Elder Ballard, an Apostle of God Shook My Son's Hand!

What a spiritual feast we have had these last 2 weeks! I am overwhelmed with desire to become better, that I'm tempted to do nothing. But I will not do nothing! I will do a little each day, a little better than I did yesterday. That's what God expects of us, and I have felt His love so strongly in these to weeks: His love for me, and His love for His children. Please check out General Conference! It is so inspiring and uplifting!

Working back from this weekend, Elder M. Russel Ballard, a living apostle, came to the Kirtland Stake Conference, our Stake Conference. What a back-breaking job the prophet and apostles have! Elder Ballard spoke 7 times in 2 days, had meetings all day each day, and directly after he finished our stake conference today, he (and his wife who accompanied him to everything, the saintly woman) was hopping on a plane to Missouri to speak at the Liberty Jail (where the Prophet Joseph Smith had been imprisoned). I'm tired just attending 2 of the events of the weekend! It is a testimony to me that these men in their 70's 80's and 90's do this every weekend all year long for the rest of their lives! They certainly wear out their lives in the service of the Lord. I'ts a witness to me that these men have the help and strength of the Lord to do what they do.

How I wish my hands would allow me to share every story and feeling from this stake conference. I can't. So I will just say that it was a miracle, and I want so very much to do the Lord's will. I want to listen to His Holy Spirit, to quickly heed promptings without delay.  I want to share the gospel with everyone I see, and to be a missionary every day. I want to be the best mother I can.

On Saturday night, there was a session of stake conference for the adults. Since John is still a baby, well... kind of, we brought him along. He was a docile little angle. Seth tried to rock him to sleep in the foyer, but he wanted to be part of the fun, which apparently constituted a 10:00 pm bed time.

Anyways, we were on the aisle which Elder Ballard walked past to leave. He shook Seth's and my hand, but what was more important to me was that he smiled at John and shook his hand. I want John to know like I know that this man is a chosen apostle of God. I know he's too little to remember or understand, but someday I will tell him. "That man shook your hand. He's a special witness of the Savior. Will you follow what he tells you is best to do? He's telling you what Jesus would tell you if He were here."

I thought of the Nephite mothers and fathers in The Book of Mormon. After Jesus heals all of their sick and afflicted, "he commanded that their little children should be brought. So they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, and Jesus stood in the midst; and the multitude gave way till they had all been brought unto him." Those parents must have been so very eager to bring their children close to the Savior. and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them. And when he had done this he wept again; And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones. And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them." I wasn't there, but I am so glad that I can read about it, and I believe it with all my heart. I know that Christ loves all children, and I was reminded of that this weekend.

I hope I'll be able to write more about what I learned this weekend.  For now I will leave you with this thought that Elder Ballard said of women in a recent BYU address 

“None of us can afford to stand by and watch the purposes of God be diminished and pushed aside,” he said. “I invite particularly you sisters here and throughout the Church to seek the guidance of heaven in knowing what you can do to let your voice of faith and testimony be heard. …

Men and women are equal in God’s eyes and in the eyes of the Church, but equal does not mean that they are the same. Although responsibilities and divine gifts of men and women differ in their nature, they do not differ in their importance or influence.

“Men and women have different gifts, different strengths, different points of view and inclinations,” Elder Ballard said. “That is one of the fundamental reasons why we need each other. It takes a man and a woman to create a family, and it takes men and women to carry out the work of the Lord in the Church.”