"...There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ...that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts."
Mosiah 5: 8, 12
Richard Paul Evans
I had the opportunity this past weekend to attend the Vernal Women's Regional Conference. Can I say, "WOW!" It was such an amazing experience. I wish that everyone could feel how I felt sitting there listening to messages and stories that I heard. Richard Paul Evans was the main speaker at this event. For those of you that don't know who he is, he wrote "The Christmas Box". He has written many other books and accomplished many other things in his life, but "The Christmas Box" is his most know work. I haven't read the book (although I now plan to), but I have seen the movie and I have read a couple of his other books. I knew he was a great writer, but I didn't know much else about him. There is really no way to repeat his messages and the spirit that came with them, so my best advice is, if you ever have to opportunity to listen to him speak, DO IT! He has so many stories to tell of his personal experiences along with a bit of humor. Not only that, he brought such a strong spirit to the room. I don't thing there was a dry eye in the room by the end of his talk. There is way too much of what I learned to try to put in here, but I wanted to share some of it.
The theme of the conference this year was "Write Thy Name Upon My Heart". The talks were centered around how we can write Christ's name upon our hearts. Richard had 5 main points that his talk revolved around. 1-We are all divine creatures. We are all entitled to divine inspiration if we stop and take the time to listen. 2-Learn to forgive. We cannot move forward if we cannot learn to forgive others, it will only hold us back. It's like the ancor of a ship. That ship is going somewhere, but if that ancor is holding the ship back, it will be stuck there until that ancor is released. 3-Success comes from failure. The more you fail, the more you succeed. We never learn more than from failure. Listen to the voice that tells you the possiblities and ignore the voice that says you will fail, so don't try. 4-Adversity is a required step in your path. Everyone goes through their own trials. We go through those trials to learn and to grow. Sometimes we may not understand why at the time, but in the end once we have overcome that trial, we are greatful for what we learned by having to go through it. 5-In the end it's all about love. Love is the most powerful thing on the earth. We love those whom we serve.
Along with those 5 main points, he had multiple examples and stories to tell. I wanted to pick my very favorite to share with you, but it really was quite hard because so many of them touched me. So I decided to tell the last story he told because he thought it important enough to share during his talk on friday then again on saturday. So here is my attempt at repeating the story. It went along with point #5. Richard and his family were living in Italy at the time and they decided to go swimming one day. His kids were playing in the pool and him and his wife both were a little distracted when they looked in the pool and noticed their daughter Abby (7) was holding on to her younger brother Micheal at the deep end of the pool and it was causing Micheal and her to both go under. They started yelling for Abby to let go of Micheal when the lifeguard jumped in to get to the kids and get them to safety. Once the children were safe and out of the pool they were talking to Abby to try and figure out why she wouldn't let go of Micheal when they learned to real story of what had happened. Micheal, who wasn't a very good swimmer and had to wear arm floaties, had jumped off the diving board with his arms pointed strait up into the air. When he hit the water one of his floaties came off of his arm completely and the other one was in a position that it was pushing him under the water. Abby, who could swim but was scared of the deep end was up in the shallow end playing when she saw what had happened to her brother. She jumped out of the pool and ran to the deep end, jumped in and went to her brother and was trying to push him up above the water. So what they saw as Abby pulling her brother under, was really Abby going under herself in an attempt to save her brother and keep him above the water. She was the only one who had seen what had happened. To him, this was Love in it's purest form.
I don't know if I told the story exactly right, but it was so touching to me. The way he told it gave the impression of how God is with us. We get ourselves into situations where we are "drowning" and through God's love we are "saved". Anyway, it was such a great experience for me I wanted to try to share some of it with others.
Write Thy Name Upon My Heart
Write thy name upon my heart,
Jesus, Savior of mankind,
Teach me charity unfailing,
Teach me compassion, Lord, like thine.
Endow my soul with loving kindness;
Make me even as thou art.
Engrave thine image in my countenance;
Write thy name upon my heart.
When battles rage, when storms arise,
Make me a messenger of peace.
Teach me faith to bid the tempest cease,
Endow my soul with loving kindness;
Make me even as thou art.
Engrave thine image in my countenance;
Write thy name upon my heart.
Grant me strength to serve thee well;
Light my spirit with they grace,
Til all my works reflect thy goodness,
Til all my labors sing thy praise.
Endow my soul with loving kindness;
Make me even as thou art.
Engrave thine image in my countenance;
Write thy name upon my heart.
-Sally DeFord
Some of the animals we saw
