District Conference (Like Stake Conference): AMAZING.

            Words cannot express how loved and blessed I am. I love this gospel so much, and this last weekend I have literally and truly felt the Lord’s spirit encompass me and buoy me up. This weekend was district conference hosted in my building, and I invited my Beijing friends (Marissa Anderson, Shelby Balif, Hadlee Jensen, Jessica Seward, Jonathan Blomquist, Jen Johnson, McCall Simmons and Maddy Barney—though the last 2 couldn’t com :/ ) to stay at my house for the weekend so we could all attend the Saturday  and Sunday sessions. They were traveling from all over. 2 came on an 8 our train ride (they weren’t in our district, but they really wanted to come), and the rest came from either 3 or 4 hour train rides plus subways and taxis making it around a 5 hour trip for them (troopers!). We got to meet up with a lot of our other friends from the tour and the BYU study abroad group as well! We did a full day, 9am to 9pm of touring shanghai (with a break in the middle for the Saturday Session).  It was so much fun! We got to see the Pearl tower (the tower with the ball on it), the Yuyan Gardens, markets, and the Bund! But man the conference, it was such a blessing for all of us!.  During all sessions, the spirit was so strong, and moved all of us to tears. The Lord truly had inspired the speakers to give us all that we needed. Priesthood session was earlier in the morning, so Jonathan left early Sunday morning, and he loved it

Jen Johnson, Shelby Ballif, Marissa Anderson, me, Hadlee Jensen, Jessica Seward, Jonathan Blomquist

           Some of the girls that are staying with me live in virtual branches, so their Church is actually a skype branch. They really wanted to take the sacrament so I asked President Larkin if he could arrange something. We had a little sacrament service after the Sunday session and it was the most spiritual sacrament meeting I have ever attended. It was short and sweet, but beautiful. I am blessed enough to be a part of an actual live branch, so I have been able to take the sacrament already, but the spirit that was in that room, man. You could feel the Lord’s pleasure in seeing His children have a desire to partake of the Sacrament. I even felt the Lord dumping blessings on us, and I get to take it every week already! I felt as if he was gazing down over us with a smile on His face, for we were doing something that he had asked, and made it a priority. Most of us were in tears during the service.

            After the sacrament, the district had set up a lunch for the YSA’s, so we went and ate and then they had a YSA fireside conference as well. It was with President Gerrit W. Gong, President of the District, and he and his wife were wonderful speakers. Their goal was to get to know us better. He was going to take what he learned from that conference and take it to the prophet in a couple weeks when he goes for General Conference. President Monson always asks how the YSAs in China are doing, and President Gong makes a point to get all the factual information he can. He asked how we were doing, what we hoped to learn, our fears, possible solutions, and any questions we had for the Prophet. Once again, the spirit was strong.

 When we finished the conference, my heart was sad when people had to go home to their far away cities, but happy with the added strength we had all just received. The bond we have together in the church is unlike anything else. If you have time, please take a moment to read the next post Leaping Penguines: China is Open :).