Crazy Conference Weekend

Yesterday (conference Saturday), I hired Kyle Nackos to come help me finish the storage shelves that I built in the basement. Here's a photo of the finished product - the shelves turned out really well:

We still need to organize all of the boxes in the garage and move them to the basement. I may actually stay home from work tomorrow morning so that we can start tackling this huge project. It has been making Amy a little stressed out, and with only 2 weeks left before the baby comes, I want to do everything I can to reduce her stress, so I will do what I can to make this happen. I do expect work to be pretty busy over the next couple of weeks, but I'm going to work as little as possible so that I can be home to help get things ready for the baby.

The basement is coming along really well, though. Check out this photo of the finished playhouse under the stairs - it looks awesome!

I was able to buy a new LG TV for the rec room downstairs and I installed it on the wall. I was also able to work with Kyle to get the movie screen and the projector installed in the theatre room downstairs. Rob was also able to get the in-ceiling speakers installed and they look great. We are definitely getting close.

On the topic of General Conference - even in the midst of all of the craziness, I still feel like I was touched in a positive way by the great messages that were shared during general conference. Here are a couple of the talks that really had a large impact on me:

Elder Holland - this year, he was the first speaker on Saturday morning and once again - he rocked his talk and really got the conference off to a good start. This year, his topic was centered on the fact that life is hard, life is tough, it won't always be easy, but that's okay, that's why we need to work hard together and rely on The Lord. I plan to re-read his talk ASAP.

• Elder Bednar - there was a great analogy of a truck getting stuck in the snow and not being able to move until a full load of wood was added in the back - then it worked great. Elder Ballard then taught us how we all need to have a load in life and we need to be happy with that load because we can't progress without a load.
• President Eyring - in the priesthood session, he gave one of the best talks I've heard from him, at least for me. He mentioned that we need three things in order to be "hero's" as priesthood leaders. We need to be prayerful (on our knees every morning and evening), willing to serve at all times and completely honest. I consider myself to be a worthy and solid priesthood holder, but I've never really looked at myself through this new set of metrics. I really can do much better with my prayers - I should be on my knees in personal prayers every morning and night. I'm pretty happy with my willingness to serve, but I could be more pro-active with this. Finally, honesty is another important topic. I do feel like I try to be honest in all things, but I know that I could do better. Work is definitely the area of most improvement - my job requires that I "withhold truth" from my customers. As a leader, I need to do better at influencing more improved "honesty" and "integrity" at work!
• President Uchtdorf - both of his talks rocked this year. In the priesthood session, he spoke of "being asleep" in our priesthood duties and made a comparison back with Rip Van Winkle. Very good message. This morning, his talk was on gratitude and I was very impressed with his message. We need to be grateful at all times - not just went the trials are over!! He worded this message really well!
• There were several talks aimed at the importance of the priesthood during the priesthood session. The talks were aimed directly at the growing group that have been pushing for allowing women to hold the priesthood. I think they were really well done and hit the mark perfectly.

I'm really looking forward to getting this last session in print so that I can read the talks again. Here is my plan for how I want to change my behaviors based on what I've learned this weekend:

• Personal Prayer - morning & night
• Scripture Study - this needs to have a higher priority than exercise
• Family Prayer & scripture study - I plan to push harder to ensure that we read and pray together as a family every day!!
• Honesty - I want to look for ways to influence my co-workers to have increased integrity

 

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