Women's Conference

Happy Monday!!

So it's been a good week. Numbers were a little lower than anticipated, but that's alright! It's not about numbers. It's about people. And as long as we were doing our best (which we were) we had success. In fact, as long as our desires were in the work, we had success. That's all that matters. Is that we desire to serve. And then we act on that. (Thanks for that reminder Charlie!) 

Sounds like Bryce had some adventures with choir tour. That sounds like no fun. I hope they get to extend a day. But yeah, CA has some crazy emission standards. So I've heard. I haven't really had to take a car for emissions, but I've heard stories. Hopefully everything is going okay now and they can all enjoy their time in sunny CA! 

Thank you so much for that talk mom. I loved it. At first I was like, what? huh? But then reading it again helped me to find some stuff that I really liked. I hope you like those talks I referred to. They are SO GOOD! If you could find the Bread or stones one printed and send it to me, that would be awesome. Because I borrowed it from Sister Spackman, but I can't find it on the internet. And you can send me links and I can print. But whatever works. Here in the family history library we print for free, so that's another plus. And I'm excited to read your talk dad! I can't wait!

So highlight of the week (you can probably guess) was Woman's conference! Holy crap, it was so good. And since I'm an emotional baby, I cried when they had us sing "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" and then again for "I am a Child of God". Yup. I loved it. It was awesome. I took so many notes. The mission has done that to me. I am an avid conference note taker. It's the greatest. I loved the recurring themes in this conference. First, keeping covenants. That seems to be a popular one lately. The last RS broadcast was all about covenants as well. I just loved how they talked about the power we receive from keeping our covenants. I've been thinking about that a lot lately, because we get to go to the temple on Wednesday (ahhhh!!!!!). I just love the quote from Linda K. Burton: "We are to lay aside the things of the world, cleave to our covenants, and follow Him." Really, that's all we're commanded to do. Be in the world, but not of the world. And we do that by making and keeping covenants. We entered into that covenant path at baptism. Most of us at 8 years old. And we continue on that path for the rest of our lives. Through receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, the sacrament, priesthood, endowments, and sealing. And then we continue to renew those covenants through the sacrament. I looked over my notes from last conference, and I wrote down that when we take the sacrament ever week, we are renewing ALL of our covenants. Not just our baptismal covenants. How awesome is that?!?! And when we go to the temple, we are reminded of those sacred covenants. It's super cool. We make those covenants so that we can receive blessings. That's the whole purpose behind them! So cool. I love it. I also loved this: "Temple ordinances lead to the greatest blessing available through the Atonement. Keeping these covenants helps rid feelings of inadequacy." I don't think I got that whole quote right, but it was something along those lines. But it's so true. The temple is what it's all about. For reals. That's where it all is. The most holy and sacred place on earth. Let's take advantage of that. Go to the temple!!! Do family history work! Help others get on the covenant path. That's what it's all about. I also loved the other theme: serving others. We are all brothers and sisters. We need to reach out and help one another. As we do, we are helping each other along that covenant path. See the big circle of life here? We keep our covenants, we serve others, and that helps them make and keep covenants. And in turn, we are blessed more with the Spirit, to help us keep our covenants more and become perfected. Let us reach out and help one another. 

One more quote I liked from Rosemary M. Wixom's talk: "As individuals we are strong- with God we are UNSTOPPABLE." 

I love you all. I hope you have a fantastic week. Enjoy conference! Remember to prepare! Go to the temple this week! It's a good way to prepare. I love you!!

Lots of love,

Hermana Bingham

 We all got matching mission sweat pants.
So this is us, in our mission hoodies and mission pants. Yup. Good stuff.