#FollowTheProphetAZ

On February 10th our family had the opportunity to participate in an historic event within our church.  Our beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, his first counselor, President Dallin H. Oaks and their wives came to speak at State Farms Stadium in Glendale.  We were among over 60,000 saints who attended, although it was broadcast to buildings throughout the state.

My oldest three girls sat in floor seats with 9,000 other youth from our church.  We arrived three hours early to get good seats (we were only guaranteed a section, not seat) and they spent the time mingling with friends from previous wards, having their picture taken and being interviewed for church history records.  Every once in a while, they would walk by were we were seated and wave.

These pictures were taken before the stadium filled up.  It was quite packed.

RJ and I were brave and brought all of our children.  We really waffled on bringing the youngest ones because stadium rules didn’t allow us to bring food in and we would essentially be there for over five hours.  That is a long time for littles to behave.  I offered many prayers during the week that the Lord would help them to be reverent.  They did fairly well.  Haydn and Olivia were quiet and reverent, with minimal wiggles.  Gordon slept until it started and then fell back asleep when President Nelson began to talk, but he didn’t cry or get loud.  Lenora was probably the hardest.  We let her walk around in our row until it started and then I managed to find a few applesauce pouches and a smarties candy in the diaper bag and she sat on RJ’s lap to eat them.  She got a little restless during the last talk when candy ran out.

My favorite talk was actually from President Nelson’s wife.  Sister Nelson spoke of the moments she had witnessed her husband receive revelation and what that looked like.  I loved hearing this!  One of my favorite things from when RJ served as Elder’s Quorum President was watching as he received revelation from the Lord regarding those whom he had stewardship over. It is such a unique spiritual experience to witness.  I could feel the Spirit testifying during her talk that President Nelson is God’s prophet on the earth today and is meant to lead Christ’s church at this time. 

I wish I had been able to take notes, but I did manage to jot down a few promptings with my phone.  I loved hearing President Nelson speak of ways we can help to gather Israel in these latter days, especially within our own home.

Here is a link to the news article covering it, which also gives a link to the op-ed piece he wrote.