How is everyone not talking about Elder Ballard?

I know that everyone comes away from General Conference with different thoughts, different favorite speakers. And clearly, I tend to not favor those talks that everyone leaves Conference talking about. Example: Elaine S. Dalton. She is a lovely woman who has a 'missionary-style' of speaking that I automatically tune out. Plus, she keeps trying to tell me all women are meek and...I'm not. (I have some serious ideas and feelings about gender.) But it's really a prideful thing for me. Like I'm the one with the pride (always) In fact, I was so unaffected by her talk that I didn't even realize that she mentioned her tour with the BYU Folk Dancers. So you know, that's embarrassing.


So I know my taste is a bit different than others, but I am seriously blown away right now that the only talk that actually brought me to tears hasn't been mentioned by anyone.  M Russell Ballard's talk "This is My Work and My Glory" was absolutely wonderful to me. I think the reason I am so surprised there is no chatter about it (other than some memes about tomato plants) is that there was so much hype about women praying for the first time in General Conference but no one noticed his talk on the Priesthood that mentioned men and women the same number of times?

Now, don't get me wrong, I was very excited about women praying in General Conference. Remember how I'm a feminist? I haven't clarified my feminist ideas on the interwebs mostly because they are still forming and changing and all that. And the interwebs has a permanency about it. However, suffice it to say that my ideas of feminism definitely include women and the Priesthood. It's a topic I've wondered about a lot, especially since my host family experience in New Orleans, Louisiana with the folk dance team last summer. My host mom and I discovered that we are like long-lost friends who must have known each other in the pre-existence. I remember that we were driving home from church and I was definitely planning on a beautiful nap (it was our first and only free Sunday all tour) but we couldn't stop talking! And this topic was what really brought us together.

Here are the two quotes that meant the most to me from this talk.

The powers by which the heavens and the earth were created is the Priesthood. 

Men have the unique responsibility to administer the Priesthood, but they are not the Priesthood. Men and women have different but equally valued roles. Just as a woman cannot conceive a child without a man, so a man cannot fully exercise the power of the Priesthood to establish an eternal family without a woman. In other words, in the eternal perspective, both the procreative power and the priesthood power are shared by husband and wife. 

Now, these quotes are important to me for the following reasons. 

1. For the first time in my memory, a talk about the Priesthood in a  general session didn't say "Men have the Priesthood and women have babies". Because women don't have babies, men and women have babies. Which brings me to my next point
2. He very clearly linked the Priesthood with the power of creation, and the power of creation is very clearly a power contingent upon both a man and a woman. Even the creation of the universe, being a creation, must have involved female. See Michelangelo's Creation of the Man for details. Clearly this isn't doctrine that anyone has said. So I'm totally allowing for the possibility that I'm wrong.
   
   

   

   The artistic line of God's power comes from Christ (the baby whose God's hand is on) through Eve (the woman who his arm is draped around) to Adam.

   3. They also allude to the fact that marriage, being the highest order of the Priesthood, is already shared by men and women. (Again, my interpretation, I will allow the idea of my wrongness.) 
   
   
   
   
   There are probably plenty of other feminists who don't feel like this talk was enough. And I will say that I don't think this is the end. But to me it was a clear step (albeit one of more steps that I hope we will take) to a more full understanding of the Priesthood, and that's all I want. I am not demanding anything, I just want a more full understanding. And for the first time in the years since I've been pondering this issue, I received some confirmation from Elder Ballard that I'm not a crazy person. Which confirmation, apparently, brought me to tears. 
   
   
   I just hope I'm not the only one who saw the importance of this moment. 

Soft Sunday Sounds: Stayed awake!

This my friends, is a historic day. Is an historic day? When do you use an? ...Excuse me while I go look at my diploma and remind myself that I graduated from college.

Back to the point. This day. It is big.

I stayed awake through the whole of conference. Every single talk was heard by my ears in a conscious state. And I took notes the whole time!

Now don't get me wrong, I have always loved conference, and always desired to stay awake. My desires, however, simply haven't always been deep enough to move me to action. Here are some reasons I stayed awake.

1. Candy. Yeah. My mom got candy. She and I are both chocoholics. It's very useful to live with her. 
2. Jewel Star. It's a game I have both on my phone and on my mp3 player. I pay attention much better when I am physically moving, I am a kinesthetic learner. So instead pacing during the whole conference, I gave this a try. In fact I have been doing this lately in Relief Society as well. While to everyone around me I look like a slacker who plays games on her phone instead of listens to the lesson, I am in fact paying much better attention than I would otherwise. PS, for those of you who know me, this is why I twirl my hair. All the time. 
3. I needed it. I was looking forward to conference for some time, then suddenly forgot about it in the last two weeks. Two days ago, in a soul searching scripture study session (woa, unintentional alliteration) I realized I wasn't applying myself to my gospel progression and it hit me that I hadn't been preparing myself for conference! I began to make mental notes of the questions I wanted answered. I began watching conference with a few questions written down in a nice blank notebook waiting for inspiration. 

And now, to celebrate my staying awake, I will share with you my impressions of my favorite talks. 

• President Monson's announcement of changing the missionary age for young women was especially exciting to me. This doesn't affect me twice over (I'm nearly 24 and have never had a desire to go on a mission as a single sister) but I'm a burgeoning Mormon feminist (gasp!) and I teared up at this step in a great direction. 
• Robert C. Gay of the 70. A loose quote 'With self justification of petty sins, Satan wins.' This was a direct hit for me. His whole talk to me was just really clear, concise, and useful. 
• Neil L. Andersen. First of all, is he never not smiling? I love this man. Second, he made me really realize that I been digressing in my spiritual progression and gave me a recipe for progress. Another loose quote 'Immerse yourself in those things that originally built your faith when having a trial of faith.' This gave me the desire to remember what it was that built my testimony during my time at BYU and make sure that I am still doing those things. After making a little list during his talk, I realized I am doing virtually none of them. No wonder!
• President Eyring. Again. Loose quote 'The pavilion that seems to cover doesn't cover God but covers us because of our own desires - we may be unwilling to submit to his time'. Smack in the face. And he is just such a tender man! 
• Elder Holland. For this I will simply quote what I tweeted during conference. (Yes I tweet, it's a little embarrassing.) "Elder Holland sure is a firecracker. #ldsconf" Yes. I hashtag. 
• Russel  Osguthorpe Sunday School President. He really made me think about teaching, not that I don't think about it basically all the time. But as I teach dance, and as I substitute teach and prepare a curriculum for the classroom I will hopefully have, one particular thing he said will stick with me. He spoke of a student learning because he "asked his own question". 
• Marcus B Nash of the 70. Because he gave a clear outline of faith and helped clarify for me some of the differences between faith and hope. I definitely will have to read and re-read that when the Ensign comes out. 

Happy conference weekend my dears. And Happy Fall! Welcome back to my life burnt orange. 

Love it.

Today I had this extremely interesting day. It was full of a great variety of things and experiences and I loved it.

Now, while I had a day that was fairly easy to love, it helped me remember another thing to love. LIFE. Recently we learned a new Mexican dance on my folk team (Jalisco! It's so cool!). The dance was hard and tiring and different than I expected. Rehearsals were frustrating at first, but then I decided to LOVE it.

By our last rehearsal with the choreographer, I legitimately loved the dance. Le.git. It was fantastic. All because I chose to.

So today I say to you. Love life. LOVE what life gives you.

Come what may, and love it.

Have you noticed that I love Elder Wirthlin? He is my favorite Apostle of all time, I miss hearing his sweet testimony in General Conferences.

This speaks for itself.

Sweet relief!

You may not be able to tell this...but I'm typing this blog post from a brand new computer. A computer that I do NOT have to pay $35 a month to BYU for thank you very much. A computer that is an early and very generous birthday present from parents who love me a lot. Clearly.

Before having this computer I went for a whole 2 weeks without a computer of my own. I am embarrassed to talk about how hard it was. Uh, it was really hard. How ridiculous am I? But I will tell you what, when I came home from campus I did my homework and went to bed. Because that was my only option. How else can you waste time? Wasting time only happens effectively with a computer.

But now here I sit, wasting time with technology. Sitting in my family room wearing my mom's jacket because everyone's always hot and I'm always cold. Drinking home-stirred chocolate milk with my favorite long-stemmed spoon that's been my favorite since childhood. And smelling late-summer smells of the countryside of Plain City. Love. Couldn't get better.

Oh Conference is tomorrow? JK. Just got better.