Hope cometh of faith.

Something I was thinking about today during the sacrament was that, "Life has its ups and downs, but God is there to lift me during the downs, and cheer during the ups. I am blessed beyond measure in my life right now. I am blessed, loved, and here for a purpose."

Today was our ward conference, and I am so thankful for all that was taught today! Our theme was Ether 12:4. Two main topics were "Always abounding in good works" and "Hope (for a better world)".

Bishop said something in sacrament meeting today that I loved. He said that as we believe in God, we can find hope for a better future. He said hope cometh of faith, and gave a list of things that we can do to have hope:
-Increase your faith
-Pray often
-Read the scriptures
-Be obedient
-Magnify your calling
-Be humble
-Go to the temple
These things will increase our faith and will lead to having an increase in hope.

President Acerson said that the greater the distance you are from the light, the more difficult it will be to see God's plan for you. He said the rules are there to initiate us on our journey back to our Father in Heaven.

Sister Acerson talked in second hour about glorifying God, and I said that one way to glorify God was to be ourselves, and love who we are. God made us the way He did because He loves us, and by accepting who we are, we are telling Him that we love Him, and that we are going to do all we can to please Him, and glorify. Colvin said, going off of that, that by becoming our best self, we are glorifying God. Other things that were said were, Always give Him credit; service; keep the Sabbath Day holy; and being grateful.

President Radmall said that hope is critical to both faith and charity. He said our hope is in our Redeemer, and His hope is in us.
Faith, hope, and charity work together. You cannot have one without the other two.

President Moon talked about good works. We talked about the miracles of Jesus, and how they apply to us, and a lot of people made some amazing connections:
-We are His priority. Even when He is on His way to do something already, He will stop for us. (Mark 5:22-34)
-Simple things that are important to us are important to Him. (John 2:1-10)
One thing that I wanted to talk about but didn't get the chance to say was that I love the story of raising Lazarus from the dead because Jesus wept with Mary and Martha. He loved Lazarus, and lost a dear friend, and He felt their pain. Jesus knows how we feel, so He will be there for us.

President Acerson then asked us what things we had learned, and there were some great things said about what people learned:
-Have faith that if we stop in the middle of a test to help someone, we will still get our task done.
-It's good to let go of guilt.
-We are a priority to God, so we need to act like it.
-We're better than we we think we are because we're His. Cling to Him.
-God knows us a lot better than we do. He knows what we can do.
I learned that I love deeply, but forget to love myself. I am working on it. :)

I am so grateful for our stake leaders! I love them so much! They always know just what to say, and I know that they love us so much!

I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to serve as the ward choir director! It is helping me learn and grow in ways I didn't think I ever could. We are performing next week and I am nervous but excited for how our number is going to go. I think it will be wonderful! I am so excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas already! I am still working on picking songs for them but I have a few ideas. :)

God loves you. He knows you. As you serve Him, He will bless you.

Xoxo
Mattie