General Conference Highlights

Well conference weekend has come and gone again! This was a noteworthy one for us though since it was really the first time since moving to NC that we have been able to watch at home. Since Bevan got the new laptop for school this year and we are somehow using wifi that is floating in the air at our apartment that we are not paying for we were able to watch it online, which with to little boys made things much easier. It is hard to keep them both entertained at church and get anything out of the session as well, so overall it was a good expereince for me.
I started out with really good intentions of taking notes of each talk, however my resolve only lasted through the first session since I still had to make sure my children were not entirely left to thier own devices all weekend.

I really enjoyed Dallin H. Oaks talk, it was a good reminder that life doesn't have to be as hard as we make it. That Jesus can heal all afflictions...physical, mental or spiritual...if we will let him. And that we can be given patience and understanding to deal with our burdens even if they cannot be removed. If we are fearful this evidences a lack of faith. All these things are reminders I needed right now, a very timely talk for me to hear.

Paul B. Pieper's talk directed to 1st generation members also really caught my interest since I am working with the new member's in our ward as the gospel pronciples teacher. I hope they all heard this one! It basically tells how important a role they have in thier families and with thier friends and what chosen people they are!

David Baxter talked about what he thought were the three gospel fundamentals that everyone needs to know. I was most impressed by the third which basically stated that discipleship does not make us immune from the challenges of life and that there may even be long stretches of time, even years, when life will be very difficult. The only real tragedy is when the trials blow us off course and we are only lost if we choose to let go of the iron rod. He used a very familiar example from the scriptures to demonstrate this that I had never considered in this way before. The story of the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his house on sand. Basicly the two men both had the same challenges, it was how they dealt with and prepared for the challenge that made the difference.

Robert C. Oaks pointed out that 4 of the 13 elements of charity relate to patience. Very interesting, I really need to work on that.

I really enjoyed M. Russel Ballard's talk because the overall message that I got from it was essentially that we need to have an economy of how we prioritize and use our time and resources. What are willing to give up for what and what prices can we not afford not to pay? He gave some guidelines to help us choose. This also was a very timely concept for me.

I can't remember her name but she spoke Saturday afternoon and I think was the 2nd counselour in the YW's presidency...anyhow, she talked about how we always need to be pure because there will be times in our lives when we will need immediate blessings and we need to be able to recieve them not because of Heavenly Father's mercy towards us but because we are worthy to recieve these blessings.

Anyways, it was a marathon of great talks but these are the ones which really stood out for me. ( Interesting that most of them came from Saturday morning when I was taking notes...message to self, take more notes!)