Jeffrey R. Holland at Stake Conference

We had our stake conference this weekend and I loved every minute. We were privileged to be visited by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. The Saturday night session was so great. All the speakers were fantastic, but Elder Holland's talk completely spoke to me. He spoke about trials in life and how it does not mean anything about whether Heavenly Father loves you or not. Of course Heavenly Father loves ALL of his children. It was nice to be reminded of that fact. I have had some trials in my life lately and I have started to wonder if I am being punished in some way. Elder Holland said that we can not think that way. If it were true that Heavenly Father only gives trials to those he does not love or wants to punish, that means that all the wonderful people we read about in the scriptures would be being punished by Heavenly Father. That's not true. It was so good for me to hear that.
Also, Elder Holland referred to this life as "the second act." He said that the second act of a show is always the worst. No one wants to go to only the second act of the play. The first act and the final act are always the best.
He reminded us that when life gets hard, we should not abandon the church. He compared that mode of thinking to being in a ship in the middle of a storm. He said that to jump out of the ship in the storm would be silly and a very bad idea. It's true! When life gets hard, the last thing that we should do is abandon our beliefs and/or our church.
I had a very spiritually uplifting week and I am reminded of how blessed we are to have God's chosen servants to speak to us and give us such inspiring words to follow.