stake conference weekend

I spent most of this weekend at church in one capacity or another. I didn't mind one bit.

Saturday

started with stake choir practice at 8am, which i didn't mind. i love singing. i do sing baritone, but between tenor and bass I am a bass. bass as in singer, not as in fish. anyways, i got to the church and no one was there, finally our choir director Jana showed up, lovely as always. found out that the practice had been moved back to 9am. so i just hung out and read, trying to use my time contructively. however, this never fails, whenever i want to do something productive something happens to interrupt me. so with my extra time i was reading my scriptures and felt to the need to read my patriarchal blessing. half way through reading, another ward which was there to clean the building decided to clean right where i was sitting. Two guys in particular decided to stand in front of me and just carry out a conversation. Here i was starting to feel the spirit and they come on over and goodbye spirit, well singing came and we practiced over 2 hours. the songs were beautiful. the first, the Lord is my Shephard, very soft and our part actually had some harmony and then the other was o light of life. an amazing and beautiful song. it really worked to the basses depth and we outnumbered the tenors 2 to 1 and so our sounds just came out and we did so in relative harmony. apparantly it sounded so good a few of the altos were in absolute tears and we had to stop. it feels so wonderful to sing together as a group to have our voices as one reflect the sounds of our hearts. well after we finished our ward was in charge of setting up chairs for stake conference, we did that for an hour. we probably setup several hundred chairs for the event. i went home because, well i was tired. got home and our water was turned off, a main water line for the complex had burst and so well, lets just say my need to use the facilities had to be put on hold, so i had to hold it the best i could. plus i needed to do my laundry and without water that is rather difficult. by the way, not having the bathroom available and doing my laundry had not correlary cause.
i needed to get back to church early for another practice, that night we had an adult session of stake conference. as part of that, we men of the choir were singing for that session. something I didn't know about until the end of our earlier practice, so i got the music and we practiced early, it turned out well and fortunately the brother next to me could hold a note and it helped me to keep my notes in tune. his name is scott wall, an older gentleman but a pretty good voice.
our speaker that night was elder marlin jepson of the first quorum of the seventy. a great speaker. He is also the Church Historian. Both he and his wife spoke and i loved their messages. His wife spoke basically about how we should treat one another. he spoke on how religion is changing to focus less on the sin and more on being a moral convenience. he stated that sin was wrong and something one shouldn't do, but now, sin was more accepted and allowed people to excuse their own responsiblities in avoiding and repending of sins.

Sunday

sunday morning was an early day, we had priesthood leadership and since i'm the ward mission leader i needed to be there. our visiting leader was president Sonne, president of the salt lake city North mission and Elder jepson, without his wife. both talks again were amazing, elder jepson wanted to emphasize how we as leaders need the spirit more in what we do and how we do it. he spoke on the choices each of us makes and how this reflects on our own progression. he spoke a bit on how the church over time has given more agency to the members of the church to grow and do works on righteousness on their own. he stated that when we choose to do good, what is the reward? progression, spiritual growth and eventually exaltation. he stated that to make agency work, we must be enticed by the one and the other, and that no one should be compelled to righteousness, but that we invite those we work with to act in righteousness so that we do not violate their agency and that through agency, they might attain a greater reward.
later, 9am, which was like minutes after our meeting ending, we had another choir practice. this one worked out well and the spirit again was so strong. i left momentarily to drive my car to the meeting house up the road to help free of my space for people that didn't need to drive that far. it is a good half mile walk, i didn't mind, got back and we practiced. Janna was there, again, amazing. others from our ward, scott cold, bradly coltrone. one other girl as well, but that was all. the other choir members really missed out on a great opportunity to sing. as the meeting started, i got more nervous, but as in any task, we really just need to do the best we can. the meeting started at 10am, we did a small number to start the meeting and then the speakers. all did well. we had the president of the salt lake city temple come and speak to us as well as his wife, with stirring messages of temple attendance and it's associated blessings. and then ended with elder jepson, again an amazing series of sermons in one, he tended to jump from one story to another, which somehow all seemed to mix. before you knew it 45 minutes had passed and he was wrapping up. we ending with our piece oh light of life. added to the spirit of the meeting and the nature of the song, the burnings of the Holy Ghost within me just about caused me to burst. my heart could barely contain myself. but 3/4s of the way through, i feelt my emotions overcoming and could not contain my tears. my voice before that carried with such resonance and clarity, with a power not of my own accord. as i felt the tears my voice could not sing, i composed myself for the final part and we finished such a beautiful song. beautiful because of the meeting and because of the Spirit of the Lord. during the closing prayer, my heart glowed so brightly, with the warmth of the spirit and i again wept. It is not often i feel such an outpouring of the spirit and though i have had such experiences before, i hope that i may continue to feel so in the future. i love weekends like this.