An Easter Feast

We look forward to LDS semi-annual General Conferences with a bit more excitement every year. 

Conference always falls on the first weekend in April, and this year, it fell on Easter weekend -

such an appropriate way to celebrate Christ's Resurrection.

As is our aging, our sorting of our priorities is happening at a seemingly ever-increasing rate. 

After listening to each conference, we come away lifted and wanting to be better.

So, we listened to each speaker with great anticipation.

The music was inspired!

I got teary almost every time the Tabernacle Choir sang, and the invited choirs sang some gorgeous stuff, too.

Nothing invites the Spirit like His music.

I pulled this photo of our First Presidency from the internet, and it is a bit blurry, 

but I love seeing these wonderful men and prophets, 

Presidents Eyring, Monson and Uchtdorf 

 being joyful, and it depicts the happiness they bring to me. 

Five new members of the First Quorum of the Seventy were announced:

Kim B. Clark (outgoing President of BYU Idaho - Clark Gilbert, Ryan's wife, Emily's, brother is the new President);

Allen D. Haymie; Von G. Keetch; Hugo Montoya; and Vern P Stanfill.

Three new temples to be built were announced:

Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 

Bangkok, Thailand and Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The following are some of the quotes from some of the talks that I loved:

On Saturday, Wilford W. Andersen likened symbolically musical terms 

to truly incorporating Gospel principles into the lives of our families.

I can teach you to dance, but you have to hear the music.

If you are not hearing the music of the Gospel in the home - keep practicing!

Some other great quotes:

Saint:

A sinner who keeps on trying. (Dale G. Renlund)

The decision to believe shapes all of our other decisions.  (Whitney Clayton)

How we live our religion is far more important than what we say about our religion. (Robert G. Hales)

Charity is not a duty, but a joy! (Joseph Sitati)

On Easter morning, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland delivered a powerful message. One quote from it:

Today we celebrate the gift of victory over every fall we have ever experienced, 

every sorrow we have ever known. 

President Uchtdorf spoke after Elder Holland and talked in depth about how:

God loves us deeply, completely and everlastingly.

I am eager to get my Ensign to read and study each talk over again.

There is so much profound thought, you can scarcely take it in. 

We missed not being with any of our kids and grandkids on Easter,

but  in the quiet solitude, 

Roger and I enjoyed discussing the Conference talks with each other 

and the sweet contemplation 

of our love for the Savior and our gratitude for His Atonement.

Besides our Spiritual feast, I tried to make us a yummy Easter dinner.

Spring means lamb to me, so I marinated lamb chops in a garlic/herb paste, 
then Roger barbecued them, and you can't eat lamb chops without mint jelly! 
I also made twice-baked potatoes and steamed asparagus.

I baked an angel food cake, then, to use a Food Network term, I made a deconstructed berry trifle.

LDS General Conference April, 2015 talks can be viewed or listened to at www.lds.org/general-conference 
and their printed form is also available at that website.
  

Enjoy The Feast!