8 hours of watching the television this weekend, writing 15 pages (front and back) of notes, only having to tell the younger children oh, I don’t know, at least 6 or 7 times each session to be quiet (that amounts to 25 -30 times total), being together with my family in the living room, eating our traditional cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfast – I had a wonderful, spiritual feast listening to General Conference.
Steph @ Diapers and Divinity had a great idea to do a General Conference meme. So I bumped my scheduled post for today (a day on the farm) to tomorrow. ☺
General Conference Highlights, October 2010: You can watch or listen to any of them here. Transcripts will be available on Thursday.
1. Who were your three favorite speakers? This was the hardest question to answer! I liked so many of the speakers.
Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf “Of Things That Matter Most“
Elder Larry R. Lawrence “Courageous Parenting“
Elder Robert D. Hales “Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life“
2. Favorite talk?
Elder D. Todd Christofferson “Consecrated Life” given Saturday morning – This was in a virtual tie with Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk but it won out by a hair. Living a consecrated life has been on my mind lately. I particularly enjoyed the quote Elder Christofferson shared by B.H. Roberts:
“The man who so walks in the light and wisdom and power of God, will at the last, by the very force of association, make the light and wisdom and power of God his own–weaving those bright rays into a chain divine, linking himself forever to God and God to him. This [is] the sum of Messiah’s mystic words, “Thou Father in me, and I in thee”–beyond this human greatness cannot achieve.” [B. H. Roberts, “Brigham Young: A Character Study,” Improvement Era, June 1903, 574]
Isn’t that beautiful? I think I will make it my copywork for this week.
Then between the sessions on Sunday, BYUtv showed Treasure of Heaven: The John Tanner Story. John Tanner was a wealthy New York landowner who was converted to Mormonism in 1834. He sold his properties, freely gave all he had to the church and others, truly living a consecrated life in serving the Lord. In today’s terms the amount of wealth he donated equals over 250 million dollars.
3. Favorite hymn sung during Conference?
I enjoyed hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing the Primary song “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus.”
4. Who wore the best tie?
Pres. Uchtdorf had a pretty snazzy reddish pink tie during his talk Saturday morning.
Though I also liked the stripes of various shades of blue on Elder Richard G. Scott’s tie Saturday afternoon.
5. Do you think conference had a “theme”?
Follow the Prophet was definitely one major theme – with both Elders Costa and Duncan referencing the same by Pres. Benson, “14 Fundamentals in Following the Prophet.” Also following the Spirit and using our agency wisely.
6. Share a few of your favorite quotes (paraphrasing is fine).
“Our life on earth is a stewardship of our time and choices.” ~ Elder D. Todd Christofferson
7. Something that made you smile during conference.
Seeing the family choir sing during the Saturday afternoon session brought a huge smile to my face! I admit, I was a tad jealous. Can you imagine being able to sing with your family in a choir for General Conference? Of course, there were funny moments too with the speakers but I sure enjoyed hearing that choir, especially as they sang “Beautiful Zion.”
8. Any evidence that your children paid attention?
The three oldest took their own notes, the others listened to put the apostles and Prophet’s pictures on our General Conference Wall. We’ll be reviewing all of Conference tonight by playing General Conference Jeopardy.
9. If you had to give a talk in General Conference (don’t faint, this is hypothetical), what do you think you’d speak about?
Well, after the month I just had on my blog it would most assuredly be “Living the Truths in The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”
10. What are some of your post-conference goals?
Simplify, simplify, simplify. My husband and I are reading Approaching Zion in the evenings. We already have goals to be better stewards of our time and resources. After hearing both Elder Christofferson’s talk followed by Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk we feel a call to step up our efforts.
What did YOU enjoy about General Conference? Share in the comments!
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I loved how the Youth were so concentrated on. This day and age is so incredibly tough and having the living prophets speak just to you as a YW or YM, what a beautiful blessing.
The whole conference was profound. As always, I loved every min.
Thanks for doing the meme. We loved a lot of the same things. What a great weekend, huh?
I loved how my prayer in my heart was answered. I am behind though, I didn’t get to watch Saturday so I will be catching up this week.
Christofferson is my favorite, and I loved his talk. Looooved it.
We listened to the whole of Conference on the radio because we don’t have TV and also did a lot of driving on Saturday afternoon, so I didn’t get to see anybody. I wish I had been able to watch when Uchtdorf lost his voice though, hearing it on the radio was really disconcerting! But I thought he recovered really well 🙂
Oh wow! You are so wonderful, Cocoa! This was a great post.
There was so much I loved about conference too. Yes, I was jealous of the choir as well. 🙂
“Simplify” also spoke to me. So did “follow the prophet…he will never lead us astray,” “free yourself from addicting habits.”
My children enjoyed the stories: the hollow tree, the fence post, and Sam thought it was interesting that trees can effect turbulence.
All the talks were wonderful, as usual. I kept thinking, “I need to print this one up so that I will read it over and over.” Then I realized I was thinking that for every other talk. I guess that’s what the Ensign is for.
My favorite talk (in a close contest) was the one by the Sunday School President about teaching.
My favorite line was when Elder Uchdorf said, “Many of you are thinking, ‘That’s great, but what does it have to do with flying an airplane?'” I’ll have to see if my Primary kids caught that. They love it when he talks about flying.
I love that you picked my two favorite talks to the tee. 🙂
I love how various talks inspired discussions in our family, and that my children each made choices that reflected their attention to what was being said and their faith to follow. Very cool.
I love the lift conference gives me every time it comes around.
I loved how I went with a couple of questions I needed answers to, and nearly every talk gave me some insights. I am so thankful to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that provides me with a prophet to follow and inspired leaders to help me along the path of life!
The theme that I heard and felt was the importance of following the prophet. We have the wonderful gift of the holy ghost to receive personal inspiration. I felt that Elder Oaks’ talk really tied together the idea of revelation through the priesthood line and receiving revelation through our personal line.
I feel like something will be happening in the future when the true believers who have a testimony of the Prophet will be separated from those who don’t.
Hmmmm I think I will have to pay more attention to the ties. I didn’t realize there were so many handsome ones in evidence.
I also thought the talks by Elder Christofferson and President Uchtdorf delivered a pretty powerful 1-2 punch.
I loved the parenting talks. I’m terrified of becoming a parent, because of all the evil in the world that is only getting worse. I know Satan would have me think that I shouldn’t have kids bc the world is so evil, but God provides us with these tools to be better parents, and to help these children make better choices!
Loved that you did this meme. I decided to do it also because of what wonderful things were taught. Conference was so edifying. Choosing my favorites were so hard. I can’t wait for the Ensign to come out and read these wonderful talks. You can already download and relisten to them now. How wonderful technology can be!!(sometimes:))
Hey we had the same favorite talk and favorite tie! That Elder Uchtdorf knows how to dress! Great overview. I’m looking forward to the day when I don’t have to wrestle toddlers the whole time and we can actually have somewhat meaningful conversations with the children about what they learned. Until then, I enjoy the bits I get and read and listen to it again later.
I really liked Elder Gong’s talk. I love the thought of living up to the needs of our ancestors. They really do need us, you know….