A Special Stake Conference

From what I understand, the special training that was provided to the Stake Leadership yesterday enabled us to have a special stake conference today with one of the members of the presidency of the seventy. In the April General Conference it was announced that Visiting and Home Teaching as we know it are done away with. In its place is a new program more in line with the way that the Savior taught. We are called to minister to each other. What that means hasn't been exactly clear. It is clear that we are to take care of each other, but what exactly that looks like, I'm not sure.

President Ballard - the acting president of the quorum of the twelve apostles came into town this weekend and yesterday conducted meetings in Brampton. The missionaries met, the young single adults met, area Stake presidencies met, and today Pres. Ballard presided at a Special Stake Conference in Toronto. We were privileged to have Elder Robert C. Gay of the presidency of the Seventy, and the mission president and his wife attend our meetings.

Listening to each of the speakers bear powerful witness of our Savior Jesus Christ filled my soul. I am so thankful that we were able to attend the meeting today.

Our Stake President spoke first. He spoke about the windstorm that we had on Friday. About coming home and finding great patches of shingles missing from his roof. He spoke about our need to be anchored to our Savior, asking us to consider are there parts of our testimonies that are exposed that need "patching" up. He spoke about the fact that it isn't a matter of if the windstorms of life come, but when.

The mission president and his wife (Pres. and Sis. Shields) spoke about their experiences. They spoke about smiling. Of letting the light of Christ shine to those around us. We need to share our testimonies and DO something.

Elder Gay spoke last. He shared stories about where he has in his life learned gospel principles. He began speaking with a funny story. He spoke about sitting with his girlfriend in a meeting, when she was attending what is now, BYU Idaho. I don't remember if it was her brother? Her Dad maybe was the bishop conducting the meeting? Anyway, the person sitting beside his wife was asleep and she leaned over and told the young man that he needed to wake up, that it was announced that he was supposed to give the closing prayer. So much to the shock of everyone, he got up and gave the closing prayer. Elder Gay said he knew right then and there that he could never fall asleep in a meeting next to her. He asked us if we were awake in the gospel.

Next he told the story of Elder Ballard extending the call to him and his wife to be the mission president. He told Elder Ballard that it wasn't a good time. His business needed him, his children needed him, it wasn't a good time. Then Elder Ballard gave him three pieces of counsel. First he said "You're not your children's Savior, you know that right?". Second he asked him if he was living a life of covenants or of convenience. Lastly he told him that he needed to serve with all his might so that the Lord could bless him and his family. He and his wife were called to serve in the Accra, Ghana mission from 2004 to 2007.

He would make monthly travels to Sierra Leone as part of his missionary work. On one of these travels he and his assistants were in a terrible road accident. He had glass in his head, and a huge chunk of his arm was missing. He was taken to a clinic in Sierra Leone. In the operating theatre the doctor noticed his missionary tag. He told Elder Gay that the only reason he was able to clean his wounds, and help him was because a missionary couple came from the church the year before and brought the supplies. Elder Gay had been feeling sorry for himself because he just had found out about a business deal that would have made him a billionaire, he didn't understand why he had to serve then and not a few years later, he didn't understand why they were in a crash, why he might die. And lying there in that clinic (that he told us you never want to go to) that it came to him that "everything that you have is because of someone's service".

He told us we are all called to give service, that his is ministering. There's nothing perfect about any of us. We're called to love each other and serve each other. He said if our church allowed tattoos he would get "lives are at stake" tattooed on his arm. He said that we need to minister to each other, that lives are at stake.

Typing it out, it seems so much less than it was. His testimony about how his family was blessed while he served was so powerful. Five of his children were sealed in the temple when he and his wife served. He said he didn't attend any of the sealings.

I didn't want the meeting to end. I felt so much hope and so much power. I'm so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I hope I can live a life of covenants and not one of convenience. I hope I can teach my children to do the same.