All that the Savior did

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the October 1983 Conference.
Elder Jack H. Goaslind has an interesting take on the meaning of missionary work:
Our call to cry repentance to all people is a direct consequence of the infinite and eternal Atonement. It is by teaching the gospel and administering the ordinances that the Atonement becomes effective in a person’s life.
I thought that was such an interesting insight! I guess it's really the same principle that makes us learn the most about parenthood not by HAVING parents, but by BEING parents. So of course we would learn more about salvation by participating in it than by just accepting it. I like that idea.

Elder Goaslind quotes Jesus declaring what His mission is (“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord”) and then makes this remarkable claim:
The conditions of our discipleship impose on us the identical mission, for [Jesus] said, “The works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do.” We are empowered, as necessary, to do all that the Savior did—except for the Atonement itself—in our labors to save our fellowmen. In fact, we are told that we must be “the saviors of men”…
The Lord has not left the accomplishment of this sacred labor to chance. Through sacred covenants he imposes this responsibility on all members of his kingdom, and simultaneously empowers us to fulfill these covenants. Even young children and youth have this sacred duty and also the power to do it.
I akready knew we are to be "saviors of men" in small ways, of course, as we try to follow the Savior—but for some reason I had never thought that might mean that we could do all that He did in pursuit of that goal. Not that we are trying to usurp His role or put ourselves on His level, but just that—Jesus wants so much for us to feed his sheep that he will empower us fully—with His own power—when we make the attempt! I think that is such a cool thought. And I love the idea that this power is given through the making of our own covenants, bringing the whole thing kind of full circle: Jesus saves us--> by letting us make covenants--> in which we promise that we will help save others--> by inviting them to make covenants with Jesus Christ themselves. There is power infused into that cycle at every turn! When I look at it like that, I wonder how I can ever doubt! It's all so beautifully simple, such a generous gift Christ gives us as soon as we accept Him—the chance to work with Him and grow to be like Him through doing His work!
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Cakelets, Greenery, Pockets

It's getting to be my favorite time of year! Bunny season. :) I like a late-April Easter—the Easter decorations got to be out from the end of March and all through April! We haven't had unbroken clear skies, but I don't mind a little rain because it makes everything so green.
This picture is not of rain, though. Just Teddy at the Aquarium:
People being BYU-y.
Cakes made in my new bunny "cakelet" pan. (That's what it was called when I bought it. And I think "cakelet" is a very cute word, much cuter than "cupcake.")
We're studying plants right now for school, and for one project we made terrariums. I love them! I don't usually keep many plants around the house (just one more thing to worry about!), but we've had a lot of them around during this unit for various activities and experiments, and I must admit it is quite nice. We've had colored flowers, and little tiny seed starts, and microgreens, and air plants. It has made it feel extra Spring-y inside!

Goldie wants to do math problems all the time these days—she seems to have a knack for seeing how numbers go together, to the point that all her older siblings want to show her off as some kind of savant. They are always telling me the hard problems they have devised for her—and how she answered every one correctly.
Girls on a sunny Sunday. That's my old dress, on Marigold.
A snowy day. But the snow is soon gone, this time of year!
Seb has been drumming on everything with my old drumsticks and mallets lately (did you know I played the drums in high school and college? I did.) and for awhile it seemed like every night when I was cooking dinner I would end up yelling "Who took my POT LID?!"—before I realized that Seb had appropriated every container in the house to be part of his drum set. One day he came upstairs to show me the foot pedal he had made for his bass drum. I am used to Seb making all kinds of things, but I was completely amazed that he'd figured out how to construct this perfectly-working mechanism!
Daisy made something great too—this cutest tiny Kleenex box for her dolls!
Sometimes my kids suddenly get seized with the desire to wear animal costumes for a few days. Here we have a round elephant.
Some bears.
And a large gorilla. Ziggy was leery of it.
But speaking of Ziggy. He is particularly funny these days. He talks a lot (in strange, funny half-sentences) and wants to wear everyone else's shoes around. He also wants to go outside all the time, and if he can't (or whenever you bring him in), he runs angrily screaming through the house and throws himself down dramatically in the closet or on the stairs. He also likes to sit by the oven on a little stool, saying "Mum! Mum!" (yum) encouragingly as the food cooks.
His hair is getting really long, too. One of the kids tried to make it stay up in the "poik" he used to always have, and it poked up like a unicorn horn!
Zig loves, loves, loves his siblings!! He is always begging to be picked up—and they usually oblige.
He also thinks the front of his shirt is a pocket, so he pretty much always looks lumpy and bumpy like this when he walks around the house. Heaven forbid he wears a regular shirt and pants, because the toys go right through and he's so annoyed by it! And sometimes the sheer number of things he stores in his "pocket" are out of control. I counted something like thirty little animals that fell out of the legs of his suit one day when I was changing his diaper. Monkey!
It's a good place to store his Taggie, too—
which he calls "Gaggie" and carries around with him whenever possible. If I try to leave it in his crib, he reaches an impossibly long arm through the slats and gets it anyway!
He still has a propensity to put himself into boxes. He likes to carry a box around the house, set it down, and get in it.
Goodness, we love him!
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No alternatives

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 1983 Conference.
My favorite quote from this conference session was by Elder Marion D. Hanks:
We understood before we left that premortal state that freedom is precarious, difficult. We knew that to love would make us vulnerable to heartbreak and pain and disappointment. But we had learned that the alternatives to love and freedom of choice cannot provide the climate for growth and creative capacity that can eventually lead us to a stewardship like our Father’s.
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He knows how to help us rise

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the October 1983 Conference.
Jesus Blessing Jairus’s Daughter (Christ Raising the Daughter of Jairus), by Greg K. Olsen
President Ezra Taft Benson's talk is one of those that surprises you—the kind where you read it the first time and think it's kind of obvious or expected, but then when you read it again you find all kinds of amazing things!

I especially liked pondering these things in this week leading up to Easter:
Faith in [Jesus Christ] is more than mere acknowledgment that He lives. It is more than professing belief. 
Faith in Jesus Christ consists of complete reliance on Him. As God, He has infinite power, intelligence, and love. There is no human problem beyond His capacity to solve. Because He descended below all things, He knows how to help us rise above our daily difficulties. 
Faith in Him means believing that even though we do not understand all things, He does. We, therefore, must look to Him “in every thought; doubt not, fear not.” 
Faith in Him means trusting that He has all power over all men and all nations. There is no evil which He cannot arrest. All things are in His hands. This earth is His rightful dominion. Yet He permits evil so that we can make choices between good and evil.
His gospel is the perfect prescription for all human problems and social ills. 
But His gospel is only effective as it is applied in our lives. Therefore, we must “feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.” 
Unless we do His teachings, we do not demonstrate faith in Him.… 
What then is the answer to the question “What is to be done?” concerning the problems and dilemmas that individuals, communities, and nations face today? Here is His simple prescription: 
“Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. 
“… Believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.” (Mosiah 4:9–10; italics added.)
I especially liked that part about helping us "rise above our daily difficulties." Something I think about fairly often is how the ultimate, incomprehensible pain of Christ's atonement is really only meaningful to us in tiny, personal glimpses. It's easy to see that some of the best and most compassionate work Jesus did was to accept the pain of—I don't know, truly agonizing things, like the pain of starving in a concentration camp, or the pain of losing a child unexpectedly, or the pain of abuse. But for me, it seems just as amazing to think about how he knows exactly the pain of my hurt knee, or my headache, or my embarrassment when I do something stupid. 

It seems fitting for a God to absorb the grand and noble sufferings, but to experience my own almost embarrassingly trivial pains—my "daily difficulties"—truly seems like "descending below all things," and knowing He did THAT that increases my love and gratitude for the Savior all the more.
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Things I liked from General Conference

Sometimes I think the day after General Conference is the saddest day—it is hard to go back to regular life! But I loved this Conference and learned a lot. And discovered anew that I have plenty of things to work on! :)

You'll be relieved to know (I'm sure it's been on your mind) that I got a new notebook since last October, so I didn't have to use the back cover to take notes on the Seventies' talks.

Here are some phrases and ideas that stood out to me:

President Nelson:
Position yourself to have experiences with God!
President Eyring:
• Praying together as a family is a crucial part in making the home sacred.
• The temple is the best place to gain a love for heavenly places.
Talks I loved but didn't write concise quotes from:
• Elder Holland's
• Elder Bednar's
• Elder Brook P. Hales'
Elder Renlund:
• When you receive any blessing, you can conclude you have obeyed the associated law.
• Our actions approach zero—but they are NOT zero!
• "I would've filled up, went on, and prayed again."
Sister Craven:
There is no right way to do the wrong thing!
[Me: This includes arguing with a teenager. Once I enter the argument, no matter how correct I am (and I am always correct, naturally🙄)—I become wrong!]
Elder David P. Homer:
• At critical moments, we will hear multiple voices competing for our attention. We must listen to the right one!
• "A hyper-intellectual stupor of thought" [such a great and descriptive phrase!]
Elder Juan Pablo Villar (who has the happiest face I have ever seen):
When we pray for a spiritual gift, God will give us opportunities to develop that gift—not simply the gift itself.
Elder Kyle S. McKay:
The "immediate goodness of God" comes to all who call upon him with real intent and full purpose of heart. It brings not immediate deliverance, but immediate peace and hope.
[I can vouch for that—I have experienced it multiple times myself.]

Other posts in this series:

General Conference: My Own Possibilities—by Jan Tolman
General Conference Notes—by G
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Beds, boxes, butterflies


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