Post on Conference

I just want to talk a little bit about how amazing conference was today. I don't know if we're supposed to already have started on our midterm, but I'll save that for Tuesday's post. Because honestly, I just can't wait to start talking about this!

The talks today were absolutely amazing. President Uchtdorf's blew me away, and President Holland's made me cry. I'm sure everybody will be wanting to talk about those talks, so I'm going to focus on one of the talks that everybody might not have noticed, but I really really enjoyed.

Edward Dube spoke in the morning session on Saturday (today). He spoke about never looking back upon what we've accomplished and instead focusing on what we have to do in the future. He told a story of when he was young and working in the fields with his mother. He would tell her over and over to look about how much work they had done. She ignored him, just continued to work. Eventually, after he'd repeated himself several times, she said, "Edward, never look back. We have much to do."

This struck me. Right down to my core. And, ironically enough, it struck me because of digital culture.

Now, I'm talking about culture, within the digital realm. When I get on the internet, I actively avoid any mention of the church. Because I know if I find mention of the LDS church online, I won't be able to help myself and I'll look at the comments.

This is never a good idea.

I have seen so many articles and read so many comments about people bashing the church. A common phrase I hear is one of, "haven't they asked enough?" I once read a comment on a Mormon article that accused the church of trying to get into heaven through "works" instead of "grace." He accused them (us) of trying to buy our way into heaven. I also get this feeling when I read comments that talk about, "Oh, I did everything I was supposed to do, I read my scriptures, said my prayers, attended meetings, did visiting/home teaching, and I just didn't feel anything/I'm still unhappy and so I don't believe in the church anymore."

Now, don't get me wrong. I understand how painful that could be for someone. A lot of people very close to me have gone through the exact same thing, and many have fallen away. "Haven't we done enough?" they seem to ask, "It's just not doing anything." I don't normally get this confession when I talk to people face to face, but I see and read it all the time when I'm online. I guess people just feel like they can tell the internet more than they feel like they can tell an individual. It's a chance for them to spout their frustration. I can respect that, I guess. But the reason I found Elder Dube's talk to be so profound is because for me, it addresses this exact question. Haven't we done enough? No. Look at how much more we have to do.

This isn't just in the gospel, though the gospel has a huge part in it, but life in general. Haven't we done enough? Well, are we dead yet? No! We're still going. We still have so much to do because that's what we WANT to do. Life would be horrible if it was easy all the time. Books upon books have been written about this. Without trials, without constantly trying to improve, life would seem meaningless. It would become a trial in and of itself. It's like that Spongebob episode where Squidward moves into the "perfect town":

(sorry it's the speed up version. It's the only one I could find.)

This talk held a lot of inspiration, and it talked about a lot of things, but this was what really struck with me, and something I think we should remember when we go online and feel like we need to complain about something. (I've done it, I'm sure you have too.) We have so much more to do. That doesn't negate the things we've done, that doesn't make it worthless or make us feel like we shouldn't be proud of those things, but we still have so much to do! And if we didn't, then, what would we do instead? 

I'm so thankful for conference. I can't wait for the next session.