On the first Saturday in October, we already knew what we would be doing that weekend; it was time to prepare for Break-the-Fast....it was also Conference Weekend. Conference is what members of our church call "General Conference".
General Conference occurs twice a year in Salt Lake City, Utah at our fabulous Conference Center that seats 21,000 people.
Our Church Presidency and other church leaders broadcast their messages to a world-wide audience and the Tabernacle Choir inspires us with their music. If you have a computer, television or radio, you can hear conference or download the talks and listen when it is convenient. The messages they give are intended to uplift us, warn, teach and encourage everyone, not just members of our church, in times when living a Christian life can be difficult. Latter-day Saints love and admire their prophet and his apostles because they are men of God chosen to lead and guide us in these "latter-days".
President Monson in the middle, with Pres. Eyring and Pres. Uchtdorf; together they make up the First Presidency.
The only problem in Latvia and other places in the world...is the difficulty of translating from English to their native tongue. The entire two days of Conference is recorded and translators work hard for two weeks to make sure each talk is translated into their language accurately. After all that hard work, two weeks after conference is broadcast in Salt Lake City, it is broadcast at church in Latvia.
Elder & Sister Davis watched conference on their ipad the day AFTER conference. We knew if we wanted to be inspired we had to watch conference in English. Translations usually put us to sleep.
Meanwhile....what about those 30 hungry kids that usually show up for Break-the-Fast? We had to get cooking! We decided to make three pots of Sister Boswell's bean and vegetable soup, which is easy to make but still requires chopping, browning, pouring and stirring. The messy kitchen below is the result:
The soup is delicious and filling...
Two stockpots and a Crockpot full of soup.
We do most of the work on Saturday and just reheat on Sunday.
The apartment was clean and ready...
Elder Davis and Rihard were just waiting for everyone else to show up after church. The Russian branch meets in the morning and most of them stay at church or come over early to our apartment until the Latvian branch is finished at 4:00 PM. We leave right after sacrament meeting is over to get the food ready and dinner is served promptly at 5:00.
We forgot to get pictures of everyone when they arrived (actually we were too busy when everyone arrived!). President Blums, president of Riga 1st Branch, had been asked to give a spiritual presentation. We only had 22 YSA's show up this time . We didn't realize how many of our YSA's were doing the translating for General Conference into Latvian and Russian. Thus we had a smaller turnout...and actually had some leftover soup!
And what did we learn from Conference?
Some exciting news!
President Monson announced a change in the age for missionary service. They have lowered the age requirement for young men to 18 years of age (from 19) and young women to 19 years of age (it was 21). There were surprised and happy expressions on many faces at conference at this announcement. Within two weeks there was a 400% increase in missionary applications. These are highlights from talks given that especially inspired Elder & Sister Davis:
"The Holy Ghost works in perfect unity with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, fulfilling many important roles and distinct responsibilities. The primary purpose of the Holy Ghost is to bear witness of God the Father and of His Son Jesus Christ, and to teach us the truth of all things. A sure witness from the Holy Ghost carries far more certainty than a witness from any other source...."
"Immersion in the scriptures is essential for spiritual nourishment. The word of God inspires commitment and acts as a healing balm for hurt feelings, anger or disillusionment. When our commitment is diminished for any reason, part of the solution is repentance. Commitment and repentance are closely intertwined."
President Uchtdorf spoke how people, with the click of a mouse can "connect" with thousands of "friends" without facing a single one of them. "Technology can be a wonderful thing, and it is particularly useful when we cannot be near our loved ones.... However, I believe that we are not headed in the right direction, individually and as a society, when the most frequent way we connect with family or friends is by re-posting humorous pictures, forwarding trivial things, or linking them to sites on the Internet.... If we fail to give our best personal self and undivided time to those who are truly important to us, one day we will regret it.
And that is just three of the 34 talks given! We were spiritually fed when we watched the conference talks each day.
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