Yesterday we had a "special" stake conference. This means that we had a stake conference when we wouldn't usually, since some general authorities were in town. Bishop Edgley came to ours. That's not what I was going to talk about though, but in case you were wondering, he's a great speaker and has tons of fabulous stories. What I wanted to talk about was before the conference even began. We sang in the choir, so we were there early. I went to get a drink and noticed a man very enthusiastically shaking everyones hands and saying, "Welcome to conference!" He was an older gentleman, it was just cute. A little while later, I was back by the drinking fountains waiting for Ryan and Vidalia to emerge from the bathroom (he was changing her diaper, he likes to do it in public places, he says it makes him feel cool, I think it makes him cool). This same man was standing across me in the hall, still greeting everyone that was going by. I watched as he got a little girl to smile and that's when I started pondering on talents. This man definitely had a talent for optimism and splurging honest compliments on people. Without ever talking to him I could already tell he was the kind of person that people liked to be around, just because he made them feel so good.
I did end up having a brief conversation with him. He told me I must be waiting for someone and how he would change the building if he were the architect and then a little blurb on unisex bathrooms in Japan with constantly flowing water. Then a girl walked by and asked me where I was from and if I was new and how I knew Brother Carly/Carlile (can't remember). I of course told her I had never met him before and did in fact not know him (let's be honest, that's when I learned his name, which I can't remember).
So, what I got from this all is that we are all pretty special (like this conference, in a good way) and have a lot to offer the world. I think all of us have talents that we don't even recognize as being talents (perhaps folding things, this is definitely not my talent, I'm terrible at folding things, not just that I don't do it, because I now do, but I just am bad at folding things, if you could imagine). Which since I just mentioned folding things reminds me of a very short thing I learned in the temple. I split this paragraph to make reading a little easier.
When I was working in the temple, I remember there was one night when there were just too many women, so I went to work in the laundry where I was folding towels. I remember thinking, "Wow! The temple is amazing. I learn all sorts of things in the temple, including how to fold towels (which I am very bad at)."
I think it's time that we all recognize why we're good at things and why we become good at things and thank Heavenly Father for blessing us beyond what we can ever see ourselves.
Things you can take from this:
1) I'm creepy and observe people and stalk people and write about them on my blog, so you might want to be especially suspicious when you're around me.
2) Ask other people to help point out your talents. Some times that's a good way to find out what you're good at (and trust me, this can be done in a very humble way, there's nothing wrong with recognizing that you are good at things).
3) I think you all are pretty awesome and can do many things fabulously!
4) Heavenly Father thinks you're pretty awesome too.
5) Sometimes I just go on and on and on and on and on and on...
