General Conference October 2008

Conference is over, and of course it was wonderful. We had to watch it on our computer, and it kept freezing up. However we managed to catch most of it. But.... =( we missed Elder Holland's talk (cry). But I shall read the entire thing when it comes out in the Ensign, so I'm not tooo sad, although i was at the time as Elder Holland always gives one of my favorite talks.
So, on the the main point. I am just going to express some things that stuck out to me. The entire thing was wonderful, but these are the parts that most impressed me personally. Forgive me if I do not describe everything well, I can't look it up because it's not on the LDS website yet.

#1 - I loved Sister Elaine Dalton's (general Young Women's President) talk. The whole thing was wonderful. But what I loved most about it was how she talked about being virtuous. How we don't realize how much it affects us and those around us. Someone who is virtuous has a confident and good countenance that others notice. They are prepared to face this world, and yet stand strong for what they believe.

#2 - another thing that impressed me was, not a talk, but one of the prayers that was given. I do not remember what one, but I think it was the closing prayer of the second session (anyone feel free to correct me on that). What impressed me was how short it was, and yet powerful. I was preparing myself for another long one, but it was over before I was ready for it to start. The man who gave it said something like "thank you for this conference and the messages we have received. Please help us to do it". And that was it. Wow. If I was asked to give the prayer in General Conference, in front of the entire church, including the prophet and general authorities, I would have thought about it a ton, and organized in my mind what I was going to say. This prayer was an example to me of how I should be. The Lord tells us not to think on things before-hand, but simply to store up in our minds the things that He has taught us, and then when the time comes He will give us what we should say. We do not need to dazzle or impress people, we do not need to be eloquent, or even to think too much about what we should say. We simply need to speak the words that He wants us to speak, and that is enough.

#3 - Of course I loved President Uchtdorf's talk. He spoke of hope. Along with faith, and charity. Hope is what sustains us when we have nothing else to hold on to. When our faith is fading, it strengthens us and keeps us going. And when we have had our faith strengthened our faith gives us charity. Because we want to share the joy of it with others. The one thing that especially struck me was when he said something about how if we could get just one glimpse of the life ahead of us, meaning our Celestial life, we would have a perfect hope, and not any doubt left in our hearts. I think he shared a scripture with it. And he said that fear and faith can not exist in us at the same time. Which makes perfect sense, because they are exact opposites. Christ had perfect faith, and no fear.

#4 - It struck me that the entire conference seemed to have this one theme (along with others). Unity. More than ever we are being told that we need to be one (if we are not one we are not Christ's). Basically we need to build up Zion. ("and the Lord called His people Zion, because they were of one mind and one heart and dwelt in righteousness and there were no poor among them" is that in Moses? It's a scripture mastery so I should know...). An interesting message in these difficult times. We need to prepare. Maybe we have 150 or 70 years left, but maybe we just have 3 or 4. Really nobody knows but God.

#5 and the last thing I am going to mention - as always, I was struck by the power and authority of the Prophet of the Lord. Every conference, with President Hinckley before, and now President Monson, I receive a renewed knowledge that they truly are prophets of God. It is unmistakable to me. The prophet has a countenance that sparkles with personality, humor, knowledge, humility, sincerity. I love to here the prophet speak. When he speaks, everyone listens, and everyone is enlightened. I feel safe when I know that a living prophet of God is here to guide us. No matter how the world goes around us, his guidance is firm and safe. It is the word of the Lord. I know for sure that Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet in that Latter Days.

For all of you who missed it [conference], I encourage you to go to www.lds.org and watch it (it's right on the front page). Or wait for the Ensign and read it. I promise that if you hope to be inspired by it you will be.