keep your promises.

This evening was the Relief Society broadcast for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Relief Society is the oldest and largest women's organization in the world! The purpose of Relief Society is to build faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and help those in need (visit mormon.org to learn more!). Once a year they have a broadcast the weekend before General Conference where women from all over the world, members of the church or not, can tune in and watch via television, internet, radio, etc. Lauren and I were the only ones home today and we decided to invite all the girls in our Relief Society to come to our apartment to watch it with us! We didn't think many would come but ten girls ended up coming to our apartment. It was a blast! We all munched on goodies and watched the broadcast intently. It was AMAZING!

Some of the counsel I received from it was this:
• covenant (a promise we make wish God) keeping is a way to show our love to Heavenly Father
• how much do we truly love the Savior?
• sometimes we don't realize we are keeping our covenants
• when we realize we are children of the covenant, we know who we are and what God expects of us
• Olivia, teach your children about the power of baptismal covenants
• do we recognize the ability of the Savior to "clean" us every week as we partake of the sacrament?
• the Lord allows us to be tried
• cling to your covenants
• listen more intently to the words being said in the temple
• seek the spirit during hard times and ask yourself, "Is this what Heavenly Father wants me to think of myself?"
• always remember the power of prayer
• how, when, and in what manner is what we can come to know through prayer
• reading and honoring the scriptures will lead us to eternal perfection
• as we take time for prayer and remember to turn to the scriptures, we will be blessed
• the love that Heavenly Father has for us never changes
• our testimony will be strong and deeply rooted as we continue to have daily prayer and scripture study

This weekend we have a special conference that is only given twice throughout the year. It's a weekend conference where the living prophet of God and his apostles and other general authorities will speak and counsel us on the things that God would want us to know. The speakers are not given a particular topic of any sort. They pray, fast, study, and pray some more to know what it is that they need to speak on that will help us. If you are interested in watching it, visit lds.org on Saturday morning at 10am (9am California time), Saturday afternoon at 2pm (1pm California time) and then the same times for Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon to view it live! I promise you that it will change your life. If you have any questions about your purpose in life, how to help strengthen the relationships within your family or anything completely out of the ordinary, I promise you that you will receive some sort of counsel next weekend. Go with a prayerful heart, listen intently, and act upon the answers you receive next weekend. Faith is nothing without action.

love,
Liv