Inspiration and Influence

This past week has been fantastic for me. And I blame it on one difference. Last week, Sheri Dew, a former counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency, came to speak to my little sister's stake Relief Society, and she invited me to go with her. My sister couldn't find any of her friends on her floor to go with her, which I thought was such a tragedy! Sheri Dew has always been an extremely inspirational person to me. She is such a go-getter, and is so blunt and honest. You can thank her for Deseret Book being what it is today, because she is the president and CEO. I had the chance to meet her on my 12th birthday, and she is just a great person. I've heard her speak before at BYU Women's Conference with my mom as well as in devotionals, so I jumped at the chance to go!

Her talk was amazing. Like absolutely fantastic. I wish I had a copy of it to share. Her topic was about how we influence others, and how we let others influence us. She was extremely blunt about girls and women gossiping about each other, and she even said, "How dare you belittle someone by gossiping to make yourself look better. All you are doing is bringing yourself lower than you think that person is." It made me ask myself, "Does the way I act inspire others? Do I speak in such a way that others can feel my testimony of the gospel?" Sister Dew recommended some ways in which we can strengthen our testimonies to allow others to be inspired by our influence. She recommended listening to or reading a General Conference address each day. She said that surrounding our lives with the voices of prophets and apostles can only help us in our trials, and even in our good times. So, because I'm a goal-oriented person (whether I reach those goals is another topic entirely), I decided to take her challenge.

Normally, when I receive the Conference issues of the Ensign, I try to read one talk a day until I finish. But that usually ends after two months or so, so I'm stuck without anything to read until the next Conference. So I decided to hop onto LDS.org and pick a talk each day to listen to just while I am getting dressed in the morning or getting ready to go bed at night. Sometimes I pick by the title, other times I pick by who I want to listen to. And in the past week and a half, it has made the biggest difference in my life! I've been so much happier, and little things don't bother me as much. It just brings so much light to my day. So if you have 5 or 10 minutes each day to listen or read, it's a great thing to do. Thank you, Sheri Dew!

Here's a link to the website:
General Conference Talks