A Great Saturday

    
We had a great Saturday.  As I already posted we watched the 178th Semiannual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   The announcement of a new temple to be build in Calgary was definitely the highlight.   President Monson also announced temples in the greater Kansas City area, Philadelphia, Cordoba, Argentina and Rome, Italy.   We did miss Judy though.  She was on her way down to Utah to visit Alana and Wilma and family.  

What I didn't tell you was about a knock on the door right after President Monson spoke.  I answered the door and at the door were two missionaries - but they weren't from our church.   It was the Jehovah Witnesses.  There was an older gentleman and a young man about 16 or 17 I would guess.  I was very excited about his announcement and when I saw them asked them "What if I told you we had a living prophet of God on the earth today?"   The older gentleman asked me if I was a prophet.   I said "Of course not, but I just listened to him speak on TV".    They were visibly confused and then I said just a second I have something for you.  I ran back into the house and I grabbed 2 Book of Mormons to offer to them.   They declined and said they already had them but confessed that they had not ready anything in them. 
    
The elderly gentleman did all the talking and started reading me scriptures.   For each scripture he read all I could tell him was things like "I believe that" and "isn't that wonderful".   Then he asked me if we believed in the bible.  I said "Yes I do".   Then he asked "Then why do you vote?"    He said that we are not to be part of the world.   I agreed with him on that we should not be part of the world but said that I believe we need to vote so that we have good people running our country.   His response was another question - "Why do you go to war?".    I said that I haven't gone to war but that I believe that we need to defend our rights and freedoms.    I then asked him if he thought that evil was real and on the earth.  He said yes.   And I asked him if he needs to defend himself against evil.   He said "of course".   I said "that is was war is".  With that he started to get defensive and aggresive so I knew this wasn't going anywhere.  After hearing President Monson I really wanted to share my testimony with them.    I bore my testimony that we have a living prophet on the earth today.  I told him   I knew God lived and that we had a Saviour. As I was saying this the older gentleman interupted me and said that they had to go and to "have a nice day".  I surprised myself when I said "just a second" and I then offered them the Book of Mormon again and testified that it was another testiment of Jesus Christ and invited them to read just one verse.   They kindly declined but couldn't get away fast enough.

I learned something from the experience.  They can challenge us with many things but if we focus on the things that we have in common and bear testimony of what we believe, the Spirit will be present.  If we try to prove that we are right and they are wrong, the Spirit leave.  The only spirit that we feel is the spirit of contention.
   
I also learned that whether its religion or pizza's (see my first post) if you try to sell what you have to the salesman it becomes a no lose situation for you.   If they are interested in what you have that's good and if they aren't interested they will want to get out of there and that's good too.
   

Rowing

That morning my sister Sharon called to let us know that Brent was in town for a rowing competition.  He is on the University of Alberta Rowing team.   It was supposed to be between the morning and afternoon sessions of conference so went went to watch.   I've never gone to watch a rowing competition before.   This one wasn't like the ones on the olympics where you see them line up and race.  In this one they get timed for rowing around the lake.

All the boats go out and wait for their number to be called

   

Brent's team at the start 

    

On their way

  

And we watched them row to the far end of the lake.

    

Most of the time they are out of view.  

Its a great spectator sport - if you like to visit with the other spectators and not miss anything.

    

Still waiting for the boats to come back into view.

 

 Approaching the finish

 

Just after crossing the finish line

    

 

Finished

    

Brent doing his part after the race.

     

Seriously Brent did great.  That's a total body workout.  He said he was exhausted after his tour around the lake.   Good work Brent.
      

Brent and his fan club (President Brylie missing)

  

We got back late and missed most of the afternoon session but thanks to the internet we were able to watch it when we got home.   I went to the Priesthood session with a full house at the Stake Centre.   There was alot of excitement there because of the temple announcement.
   

After I got home from the Priesthood session we talked to Brylie on iChat and when the girls mentioned that we saw Brent today all she wanted to do was talk about Brent.  She wanted me to post pictures of Brent on my Blog.  Brylie - hope you enjoy the pictures.