An Apostolic Blessing

a note for my posterity....

We were so privileged to have the opportunity to hear from an Apostle of the Lord this weekend in church.

Elder Russel M. Nelson came and spoke at our Stake conference.

Guero was able to go to the leadership meeting as he was called the previous week to be in the Elder's Quorum Presidency in our ward. I am so pleased for him, because I know what great enthusiasm he has about magnifying that calling to the best of his ability... and he is so capable.

He really enjoyed the meeting. He said that during part of the meeting Elder Nelson took questions from the group and Guero was so impressed with his spirit and love of the scriptures. Guero said that he was especially inspired by some comments made about home teaching... and the important missionary work that is being done through faithful home teaching.

Unfortunately, he was getting the opportunity to go to Adult Session immediately following that, and I made him come home because earlier that day mom fell on her hike, broke her hip and was having surgery to have a plate and screws put in. I wanted to go to the hospital for mom. I made him come home so that he could take the kids.

On Sunday, we made the decision to hear the conference broadcast from about a mile and a half away into our own building. We got there an hour early and we were able to sit right up front on the soft seats!

President Farley was released, and a new Stake President was called. President Dave Williams. We are familiar with him from our last ward. He is a really special man. I look forward to working with him through my calling in Stake Primary.

Finally, I was able to hear Elder Nelson speak. It was so inspirational. I hope that I am able to remember most of what he said, I was wrestling a very cranky baby by that time.

He bestowed us, the Peoria AZ Stake with an Apostolic blessing. He advised us to teach our children that Heavenly Father lives, and loves us. We should teach our children that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and teach our children of His mission on the earth. The most poignant part in his talk for me was how he advised us to teach our children spirtual independance. My interpretation of this was that we should teach them how to listen to and respond to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. We should be "cheerleaders" on the side, but to allow them to make decisions about what is right and wrong on their own.

He told us to pray together as a family. And that each of us individually should pray night and day... just check in with our Heavenly Father. He told us to read scriptures as a family every day. He did with his children, even if he had to wake them up to do it... because he wanted his children to memorize the sound of their father's voice reading the scriptures to them.

We should teach our children about prophets. He mentioned how amazing it was that the Book of Mormon is being translated by the best translators in the world... and they can do only about a page a day, but that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon at a rate of ten pages a day!

We should prepare our children to serve missions. There is a need for young missionaries in the world right now, and a lot of times there are urgent needs in the mission field that are not being met for lack of worthy missionaries.

Teach our children about the Word of Wisdom and that keeping the word of wisdom will bless our lives with health. How it has become increasingly easy for us to keep the word of wisdom as so much health research supports its ideas, but that the newest plague that destroys families is pornography and that we should stay away from it.

I am so greatful for the opportunity to listen to Elder Nelson. It is so hard to know what it takes to be a good parent, and clearly the objective of his talk was to give us help in knowing what to teach our kids and how to teach them.