Stake Conference

Wow! It was awesome. Elder Fallabella from the 70 was there and he was great. Each of the sessions was a phenom. Saturday afternoon he had all the elders come. And since Ty is on a mini mission he was there also. He spent a lot of time talking about sharing the gospel and how we can improve in that. I remember to open our moths, smile and come and see. Open our moths he had a story of how he just started talking to a restaurant worker where he was eating and it turned into a referral. And later he got word that he had been baptized. Along with his wife and daughter. And for just starting with a smile his wife met a government official who worked with youth to provide scholarships and the like. He as invited  to speak to the youth of a stake and along the time he had been investigating the church. He announced to those youth that he was getting baptized. And he likened the work we as members need to do to be like the Savior. When asked the question he didn't really answer but said "come and see."  So we can invite others into our homes and just be friends.  Those that are prepared will want to know more and will feel the goodness of the home environment. I invited an investigator to come but they were leaving town. Too bad for them. 

Saturday evening Was the highlight for me. Good talks in general but they had a panel of four youth. All through the evening they were asked questions of what they thought. Hailey Z was one of them, and Jessie Mueller was another.   They talked all about the challenges of youth and especially the impact the come follow program of teaching. How it was preparing them differently than before. They did a remarkable job. In the end he talked about the major decisions we make. Baptism, missions, then marriage in the temple and children. If we have five children the. The decisions we make affect them. So he had five people stand up. Then if each of those make those decisions in righteousness then they have five children. Now those four youth could see 25 more people standing. Then if they do the same their "great grandchildren" would be up to another 125. And one more time and he had the entire congregation standing. It was an awesome visual about the impact and importance of our choices. Everyone was there. Gavin, Ty on his mission, Lys and mom and I. 

Sunday morning we had an early special stake council with Elder Fallabella. It was very interactive and a great example of how to council together. We discussed what we can do, actionable items, to better prepare young men and women to be ready to serve.  If you have any good ideas, please share them. Finally we had the general session and had good speakers and talks about setting and achieving your vision. 

After that I got the pleasure of conferring the Melchizedek priesthood on Gavin. That was really nice so he is an Elder now. Wow!

I got the Mercury fixed with Gavin's help on Friday night. It was quite a job to replace the intake manifold that was causing misfires in the engine. Then Saturday I charged up the air conditioning and did a special fix on the side of the seats that were cracked and now it is running and looking so good. I worked some with Gavin again on the motorcycle and we are so stumped. We can't figure what is wrong. It just won't spark so it won't run. We will try some more tomorrow. It will just be Gavin and I since mom and Lys will be at camp. 

Love you forever. I cling to the blessings of the temple. 

Dad

3John 1:4