April 21st - May 4th

In Our Family The Past Two Weeks...
* August went out with the Missionaries
* Mom went out with the Sister Missionaries
* Seth went to the Dentist = No Cavaties!
* We had a new family from church over for Dinner
* Mom and Dad had a double date with the Van Bibbers to Longhorn and then to see Spiderman 2
* Ben and his friend, Jared, went to see Spiderman 2
* The girls turned SIX!

Spiritually Speaking...
We had our Stake Conference this past weekend and so I wanted to share some of my thoughts from the 2 sessions that we attended :)

1st Counselor in Bismarck Stake (Pres. Nordquist):
* The Lord Prepares a way for us to do the things that he has commanded (think of the story of Nephi and how the Lord replied).

* If we go to Heavenly Father in Prayer, He will answer us.

* Pray regularly that I can share with others what I have

* It's important to take time to LISTEN to the thoughts and inspiration from God.

Elder Shayne Bowen (from the First Quorum of the Seventy):

* First time in the history of the church that the First Presidency has requested that all members 12 years old and older attend the Saturday night Adult Session

* He gave an assignment to the Youth: Visit LDS.org and show your family how you can access the Church's Handbook online

* Encouraged us all to do more Indexing

* Family History Centers should be in our Living Rooms and Baptisms should be a Family Outing (meaning Family History/Genealogy/Temple Work should be taught and done within the home)

* He then did a 1 hour Q & A session (most of the questions asked revolved around Missionary work)

At the Sunday Session his remarks included:
* Those of us here in North Dakota were hand picked from the Lord to be here to help hasten the work

* Many are called but few are Obedient

* He also split our Stake and created the new Minot Stake with Tyson Williams as the new Stake President (he was currently Seth's Sunday School Teacher), Greg Tonini as 2nd Counselor (our RS President's husband) and then a current Bishop from Williston as the 1st Counselor.

President Cox (Bismarck Stake Pres):
* Gave a sort of "Farewell" Speech to those that would be in the new Minot Stake

* He had 3 pieces of Advice
     1. REPENT QUICKLY - the quickest path to happiness is repentance. The Lord wants us to be happy!
     2. GET TO THE TEMPLE
     3. HE LOVES US AND IS GRATEFUL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE US

Overall, I was very much spiritually uplifted and fed this weekend!