We had Ward Conference today.  The Stake President made a great analogy.  He has started running and made several comments about how slowly he runs.  He said he sees all of these really fast, strong, young people running by with wonderful looking strides.  He said he wished he could borrow their strength, youth, or stamina to help him run faster... but that it doesn't work that way.  He then talked about the ten virgins.  In the same way that we can't borrow someone else's stamina and strength that they've worked hard to build while running, we can't borrow someone else's oil.  He said Elder Bednar says the "lamp" is the lamp of testimony and the "oil" is the oil of conversion.  We can't borrow someone else's conversion, but have to build it drop by drop by the little things we do.  And just as a runner practices to build up his or her endurance, we need to practice to build our oil of conversion.  Many of us have testimonies and know something to be true, but we are not truly converted and don't make the commitment to act on that testimony.  He even said that the adversary probably has a testimony of the gospel and its truthfulness, but obviously is not converted to that truth.  It was an interesting thought.

He also made another analogy to trout fishing.  He said they would go fishing near Yellowstone when the edges of the lake were still frozen over.  They could lean over the edge and see the large trout hiding under the ledge of ice.  If they quickly tried to grab the fish, the fish were too fast and swam away.  But, if they very slowly put their hand in the water and slowly moved the hand along the fish and slowly started to squeeze around the tail, then they were able to snatch it at the last minute.  The fish didn't suspect anything because it's used to brushing up against things in the water.  He said Satan uses the same tactics and will slowly start tempting us with small things until he's so close that he's got us.

I'm on the up side of my cold which is nice.  The youth are having a General Conference Activity tonight to help them get more out of General Conference.  And guess who's teaching the rotation on the music?  Lol... me.

I'm starting off with some fun trivia about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir found on this Infographic.  http://ldsmediatalk.com/2013/06/22/infographic-mormon-tabernacle-choir/.  Then I'm going to tell them about the mice study I recently wrote about in an English paper.  It's fascinating enough that I'll share it here.  In 1998, David Merrell ran three groups of mice through a maze.  They all ran the maze with a time of about 10 minutes.  Then, one group of mice listened to no music at all for 4 weeks, one group listened to classical music for 10 hours a day, and the third group listened to hard rock music for 10 hours a day.  The mice were raced at the end of each week for 4 weeks.  At the end of 4 weeks, the group that listened to no music at all improved their time by 5 minutes.  The group that listened to classical music, improved their time by over 8 minutes to 106 seconds.  That's fast!  The group that listened to hard rock music decreased their time by 20 minutes and took an average of 30 minutes to run the maze.  I read similar studies and some mice in the third group actually would stop racing and start killing each other.  Pretty scary.  There have been similar studies in humans showing increased test scores and increased neural stimulation when listening to classical music.

Then I'm playing different musical clips and asking how it makes them feel and why.  And also, what memories the songs evoke.  Most clips are from movies, so certain memories will be elicited.  Then I'll of course play part of a Mormon Tabernacle Choir piece and another cool arrangement of "I Am a Child of God" and ask the same questions.  I'm trying to make the connection that not only does music make us feel a certain way, but also provokes certain memories and thoughts.  We should listen to the words of the music and think about times or experiences in our life when those words have been true or made us feel a certain way.  Also, that the music is approved and sometimes requested by the prophets and apostles and so is a specific message they want us to hear.  "The song of the righteous is a prayer unto me"... we wouldn't walk out during a prayer to use the restroom... the same respect should be shown for the musical prayer that we are listening to and the message that was selected for us to hear.  Anyway, there's a little more I'll share, but that's the basic connection I'm trying to make... thoughts, memories, and feelings associated with music.

Good day... despite my horrible cold.  I took kids to school, sold my NRGY stock (great profit in only 2 days!), wrote part of my compare/ contrast paper for English, saw "Austenland" with my friend Maryann (it was a super cheesy take on a Jane Austen fan who looks for true love, but I like cheesy romances), picked up kids from school, dressed up the kids like pirates, went to Krispy Kreme Donuts with my friend Maryann and got 4 dozen free donuts for dressing up (picture on Facebook), dropped off a couple of donuts at Grandmas, ate dinner, and I'm getting ready to finish my paper.  :)

3 months of freezers meals cooked- check
Dishes done- check
9 crock pots not washed- no check, but Mikes' volunteered to wash them
9 page Process Analysis paper turned in- check
Sold my shares of TGA and made a lot of money- check
Caught a cold this morning- check
3 kids picked up from school all at different times- check

Whew... I'm exhausted.  Time for FHE and then finishing my Messiah markings list.  Blah... lol.

Is there a way to do protected posts in BlogSpot?!!  I need to vent about my morning,  but I don't want to do it publically.  Maybe I'll use my Xanga for that.

Update: Nevermind.  Xanga doesn't do protected posts anymore, only password protected and private posts.  Oh well.  Needless to say, it's been ONE of those mornings... lol.

I almost sent this to Dad, but it was too good for just him alone... so I'm posting it here.  What a great analogy!

From S. Michael Wilcox: 

“My wife often cans peaches and pears in the fall. A great deal of work is necessary just to prepare the fruit. Then, once it is prepared, she puts it into jars, places the seals on, twists the lids tightly into place, and sets the jars in boiling water. Then she waits for the seals to set. 

She has performed this operation dozens of times with hundreds of jars. In all that time I have never seen her seal an empty jar. Unless the jar is loaded with fruit, a seal is not placed. I doubt if anyone, among the thousands who can fruit every year, has ever sealed an empty jar. There must be something to preserve or the seal has no significance. 

The sealing of temple covenants is similar. When we are married at the altars of the temple, the Lord, from one point of view, gives us an empty jar. Then he instructs us to fill it with the wonderful fruits of righteous marriage. We fill it with love and compromise and forgiveness and joy and peace and shared trials; we fill it with all the things of life, all the good fruit. As we keep our covenants, returning often to renew them as we work for the dead, the jar begins to fill. As we grow older and our love deepens, we desire to preserve forever all the good we have stored.  

Our abiding in the covenant allows the Lord to place the seal on our covenant relationship and preserve the fruits of our righteousness for all eternity. This is the same for all temple covenants. Nobody seals an empty jar; neither does the Lord seal empty covenants. First there must be fruit to preserve.”

This started off trite, but the message made was definitely worth sharing...  

A well-known speaker started off his seminar holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this."

He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it...?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. 
 

"My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We may feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.  
 

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE.

Sometimes I have a difficult time with change.  I have been with Xanga for many, many years and although it's currently free for me, I'm unhappy with the new settings and changes.  So, I will switch to BlogSpot for a while and see how it goes.

We had Stake Conference this weekend and I had to organize quite a bit of music that was requested by the Stake Presidency.  For the Priesthood session, I organized a High Council Choir that sang a Hymnplicity piece and I heard they did a good job.  For the adult session, I organized a women's quintet for "There Is No Other Name" and it was a gorgeous piece.  Also for the adult session I organized a triple quartet and I accompanied on the violin.  :)  For the general session, a Missionary Choir was requested for the first piece comprised of High School seniors, prospective missionaries, current missionaries, and recently returned missionaries.  Then the Stake Choir sang another musical number and the closing hymn.  For the musical number the choir sang "Testimony" by T. Chemain Evans... an absolutely beautiful piece that just came out last year.  I received many compliments on that piece and the Spirit that was felt.  For the closing hymn we sang "Consider the Lilies" and the choir nailed it... I received many compliments for that one too.  I'm just lucky to be able to conduct such a talented group of singers.  President Slaughter (I know, I know), the new Mission President, said we sounded like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and asked where I received my training... haha.  How do you say a little school, a little family, a little Youtube, and mostly God?  Anyway, the Stake Choir sounded really good today on both pieces.

I started back up with the Symphony again... it was so fun to play again.  On Tuesday, Cameron spoke at Standard's Night and I played the piano.  I had an interesting experience with that.  I've always prided myself on saying "Yes" for serving when I am available, especially when it comes to music.  I quit piano lessons at an early age, but was called to be the YW pianist and because I said "yes" I progressed and learned and grew.  I have never thought of myself as a great pianist, but I've always been able to fake my way through or be blessed enough to play and sound descent when accompanying.  Well, I was asked on Sunday to play for Standard's Night with only two days notice.  I was going anyway to hear Cameron speak so I accepted.  For one of the pieces, they wanted me to accompany the YW and it was a rather difficult piece.  If I had spent 20 minutes on it I probably could have mastered it well enough to get by.  Instead, because I was upset that I was asked last minute and I didn't want to take the time to actually practice, I said they would need to sing with the recording but I could play the other hymns.  When I got up to play the easy hymns that I'd played my whole life, my fingers did not work well.  I found that I was not able to naturally and easily play like I had always played before.  I had to concentrate and choppily plough my way though the hymns.  I sounded like a beginner.  I wondered why I was having such difficulty playing.  Then the thought came into my mind that because I had always selflessly served in my musical abilities that I had been blessed beyond my capacity.  I realized that because I had not been willing to try or serve when I was able to in this instance, that the blessings I had been so accustomed to receiving had been withheld.  As soon as I had the thought, the Spirit bore witness to me that it was true, that I had been blessed numerous times in my abilities because I had been willing to serve.  Lesson learned.  I am grateful that I have been blessed for so long in this capacity and I will try to serve when I have the opportunity.