The Future is as Bright as your Faith

We had a really good weekend watching General Conference. It was pretty awesome to sit as a family and sustain the prophet of our times, President Thomas S. Monson, and the 12 apostles. We also got to sustain a new apostle, Neil L. Anderson who grew up in Idaho!! (Those Idahoans are good stock I tell ya!) Curtis told the boys that he (Neil Anderson) will probably be an apostle for a big part of their lives, and they can remember the day that they raised their hand and sustained him. He said this as Jonah was hanging upside down off his lap and talking to ANNEX DOODY BABES (yes she has another nickname!!) and Eli was laying on the couch mumbling something about how he wants Bakugans and more Lego sets when it is HIS birthday. Ethan may have actually been listening!
There were several messages that I felt touched by, but my favorite was Pres. Monson's talk in the Sunday am session. He started about talking about how things are not as we wish we they would be. He talked about the troubles that we all face. Then he told a story about a woman in Germany who was a refugee in Word War 2, and had to travel alone with her 4 children to Prussia, over 1000 miles away. Her husband had died in the war, and along the way each of her four children died as well. This woman's children were the same ages as my four children. She buried each of them along the way. Stories like this help me to remember my blessings and be so grateful for what I have been given. He said that it is easy to focus on everything around us that is going wrong, but we need to remember our blessings and the good things in our lives. He said that we can't let doubt and fear cripple us. Then my favorite line: The future is as bright as your faith. If we believe that the future is bright, it will be. If we see it as dark and dreary, it will be.