My Weekly General Conference…….Week 7

For those of you who don’t know, my church holds a world wide conference twice a year that is broadcast live.  During 4 sessions over 2 days we get to hear from our Prophet, Apostles, and other church leaders.  I’ve decided to study one talk each week until the next one roles around. I’m posting it on here to make sure I do it!

This week’s talk is from the Saturday Afternoon session.

Being Temperate in All Things by Elder Kent D. Watson

Click here for TEXT and here for Video.

  

  Quote:

"Tempered glass, like tempered steel, undergoes a well-controlled heating process which increases strength. Thus, when tempered glass is under stress, it will not easily break into jagged shards that can injure. Likewise, a temperate soul—one who is humble and full of love—is also a person of increased spiritual strength. With increased spiritual strength, we are able to develop self-mastery and to live with moderation. We learn to control, or temper, our anger, vanity, and pride. With increased spiritual strength, we can protect ourselves from the dangerous excesses and destructive addictions of today’s world."

 

Facts:

1. 

• Born May 8, 1943, Cedar City, Utah.
• Baptized as a child; Aaronic Priesthood as a youth; Melchizedek Priesthood as a young adult.
• Missionary in the Southern Far East Mission, 1963-1966.
• Married Connie Lingmann Aug. 23, 1967, Salt Lake Temple; five children
• Bachelor's degree in Accounting from BYU; Master's degree in Accounting from BYU.
• Worked as chief executive officer of an international accounting firm.
• Branch President, Scoutmaster, Ward Membership Clerk, Bishop, Stake president's counselor.
• President of the Taiwan Taichung Mission, 1989-1992,
• Interim President of the Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission in 2003
• Second Quorum of the Seventy, 2008-present

2.   When Cedar City, Utah, native Elder Kent D. Watson received his mission call in 1963 to the Southern Far East Mission, he thought he had been called to serve in Florida.

    "I was raised in a small town in the 1950s," he said. "The first time I rode on a jet airplane was when I went on my mission."

    Yet that call to the most unexpected place defined his life. There he would become proficient in the Chinese language. It would set in motion a career path that would climax with Elder Watson serving as chief executive officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers China, a major international accounting firm. And through a missionary companion, Elder Watson would meet his wife, Connie. Together they returned to his former mission, where he served first as a mission president, then interim mission president in Taiwan.

    In total, he would spent 17 years of his life in Asia.

3.  Elder Watson said an important moment in his life came during an interview in the mission field by then-Elder Gordon B. Hinckley. "In the interview, he advised me to continue to study Chinese, which I tried to do for the next 40 years."

    Sister Watson said her husband still studies Chinese every single day. "That is how he became so fluent; it is his hobby. He loves it."

4.      Born in Coleville, Utah, Sister Watson also could not have imagined spending so much of her life outside the United States. "I have had many wonderful years as a companion, mother, homemaker, corporate wife and family relocation manager," she said. "That is, honestly, what I have been doing for 40 years. We moved and we moved all the time."

    In fact, she said, the family moved so much that all five of the Watson children graduated from different high schools. As a result, however, the family communicates worldwide very easily.