Sister Beck, Sister Cook and Elder Posey

Yesterday was one of those days that I will likely never forget. The General Relief Society President, Sister Beck, the 1st Counselor in the General Young Women's Presidency, Sister Cook, and our Area Seventy, Elder Posey, put together a Women's Conference in the Tifton, Georgia chapel. One of the perks to being a Branch President is that I often get invited to gatherings like that even though I am not a sister. I was an usher.

The Meeting Begins
Our leadership meeting was supposed to begin at 10:00 a.m. The speakers were coming from Augusta where they had attended a similar meeting the night before. By 10:05 the speakers had still not arrived and the building started to get a little noisy with anxious attendees eagerly awaiting the speakers' arrival. Kind of like being in a church building with two wards that meet at back to back times in the chapel. The overlap always seems to get a little noisy.

Our Stake President, President Watson, stood up and asked the congregation to sit quietly while we waited. About 5 minutes later the noise was again starting to crescendo when the three speakers walked in. Immediately, silence fell over the room and the entire congregation arose. It is difficult to describe, but at the moment they entered the room it was filled with the Spirit and it seemed as if concourses of angels had just come into the room with them. At least that is how it felt to me. That feeling stayed with me throughout the meeting.

Sister Beck's Theme
The main theme I took away from Sister Beck is that we are a faith based business and that we are in the business of saving souls. She spoke about serving others and getting away from thinking of ourselves first. She spoke of raising our children with an eye always on the temple. She talked about the power of being united in our visiting teaching efforts and reclaiming lost souls. She defended a talk she gave in General Conference titled "Mothers Who Know" after an antagonistic sister chided the contents of the talk as unrealistic given how busy women are today. She said homemaking is just that home making. It is not easy to make a home. A good home that is like the temple won't just fall into your lap. It takes hard work and dedication. I really enjoyed her talk.

Sister Cook's Theme
Sister Cook's theme was centered around the new Value lesson of "Virtue" in the Young Women's Personal Progress book. She had several mothers and daughters come to the podium to talk about how much they loved and appreciated each other. She wanted us to see the value in passing down righteous values to generations of righteous daughters.

Elder Posey's Theme
Elder Posey didn't have much time to speak but his theme was on "Rescuing" our lost brothers and sisters. He said that it one of the main things hea has taken away from his meeting with President Monson.

What a great meeting. I find that the principles taught in most of these types of meetings are the same as those we can find in previous talks given by our Church leaders. The thing that was of most value to me was the Spirit I felt while the messages were delivered and the thoughts that came into my mind as they were delivered.