Last week Todd and I did a sprint triathlon and it was SO fun! It was my first one and I'm a fan of them now. We signed up for it with about 2 weeks of training time so I was a little nervous (especially because we found out when we got there that the actually swimming distance was twice as long as we'd "trained" for... during our 3 swims), but it ended up being just fine. My husband is the best and stayed with me the entire time even though I know he could have gone much faster. He was also very entertaining. We didn't have any music with us for the running portion so we provided our own music. And those who really know us, know that we're not super into pop culture... so we sang a lot of Disney songs and the little phrases we could remember from songs like "because I'm happy, clap along if you know...", and "we are the champions my friend..." It was actually quite motivating. I'm sure we sounded great singing them at the top of our lungs as we ran too. Luckily there weren't many people around us.
Here are some pictures...
We also had an awesome cheer leading section with my sister, parents, and our sweet sleepy baby. I was seriously SO grateful they were there to cheer us on.
We are definitely going to do one of those races again. It felt great afterwards, unlike the inability to walk for a few days after a half marathon:). Next time maybe we'll do one where the swimming portion is in a lake or something. NOT, that would totally scare me. Lake sharks could be real...
Last weekend was general conference, a time where we get to listen to LIVING prophets and apostles. The things they teach are "the will of the Lord,... the mind of the Lord,.. the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation" (Doctrine and Covenants 68:4). We've been given such a gift from our Heavenly Father to have "watchmen" on a tower for us in these latter days to guide and protect us and help lead us safely home.
Last Monday for family home evening, we talked about how to digest all that we are given from General Conference. My sweet husband brought up a great lesson from the Book of Mormon. When the prophet Lehi taught his son Nephi of a vision he'd had from God, Nephi responded, "after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord" (1 Nephi 11:1). Nephi then had an incredible experience were his father's vision was expounded unto him and he gained a personal witness of its truthfulness.
In a similar situation where Nephi wanted to know and understand what his father had taught him he said, "I did cry unto the Lord" (1 Ne 2:16) and the Lord visited him and softened his heart, which prepared him to do the hard things the Lord asked of him.
I love looking at the pattern Nephi gave to seek the Lord in prayer, even to "cry unto the Lord" in order to understand how to apply the words of the prophets to ourselves and to gain a personal testimony of what the prophet teaches. That's really how to gain knowledge of any truth, to study it out in our minds and then ask God if it's true, and the Holy Ghost will always bear witness of truth (Moroni 10: 3-5).
So if anyone happens upon this that hasn't had the opportunity to watch conference, I invite you to do just that and pray to know that what you hear is truly from a prophet of God. Here's a video highlight of what conference is
and here's the link to the October 2014 General Conference. You can watch all of it, or pick the talks that seem most applicable to what you're needing in your life at the moment. It's worth every minute though! Thanks for reading:)
