this is one of the best ways. I want to go to my mission and love the people for every imperfection they have and I want to have an experience where I can learn and grow with these people. I want to know what it feels like to love like Christ did, and I want to know more of God's children. I want to develop relationships with these people and I want to serve them with all my heart, whether it be physical labor...or spiritual. Well, I'm out. Peace and Love.
-Ali :)
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