Special Stake Conference with Elder Ballard

I'm sure everyone will be shocked. "Come one, come all! The Fishers have a new post on their blog!" Yes, over a year has passed since the last time I bothered to write. Luckily, a won't do a year-in-review type post but just start anew. You all probably just let loose a huge sigh of relief.
Today was quite an exceptional day. We were lucky enough to host a special stake conference in which Elder Ballard came to speak. Evidently, our stake has gone over 30 years without a visit from one of the Quorum of The Twelve and Elder Ballard determined that was too long. Although conference was to start at 10:00, I woke up at 8:00, grabbed a sweater, and took off to the Stake Center. Vanessa and the others were to get ready and come and remove me from my post at 9:00 so Ana and I could get ready. We were very lucky to get seats on the 4th row. Our stake president opened the meeting with an excellent talk and was followed by Pres. Bishop, who I believe is the president of the Timpanogos Temple. Elder Ballard followed and shared some excellent stories, shared some words of wisdom, and ended by blessing all with an apostalic blessing. After the closing prayer, I hurried the children up onto the stage so each could meet Elder Ballard and shake his hand. I then grabbed Ana and scurried over to the other side of the stake center, knowing that he would be led to the stake president's office. We were able to stop him as he walked by, shake his hand, and thank him for the wonderful talk and blessing. I must say that the most penetrating statement he made was when he spoke directly to the children in attendance (but looked directly at us) and said that at no time should a child ever be disrespectful towards his/her parents. He also said that children should be heard and that parents need to listen to the children with open hearts full of love. He then told us all to go home and discuss this today. I just found it amazing that he looked right in my eyes when he gave this counsel as this has been a major problem in our home, a problem that has led me to high levels of frustration. Just kind of cool. Another thing that may be of some interest to you is that he told us to act upon our promptings. He told stories of how he has been able to bless the lives of others because he has followed the promptings of the Spirit. Overall, the conference was a spiritually uplifting experience which I very much needed.