Lately I have been involved in some wonderfully uplifting conversations with some close friends. We have been able to discuss politics, religion, values, education and a plethora of other topics together; all without judgement or discontent in the eye of disagreement.

On the flip side, I have experienced some conversations with other friends that were, for lack of a better term, a complete waste of good air. It seemed that regardless of what my views were, or how much I listened to and respected their views, unless they were in direct correlation with what the other person said or thought, I was chastised and mocked for my beliefs. I was called “old-fashioned,” “ill-informed,” and my personal favorite, “ignorant.”

It seems that the current definition of “discussion” is, “Give me my Truth, or I will give you my Hate.”

When did society come to a point that an opposing view, by nature of it being different from one’s own view, is wrong and ignorant? Haven’t some of the most rewarding ideas in our history come from open discourse of opposing views? (Think about it.. the Magna Carta, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, etc.)

I do not have much to say other than the questions posed in the previous paragraph. I enjoy open discourse and encourage others to listen to the views of those with whom they completely disagree. There might just be more in common than previously recognized.

My mind has been widened and my spirit has been uplifted by hearing beliefs and philosophies that are not my own.
For that perspective I am ever-thankful to Father in Heaven!

Today was the groundbreaking of the Rome, Italy temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Church president, Thomas S. Monson presided over the services. Here is a snippet from the groundbreaking, including some excited responses from the Italian saints:

To begin with, I would like to say that I have the most Loving, inspiring and spiritually-tuned Mother that I have ever known.

Since I was in the 6th grade, she has struggled with cancer in various forms. The past two years have been especially bad given that the cancer in her brain has grown, despite various surgeries and treatments. As this has happened, I have seen this beautiful woman slowly decay physically. Her speech began to slur, eventually leading to an inability to communicate at all. She lost her appetite, which left her unable to maintain body strength; leaving my Father, Brother and I to assist her with every facet of her life.

It has been our honor to assist her through all of this. Times have been tough; though I have constantly felt the Love of Jesus Christ resting upon our home.

Today we had one such moment that I will always treasure.

A lady from my Mom’s local church came by to visit with Mom and give her a beautiful necklace made just for her. We had the usual difficulty communicating with Mom, though she did seem to understand a little more clearly today than before. After her visit, I helped Mom finish her lunch and then helped her into bed.

Usually, it is quite a laborious task to get her into bed. With her unable to help, she is pretty much “dead weight”. But today, she helped quite a lot. Almost instantly though, she seemed to “wake up” from months of incoherence. She looked at me and said, “I love you so darn much, Derek!” I almost could not believe my ears! Not only had she said a full sentence, but she was able to put emphasis clearly on each word. I immediately sat down beside her and said, “I Love You too, Mama.”

..I should back up for a moment. You see, Mom’s ability to speak lapsed the most while I was in California this last July. Because I was gone then, I haven’t had the opportunity to converse with her since before I left. That made today all the more special to me.

We proceeded to have a conversation for several minutes. She expressed her Love for me, as well as how proud to have me as her son (though I jokingly say that second part was her medication talking!). I took a brief recess to call my Dad and Brother (they were at the store and work, respectively) to tell them to come home asap. I returned back to Mom to continue the conversation. She told me how she felt worried about us boys; wondering how we are doing. I assured her that though it has been hard, we Love her and are honored to care for her. I assured her that my Brother, Dad and I are well. She shared that she didn’t know what she wanted to do; to live with the pain or to pass on to our Father above. I promised her that as long as she wanted to stay, we would care for her and keep her comfortable; but when her time comes, I invited her to go home to Heaven.

Mom asked me to give her a priesthood blessing (as an Elder in the LDS Church I have the ability to do so). It was an uplifting and beautiful moment; being able to lay my hands on my Mother’s head and offer a blessing from her God meant just for her. Both of us had faces strewn with tears of joy and peace.

As our discourse continued, her speech began to lapse. Though there was the occasional word that gave hint to what she wanted to say. When my Dad and Brother arrived, we gathered around her and had a nice time talking and joking together as a family.

My Mother expressed well over two-dozen times today her great Love for all of us. Even when she was going to bed this evening she told my Dad how worried she was about my Brother and I. She is truly a magnificent Mother. During our discourse, we talked about family trips, conversations and even a few fights that we’d had. It gave me the opportunity to apologize, as her the same (though she didn’t have need to.)

Words cannot accurately express how I am feeling currently. The spirit of God has filled my heart and our home today. Whatever the future holds, I know that God is in it. That gives me great comfort. God is truly Good.

Today I just want to say that I Love my Mother. She has done so much for myself and my family and asked for near-to-nothing in return. It is an honor to be the son of Charlene Whitaker.

I Love You, Mommy.

180th Semi-Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Saturday Afternoon Session video feed.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ 180th Semi-Annual General Conference video feed.

The 180th Semi-Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
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Well, I have spent the better part of the past couple of hours pondering the words that were spoken during the Afternoon and Priesthood sessions today. More importantly though, I recall the feelings that came to me. This post will be quite brief, as most of what I remember are feelings that are, to me, very sacred and personal; things between myself and Father.

What I took away from the sessions was the great need to include my Saviour in my daily activities. He is, after all, the life and light of the world.

President Thomas S. Monson, the living Prophet of God, spoke about making choices in life.  He shared his “Three R’s of Choice”:

The Right of Choice:

He quoted President David O. McKay, “Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct that life is God’s greatest gift to man.”

The Responsibility of Choice:

Of this, President Monson said,  ”We cannot be neutral.There is no middle ground. The Lord knows this. Lucifer knows this. As long as we live upon this earth, Lucifer and his hosts with never abandon the hope of claiming our souls.”

The Results of Choice:

“All our choices have consequences. Some have nothing to do with our salvation have nothing to do with our salvation. Others, have everything to do with it.”

As he discussed those “Three R’s”, situations came to my mind where I made choices that I knew were not in harmony with the law of God. Since I desire to be with Him again someday, it is of eternal importance that my choices reflect that desire; both inwardly and outwardly.  Not to boast or have pride in myself (President Uchdorf gave a phenomenal talk on Pride, basing it on President Ezra T. Benson‘s talk “Beware of Pride”), but rather to show the happiness that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I wish that I could more accurately describe the thoughts, feelings and emotions that I have, but I think that perhaps I am meant to ponder some more.

But alas (again!), the best is yet to come!

Tomorrow has more in store!

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM MST: Music and the Spoken Word (live link)

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM MST: Sunday Morning Session (live link)

2:00 PM – 4:00PM MST: Sunday Afternoon Session (live link)

The 180th Semi-Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Twice during the Saturday session of General Conference today I heard Elder’s quoting a previous Prophet, Ezra Taft Benson. President Benson spoke of the importance of having a Prophet today; not just reading the words of deceased Prophets.

The following is a list of “fourteen fundamentals” that President Benson gave regarding Prophets and the importance of following them. Number fourteen is my favorite.

For the full article, see:

Liahona; June, 1981

“First: The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.

Second: The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.

Third: The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.

Fourth: The prophet will never lead the Church astray.

Fifth: The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.

Sixth: The prophet does not have to say “Thus saith the Lord” to give us scripture.

Seventh: The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.

Eighth: The prophet is not limited by men’s reasoning.

Ninth: The prophet can receive revelation on any matter–temporal or spiritual.

Tenth: The prophet may be involved in civic matters.

Eleventh: The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.

Twelfth: The prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.

Thirteenth: The prophet and his counselors make up the First Presidency–the highest quorum in the Church.

Fourteenth: The prophet and the presidency–the living prophet and the First Presidency–follow them and be blessed; reject them and suffer.”

(emphasis added)

“It is contrary to the design of heaven for the Lord to reaveal to us individually what he has already revealed collectively.” -?

“True success in life comes from true consecration of one’s life to the purposes of the Lord” Elder D. Todd Christofferson

The two quotes above really stuck out to me during this session. I do not remember the name of the Elder whom I reference in the first quote, but I will update the post once it is published one the Church website.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable session! Though the beginning of the session had some audio issues (which caused a pethora of my friends to text and call me pleading for a resolution. lol), I am grateful that it was promptly fixed.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave a heartfelt testimony to the members of the Church:

“We sustain you. That we return to you those same heartfelt prayers and that same expression of Love.
We all know there are special keys, covenants and responsibilities given to the presiding officers of the church. But we also know that the Church draws incomparable strength; a truly unique vitality from the faith and devotion of every member of this church.
Whoever you may be. In whatever country you live, however young or inadequate you feel or however aged or limited you see yourself as being. I testify that you are individually Loved of God, you are central to the meaning of his work -and you are cherished and prayed for by the presiding officers of his church.”

Often times, I feel that I lose sight of the fact that everyone plays an essential part in the plan of God. It is easy to forget that without the young girl at the grocery store, the man on the telephone trying to sell me the latest and greatest in home cleaning and the woman walking down the street with her pack of faithful children close behind –without each of these, the purposes of God would be bankrupt and void.

One life does matter.

I feel a sense of inspiration rising within myself to spread a helping hand out beyond my area of comfort. You see, my Mother has been struggling with her ailing health over the past several years. Father, Brother and I have dedicated ourselves to seeing to her care; feeding, cleaning, bathing and most importantly –talking with her. Our neighbors, friends and family have shown such Love and concern that I can hardly relate the great relief that we have felt as a family.

Such expressions of Christ-like Love have inspired me. They have inspired me to look not only within my own home; but to look to those very same neighbors that have helped to uplift and inspire my family. I hope to remember these feelings when times get tough. I hope to look out to others with a hand of concern and aide just the same as they have for me.

So many of the talks given during this session “hit home” to me. I am excited to read over the talks given during this session once they are available online .

But alas, the best, as they say, is yet to come!

The General Sessions will be available online at new.lds.org, radio.lds.org and various television and radio stations wordwide.
Saturday Afternoon session today: 2:00 PM MST (online, tv and radio)
Priesthood session today will be at 6:00PM MST at your local LDS church.
Music and the Spoken Word: Sunday at 9:00AM MST (radio.lds.org and radio)
Sunday Morning Session: 10:00AM MST (online, tv and radio)
Sunday Evening Session: 2:00PM MST (online, tv and radio)

The 180th Semi-Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The 180th Semi-Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Relief Society General Session video.