Paradigm shifting. That could sum up all that I experienced at women's conference this year. My sweet darling held down our fort in Texas and cared for our angels perfectly while I was gone. I was able to tag along with my dear mother who is on the PLC (Presidents Leadership Council= group of high donor philanthropist) at BYU and partake of her privileges by way of invitation. If was a spectacular few days. Edifying, uplifting and inspiring in every single solitary way. We were housed as part of the PLC Womens Retreat up at Sundance in the Ashtons Cabin, (the Wordperfect people) 3 nights approx 60 women. Among the company there were the owners of Jet Blue, Oakley, Black and Deaker and on and on... Tremendously grounded and spiritually in tune women. One of my favorite things was to sit at the dinner or breakfast table and ask them to tell me their "story" not one of them mentioned their status or position or the companies in which they owned, but shared tender sweet vulnerable testimonies of their life's experiences, many of them included tragedy. Marvelous women and I am so grateful to have met them, a great gift.
I experienced a candid conversation with an apostles wife, Sister Bednar and received memorable and personal counsel from Sister Ashton who serves on the general YW board of the church. I took copious notes of every talk and feel it nearly impossible to articulate all that I felt while at the conference but I will sum it up this way.
Sister Beck... with a concerned and loving expression
said "this is an emergency meeting" and "I feel great urgency for the daughters of God to do all they can do". She taught me about being the strongest Lioness at the gate, to safeguard my home. She said to "GO to the temple AND PAY ATTENTION!" (wow). She talked about priorities and that we loose power when our priorities are out of order. She broke things down into Essentials Things, Necessary Things and Nice to do things... She told us to get a floppy book of Mormon and write these 3 questions in it. "Who am I, What are my responsibilities and How do I fulfill my responsibilities" ... and "Do not fail in even one responsibility!"
We learned about why women believe the things they do about ourselves. We learned to be explicit teachers of truth and about loving those hard to love. Elder Oaks talked about the godless and amoral generation we live in and the problem of american society we live in is that there is a preoccupation with oneself but that we have been prepared for this generation. and on and on...... so much to share here....watch my BYT blog and I will post those details soon. Really super marvelous! All I can say is this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and that I know.
Day one was marvelous. We went to lunch at the Church Office Building and then crossed the street for a closed to the public tour of some church archives. I was a little disappointed as I was sure we were going to see the sword of Laban (haha)... but for some reason they could not find it :) so instead they they showed us 100's of millions of dollars worth of church archives items. The most priceless is one page from the original translation of the Book of Mormon. This sheet of paper below sat on the table side by side with the brass plates. Another interesting thing about this page was there was a 4th unidentified handwriting that they have never been able to source ownership. Very cool!!!
We had a mothers daughter luncheon one day and my 3 nieces were able to join us.
Our view from the floor.
At the end of the day we would have a wonderful meal prepared at the cabin then we would high tail it over to our room where we would get in our comfies and piled in bed together. We would discuss thats days big ideas and life changing things that sisters talk about... at least this group of sisters. We always seem to have a beautiful blend of giggles, tears and motivation. I love these women.
This was our last night up at the cabins. We had the privilege of watching Hilary Weeks in a private concert there at the Ashtons cabin. Really sweet!
Our stay at Grand America Hotel, the concluding night of our sister retreat.
(In photo, sister Deb, me, Sister Diane, Niece Kylie)
We went to eat at this wonderful Italian restaurant in SLC and the owner was rather enamored at my beautiful mother so he treated us with bittersweet Italian hot cocoa and biscuits on the house.
