Elder Rasband gave an emotional talk this conference. I paid close attention. He was visibly concerned about one of my own private terrors.

He warned that “you can forget sacred experiences.” Even very sacred experiences.

One of the most surprising discoveries of my life is that your mind actively edits your past to fit with your current situation. If you are feeling full of beans, if you are whizzing with happiness, your life looking back is one long sunlit upland. The trials don’t seem real to you and you have trouble even bringing them to mind. When you are feeling bleak or angry, nature itself looks red in tooth and claw. The sympathetic fallacy is true inside our minds, and at its most true when it comes to the climate of our memory. This is why so many courtships or marriages fail with “I never really loved you.”

We must fight against this tendency. We must. When you are down deep in some hole of sin and depression, remembering that your state is temporary, remembering that you were once otherwise and can be otherwise again, is the only way out. If you insist that you have always been depressed or sinning, you are pulling down the ladder after you, the ladder that is your only hope of returning.

Elder Rasband recommended journals, family history, and keeping in mind the history and honor of our names.

With limited exception, this blog is my only journal. I have not posted much in the way of my own little miracles, because they usually aren’t fancy enough for my taste. But I fear that I have probably lost them in consequence. I need to change that.

Here goes one I completely forgot till my wife brought it up two days ago: when I was in the military, my wife moved out to be with me at a training. She could not find a job because the whole area was full of military spouses at loose ends. But then a position on post for a volunteer coordinator was put our for bids. My wife won the contract, which was for a period of time that fit closely with how long I would be training. And she loved the job and was good at it.

I invite comments on your own impressions from this General Conference.

Other Posts from Conference

• Back to the Future by Nathaniel Givens
• Every Tongue Confess by Jan Tolman
• Let that day be today by Marilyn Nielson