Elder Stott in Australia, Thoughts on Conference

I would like to take the opportunity to share part of a letter that my son Dalton sent home from the Sydney South Australian mission. In Australia they watch conference a week later than we do so last week’s letter reflected Elder Stott’s thoughts on conference. --Brother Ryan Stott, High Council

"Conference is SO AMAZING as a missionary.  Every talk just seems to bring the spirit so strong and encourage you to keep going.  My favorite part about conference is that it is a "lift me up", not "bring me down." It helps us and motivates us to keep going.  It warns us of things that we need to be careful of and protect ourselves and our families against and it helps us in cleaning up things that we need to clean up.  But the purpose of conference is not to tear us down.  No matter where you are in life you are doing GREAT!!!  And I encourage you all to keep going.  Life is hard and it is meant to be hard.  One of my favorite quotes from Elder Holland this isn't exact but close, "why should it be easy for us when it was never easy for the best person to ever walk the face of this earth?"  I love this quote because it is talking about our Savior Jesus Christ.  It is so true!  When we look back on our Savior's life, He went through so much.  So much pain, so much rejection, so much let down.  His life was so hard, but He was able to do it.  Our lives will never come close to what our Master went through while He was here.  But we can follow His example.  One of my most favorite hymns is "Come Follow Me" He was that example to us, a perfect example and we have all the tools and things we need to follow Him.

"We can ALL do it and just imagine the reward at the end.  It will be better then a big bowl of ice cream with all the toppings or for me a big bowl of popcorn:) WE can do it and I encourage all of us to keep going.”