I loved General Conference, but first let me show a photo of what occured after the afternoon session on Sunday.
I baptized the twins! Elder Healthy was supposed to baptize the younger one, but, wait, who's that?
Let me introduce Elder Mohk! He's yet to have been a whole week on the Continent of Asia, but he is jazzed to be here! The bowl of noodles ended up mostly uneaten, but that's because I ordered them too hot. I think I need to let my trainee make more of his own decisions...
Our first week has been full of fun, including Amandine, french beans with almonds and lemon juice. There's also been crazy people, anti-Mormons calling us on the phone, and the usual fun that happens here in HK.
Elder Healthy went to Macau to open a new companionship there. It's the land of many dinner appointments, even more cheap buffets, and a lot of bus riding with little walking in between. Remember how I was whining about being fat? Yeah, that'll be Elder Healthy when he gets out of Macau in 2 months.
ANYWAYS
Now, back to General Conference, and the two major revelations I received that I'd like to share with all of my readers.
The first is the Age Change that happened a year ago (I was in HK at that time as well). I dreaded it. We'd have a bunch of idiot kids junking up the Mission, breaking all of the infrastructure we've built with the wards and branches here, being obnoxiously disobedient, and generally making the lives of us older Missionaries harder.
On Saturday, however, I was reminded of the principle that "The word of God is a stumbling stone and a rock of offense to the wicked". That hit me with new clarity that it specifically refers to the Age Change. I had been showing my unrighteousness by showing my resentment, and had failed to remember the one thing that makes the Church so loved by some and so hated by others.
Our standards don't change.
The only difference between before and now is we've got 18 year old Elders and 19 year old Sisters. They are all still required to live the same standards of worthiness, receive the same preparation and training, and do the same work as us old fogies. They may be younger, there may be a maturity gap, but the work of God still requires people who follow the higher law as taught by Jesus Christ.
The second revelation I had goes back 8 years to a deep-seated uneasiness I've felt ever since I attended a youth meeting of another faith. At the end of the virtually universal Christian meeting of praying, singing hymns, and reading the Bible, we all sat in a circle and talked about our walk with Jesus. We don't talk about anything called that in the Church, and it threw me off. As the people with all complete and restored Gospel, oughtn't we to talk about this kind of thing?
We do, a ton actually, I just didn't realize it until I heard a speaker use the phrase "walk with Christ" in Conference this weekend. See, the kids at that meeting way back all those years ago in the sixth grade talked about how much they were drawing closer to Jesus, how much they were trying more to love Jesus, and a lot of other things focused on the Savior that we also talk about. The thing that threw me off, I just realized, was that all the talk was focused solely on Christ.
As Christians, we Mormons do focus a lot on Christ. Like the Book of Mormon says;
2 Nephi 25:26
26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.
Our Eternal focus, however, is God the Father. We know that we can only return to our Father through the Atonement of Christ, that only through His redeeming grace can we receive everlasting happiness with our family members, but we keep in mind that the Savior is not the ultimate goal.
Returning to the presence of God, with the help of His Beloved Son, is our goal, the purpose of our creation, and the reason Jesus Christ atoned for our sins.
Now I'm beginning to understand it.
Love,
Elder J.E. O'Gara
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