Stake Conference

This weekend was our stake conference for church. PJ, Patrick and Mary had already left for Iowa for spring break, but Elli and I were able to attend and it was very good. We were able to hear from Elder William Walker who is in the 1st Quorum of the Seventy. It was wonderful to hear from a General Authority specifically on the issues we are facing right now. Elder Walker's wife also spoke and opened with a poem that I thought was so fitting and apropos that I thought I would share it with everyone. You may have heard it, but it is one that is worth hearing again.

There once was an oyster
Whose story I tell
Who found that some sand
Had got into his shell.
It was only a grain
but it gave him great pain.

For oysters have feelings
Although they're so plain.
Now, did he berate
the harsh workings of fate
that had brought him
To such a deplorable state?

Did he curse at the government
Cry for election
And claim that the sea should
Have given him protection?
'No,' he said to himself
As he lay on a shell
Since I cannot remove it
I shall try to improve it.

Now the years have rolled around
As the years always do
And he came to his ultimate
Destiny - stew.

And the small grain of sand
That had bothered him so
Was a beautiful pearl
All richly aglow.

Now the tale has a moral
for isn't it grand
What an oyster can do
With a morsel of sand?

What couldn't we do
If we'd only begin
With some of the things
That get under our skin.
-author unknown