words of wisdom

18 months ago:
conference with my favorite
redhead girls...

(i still miss being in salt lake for conference...)

after years of taking diligent notes on anything that stood out to me during each speaker's talk at conference, i came to the realization that i never really went back to those notes, and that the points that stood out to me would just end up getting highlighted again when i'd study the talks in the next month's ensign anyway.

so i've started trying to write down the thoughts and ideas that come to me as i'm listening, as well as a couple of the biggest things that really stand out to me from the entire session. these aren't all of what i wrote down, but a few of the lessons i want to take with me are:

• sacrifice brings for the blessings of heaven
• all these things shall give us experience and be for our good
• the way through our trials is to believe that there is healing balm ahead and that the Lord will not forsake us
• a foundation of faith takes time to build
• we receive no witness until after the trial of our faith
• those trials seem to make clocks slow down
• we are not in a race to see who is the most blessed
• the formula of faith is to hold on and press forward
• the thing God enjoys most about being God is being merciful
• you can't be wrong by doing right
• fear departs when faith endures
• one of the great lessons that we can learn in life is to ask the Lord
• a good sense of humor helps revelation
• "don't judge me because i sin differently than you"
• we have a deep natural yearning for endless association with our family
• so many of the decisions we face each day are really very trivial

and while i've learned over the years to let the continual mentions of delinquent single men to roll off my back, i can't help but wonder: who are these guys that are shirking marriage and giving the rest of us a bad name?