Conference Talk as requested

Hello Blog World.

Monica, this is for you. I'm sure others might want to read too, so let them know where they can find it.

This is my script for the talk I gave in stake conference at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this past Sunday:

1. Read first verse of Be Still My Soul. "Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side. With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change He faithful will remain. Be still my soul, thy best thy Heavenly Friend through thorny ways leads to a Joyful end.”


2. Why do we have Adversity? What is its role in our lives?
   a. Moses 1:39 “This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”
   b. D&C 58: 3-4 “Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.”
   c. Opposition in all things – If we have happiness we must also experience sadness.
   d. We have come to this earth to be tested
   e. “It is not on the pinnacle of success and ease where men and women grow most. It is often down in the valley of heartache and disappointment and reverses where men and women grow into strong characters” (in Conference Report, Stockholm Sweden Area Conference, 1974, 70).
   f. Dallin H. Oaks, 1995 “Like the mortal life of which they are a part, adversities are temporary. What is permanent is what we become by the way we react to them.” “Adversity will be a constant or occasional companion for each of us throughout our lives. We cannot avoid it. The only question is how we will react to it. Will our adversities be stumbling blocks or stepping-stones?”


3. My husband and I recently went through some of the hardest adversity that I can remember
   a. Last October, Our first baby was diagnosed with a condition that caused her brain to grow improperly.
   b. I remember not quite understanding how serious this was until many hours after being told about it.
   c. My immediate reaction was, “well we all have our little challenges – what is there to be done.”
   d. The other reactions to this news: We cried, we prayed, we asked for blessings for both Byron and me from my father. My mother shared a scripture that gave us strength. This was a very spiritual time – and we were blessed to have wonderful parents and grandparents to rely on for comfort and strength and wisdom.
   e. We fasted and prayed and I felt our family come closer together through this challenge. Not only did our extended family grow together, but mostly I felt closer to my husband as we worked through our fears and turned to the Lord in fasting and prayer for guidance. We exercised our faith that our child would live and in time, be healed.
   f. When I was 33 weeks along in my pregnancy I had premature labour and we went to the hospital where within 10 hours we had a beautiful baby girl.
   g. Due to the condition of her brain development, Amelia did not live longer than 7 hours.


4. I don’t know all the reasons of why Amelia was not supposed to stay. I don’t know if it was because I was supposed to learn what I’m learning - or if it was that she has a great talent that is needed on the other side of the veil - or both.
   a. Early on in this trial, I thought of my situation as being similar to that of Abraham and the faith he had to be willing to sacrifice his son Jacob.
   b. At the time I didn’t know that my baby would not be able to live very long.
   c. But I considered many scenarios and many times my mind came back to my willingness to take care of this child no matter how difficult it may be. I thought perhaps that if I had enough faith and willingness that my story would be like Abraham’s where he was not required to go through with the sacrifice of his son Jacob.
   d. Being able to have faith at this time was easier than I thought, because of the things that I had been taught growing up in a family that is so strong in the gospel.
   e. Having as much trust in the Lord’s plan was harder in the weeks following Amelia’s death. But again, the gospel messages that I was taught as a child, a youth, and a young adult have comforted me and helped me through.


5. I read an article in April Ensign called Faith and Infertility. I was comforted by the strong examples of the couples who shared their experiences. This following excerpt is something that I connected with personally and found peace in:
   “Melody Linton recalls sitting in testimony meeting and hearing new mothers say things like, “God trusted me enough to bless me with this baby.”
   “I can understand why they said it,” Melody admits. “It’s a fair statement. But in my situation without a child, I couldn’t help but think, ‘God doesn’t trust me.’
   “I don’t know that I felt angry at Heavenly Father, but I felt forsaken by Him,” she continues. “I felt so left out. Why were all these other women getting to experience pregnancy? I had tried to live my life worthily and do things I knew to be correct. So why wasn’t it happening for me?”
   Eventually, Melody found solace in the writings of Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) on adversity. 4
   “The tables turned for me,” she says. “I began to think, ‘Why not me?’ I’m strong enough to handle this.” She knew that with the support of her husband, Curtis, and in the strength of the Lord, she could face her challenges.
   Brenda points out that it’s important to continue to trust in the Lord, even when what is happening isn’t what we want. “For a while, I thought if I had enough faith, I would be cured,” she says. “But sometimes having faith means trusting in and listening to the Lord even when we are not cured. What we want won’t always match what He has planned for us.”
   She recalls a Sunday School lesson in which a bishopric member shared an important message about faith—one she’s clung to ever since. He said, “When someone has an ailment or an illness and they are healed as the result of a blessing, their faith is being strengthened. But for those who aren’t healed but continue faithful, their faith is being perfected. The first is a faith-promoting experience. The second is faith-perfecting.” End Quote
   


6. a. I have been so blessed in my life. This was a challenge that HF knew I could handle and He knew it would strengthen my faith.
   b. I don’t have perfect faith, yet. But I do know that I was humbled by my experience with my daughter’s condition and I’m grateful for the time that I had to grow with her and to experience a lot of spiritual growth because of her condition - and since then a lot of patience and even more trust in HF and his plan of salvation.


7. The Prophet Joseph Smith received these words from the Lord when he was in Liberty jail:
   a. “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes” (D&C 121:7–8).


8. Plan of Salvation – the real key to accepting the will of God & enduring Adversity. 2Nephi 9:5-7, 10.
   a. Key of comfort is understanding the plan is not our plan but it is His plan.


9. Adversity in my life has the role of a teaching tool. It gets my attention and requires me to stop and be less busy and think about the essential things in life.
   a. The gospel helps me get through adversity because I know about the plan of salvation. I know that I will be with my daughter and the rest of my family, both immediate and extended, in Eternity. Because of the teaching of the prophets, comforting words from others who have experienced similar heartaches, love of family and friends, and covenants that I have made in the temple, I have been able to and will be able to endure adversity in my life.


10. In Closing – Hymn 182 has a few insightful lines that stood out to me and I hope to conclude with some of my thoughts that I had after singing this hymn in sacrament meeting back in March.
    a. “And dies that we might live.” – Not only live again in eternity, but through time here on earth. If we turn to the Atonement of Jesus Christ we will be able to continue to live and have Joy. Life is happy and I have hope and can be patient because of His Atonement and sacrifice for me.