Sunday best...

We got to watch two sessions of General Conference yesterday at the Stake Center here in Wien. We even got to watch the Sunday morning session live, so it was fun knowing that everyone back home was watching and hearing the exact same messages from our living prophets as I was.

Its so interesting comparing my feelings of the two catholic masses I have gone to here, to one of our church meetings, whether a normal sacrament meeting or the twice a year event of General Conference. I love the gospel. I used to hate wearing dresses or skirts, but now I like it. And I love getting dressed up for church and having an excuse to wear my "Sunday Best."

I think I paid more attention to this years conference than I have ever done before. I'm sure actually being in a church building instead of sitting on my comfortable couch helped. And I kept good notes too!

I especially enjoyed Sis. Dalton's talk on being a virtuous daughter. We really do have the strength to do anything with the help of the Lord. We need to be examples to everyone around us, because there is so much power in a righteous example. Being on a BYU study abroad I wouldn't have thought I would have much opportunity or need to be a good example as a member of the church. But I have made some new friends here and I hope they can see how important the gospel really is to me and I hope I convey the gospel in a good light to them. It is so amazing to me how strong the members are here. They had to go to highschool with out a support group of friends who are also members of the church. They had to be the examples (maybe the only one in their whole school) for their other friends, to be the one who dresses modestly, who doesn't drink or smoke. I am so impressed with them, and their strength.

I also expecially enjoyed Elder Bednar's talk on prayer. So often I forget to pray to the Lord, to really pray, in earnest. I end up only intently praying when I find myself in times of need. I found it really helpful at the beginning of this year, when I was going through a tough time, to only say prayers of gratitude. I'm sure there were things I wanted to ask for, but I made the personal decision to only give thanks in my discussions with the Lord and during that time I felt so close to Him.

I am so grateful we have living prophets today, How lucky are we that we have the truth in these treacherous times. More than ever we need to listen to and heed their words. I am so thankful that I have learned this throughout my life.