However Long and Hard the Road”, the talks given by Elder and Sister Holland were excellent. Sister Holland’s message to keep your humor and keep your energy into who you are becoming, was insightful and beautifully given. She reminded us that being somebody comes from hard work and self-growth—there is no way around it. It reminded me of the bigger picture for being here on earth.

Elder Holland was going to start with a little joke but he recognized the spirit that his beautiful wife had brought to the meeting and he wanted to keep in reverent tones. I appreciated that he would state this to the audience. He didn’t need to; he could have just moved on without mentioning it.

The most powerful message for me this week was his; that excellence does not come easily and nothing valuable can come without significant sacrifice. Often times our brains try and protect us from making sacrifices that will bring us joy. They are trying to help and keep us comfortable but we need to be uncomfortable. We need to grow and stretch; to reach and look back at a hard climb and appreciate where it got us. Any reminder of this is a benefit to my life.

Another lesson this week that was hard to understand at first, I replayed it 2x, was The 5 Why’s. In short, the concept is that every tech problem is from human error and you can get back to the issue by asking “why” five times. Solving the problem doesn’t have to be done all at once but can be done in small increments. This makes me think bigger picture. If Heavenly Father is perfect then he can create perfect; perfect bodies and a perfect world. The fact that he didn’t means our bodies were created intentionally this way. Or does it mean that he just oversaw the creation and let imperfect people create? This seems to match more of what we are taught in sacred places. Then this means when we are upset with God, it really should be Adam or others, maybe even ourselves?