I'm glad I got up this morning...

For those of you who are not LDS, this entry may not interest you too much but I wanted to make sure that I made mention of this morning. I had to get up early (early for a Saturday, anyway) to go the Conference Center in SLC for a regional priesthood leadership meeting. It was an excellent meeting. President Hinkley's son Richard was the first speaker and he talked about the need for more missionaries throughout the world. There are about 8000 less missionaries right now than there were a few years ago but he said they are going out much more prepared and so are more effective in the mission field. He did give some caution to local leaders though to not impose stricter standards than what the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve have set, as I guess this has been somewhat of a problem. I was surprised by how much he reminded me of President Hinkley as he spoke. Next Elder Ballard from the Quorum of the Twelve spoke. He talked about the need to be more spiritually converted. He said too many are convinced of the truthfulness of the gospel in their minds but don't have a really strong conviction in their hearts. It really made think of myself and how converted I am to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Finally we got to hear from the Lord's Prophet, Thomas S. Monson. He spoke of the need to be diligent in caring for those around us who need it the most and to always do it in the spirit of love and compassion. As he spoke I could not help but feel so strongly that this man did indeed speak on behalf of the Savior and that he is as much as a Prophet as Moses or any other of the ancient Prophets. So, I am so glad that I resisted the temptation to just shrug this meeting off and get a few extra Z's this morning.