God is awesome.
This weekend was the semi-annual General Conference of the LDS Church. It’s the weekend in which the General Authorities (those who get revelation for the whole church….bishops get authorities only for their ward, stake presidents for their stake, general authorities have authority over everything) speak and give “new revelation” for guiding the Church and the lives of its members. Basically what happens is a bunch of rich businessmen speak for 9 minutes about how great the Church is and encourage people to do mission work, get married and do genealogy work. They don’t really give new information or prophecy. Tens of thousands of faithful LDS flock to Temple Square wearing their fancy suits and nice skirts. Millions of others watch streaming from their living rooms. Basically, it’s a big deal to them and not to anyone else in the world.
Jeryan and I went down there on Saturday and sat in the Tabernacle overflow seating through a two-hour session. Basically it’s just incredibly boring. We read our Bibles, prayed, were on our phones and napped. It’s impossible not to. For real. At one point, everyone stood to sing Praise to the Man which really bugged me because then I had the blasphemous hymn in my head all weekend. I have spent too much time in Utah if I know Praise to the Man. Elder Cook from the Quorum of the 70 (it really does not make sense to me that they don’t realize this is a cult) stood and talked about how we need to look to Jesus or we will perish. He gushed about the Prophet for awhile but he was humble and also mentioned how nervous he was. I don’t think he was a Christian, but he was sincere and not trying to manipulate his audience (very, very rare in this Conference), and God used him to share HIS good news rather than Joseph’s very bad news. He talked about Moses and the brass serpent which was cool. I sat next to a girl who I talked to for a minute after. Her name is Sarah. If God’s purpose for me being there was just to have another name and face to pray for, so be it J So please pray that Sarah comes to know Jesus.
Afterwards, we walked around creepin’ on my favorite Sister Missionaries to say hi to. We ran into Sister Schiaffi, who is a good friend of Aubrey’s. She’s super cute and is from Australia. She asked what my favorite part was and I was super thankful for Elder Cook at that point. We talked about Jesus for a few minutes which was cool, but it wasn’t like a super great conversation. I had to re-park my car at that point, but on my way back to Temple Square I ran into Sister Davis! She was one of the two sisters I met with back in March at the Blue House for a few weeks. We had awesome God-centered conversations. She recognized me which totally surprised me and gave me a huge hug. We didn’t have much time to talk, because she had to get back to her mission in Syracuse, UT, but she asked for my email because she wanted to be Facebook friends when she gets home. That little interaction was so encouraging. God is so faithful. I can’t believe I ran into her!! But I am so stoked and was reminded to keep praying for her. I ran into a few other Sisters I know and met their companions. Some of them were really awkward interactions but some were super cool. I ran into Sister Amuli who was Sister Schiaffi’s companion when Aubrey got close with them. We had a short conversation but it was really friendly. Sister Amuli went back to her home in I think Kenya yesterday. She is going to stay in contact with Aubrey. Please pray she comes to know Jesus well. Finally, I ran into Sister Rodriguez who is a huge joy in my life. I love, love, love that girl!! I am hopefully going to hang out with her on Friday, so please pray for that. She really wants me to visit her someday in Mexico City which would be awesome. She’s a delight! So please pray for Sisters Davis, Eisele, Schiaffi, Amuli, Fong, Rodriguez and Brevard. I love those girls but not nearly as much as Jesus!
We got hungry and tried to take a homeless person out to dinner with us. We asked a few guys and they all were too busy so we got to pray with one and then had dinner on our own. We have been struggling financially but God has been providing in weird/miraculous ways so it was really nice to go to Jimmy John’s and enjoy a sandwich J Praise God for his faithfulness, even when we are faithless (for he cannot deny himself). That night we had some LDS and Christian friends over for board games which was fun J We have been getting closer and closer with Jay and Shelbie Spears, who are our Christian friends from Arkansas. They bring us a lot of joy!!!!! Sunday we got to go to Refuge Church…I hadn’t been to church in 5 weeks and I was STARVING for it. Refuge is a super awesome place and we talked the whole time about the Holy Spirit. Afterwards we had some friends over for lunch and went to Becky’s apartment to watch General Conference with her and Sarah. It was cool to hang out with them. Afterwards another LDS friend, named Cami, brought us over zucchini bread and a really sweet note. I need to pursue her more, please pray that I do. We had dinner with the Filers after that and then went to a night service at Refuge with Becky. I loooooooove Becky and am so excited she went with us. Please pray she gets to know Jesus for who he says he is.
