Showing posts with label General Conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General Conference. Show all posts

Monday, October 3, 2016

Competing Messages during General Conference

I had one particular thought from General Conference that I want to share here. It isn't new to me, but I think it is important at a time when different views often cause strife and bitterness: 
As often is the case, there were two talks about God and his love that showed the different views of individual leaders. One was closer to universal, long-suffering love, grace, and mercy, while the other was closer to conditional love leading to judgment dependent on obedience. (Those are broad approximations, so please don't nitpick them.) 
I know it drives some people nuts to have such different perspectives taught at General Conference, but I WANT differing views preached by the leadership, specifically because it illustrates that differing views among the membership are okay. In this case, I can focus on one and set aside the other - and the person sitting in front of me in church can do the same thing but focus on the talk I set aside. That is a good thing.  
Seriously, I LOVE the fact that not all the talks contain similar messages and that some simply don't move me - or even that some teach things with which I disagree. 
I hope none of my friends want total uniformity and homogeneity in the Church, since there is a richness in full orchestral music that is absent strictly in a melody, so we shouldn't pine for it in these talks. We should celebrate the simple fact that even our top leaders see some foundational things differently, be thankful some of them resonate more deeply within us than others, and be happy that there can be something for everyone at some point in the meetings.

Monday, August 17, 2015

God Really Does Know Us in Our Individual Circumstances

We got an email from our daughter serving in the Berlin mission after General Conference in October 2013, and I want to share something she wrote - since it's easy to forget that we all have very different experiences, based on the time and condition of our lives at the time. Also, we often have no idea how specific talks hit specific people - or the apparent revelation / guidance that can prompt someone to attend a particular session.

First, because of the time difference in Germany, they don't watch the sessions straight through. They tape the ones that happen during the night and watch them over the course of that weekend and the next one. I won't list their schedule, but I will say that it isn't "common sense", per se. So, when my daughter says the first session and the second session, she means the first ones that were broadcast there, not the first and second ones we watched on Saturday.

I don't pretend to understand the following, and I won't provide commentary. I just want to post it here for your consideration.

Anyway, the following is from her letter:

I just love being a missionary during General Conference. It is just so incredible that someone's talk is given at exactly the right session for when the person could come to conference!

Examples:

First Session:

This past week, we met with a convert of 16 months, who had some major questions about tithing. He had a question about it and he's been working with us with missionary work because he's just awesome like that. He had a question. Met with him again on Saturday at 3pm (a few hours before Bednar's talk) and we told him EXACTLY what Elder Bednar said. Like practically word for word even. It was sooo cool! This is great because of two reasons:

This member after talking with us felt the Spirit and received his answers he was searching for. He was excited for conference to see if what he had just felt a few hours ago would be confirmed. It was. He came to us afterwards and was like,

"That Elder Bednar. Wow, that was exactly what I needed to hear."

Second Session:

I called a less active member about 5 times Sunday morning, at first trying to get him to come to the Priesthood session. He didn't show up. I called him for the Saturday afternoon session (so 2pm on Sunday for us) about 3 times and I wasn't going to...because that's kind of annoying... haha. Anyway, I felt like I needed to keep calling him. And he came. Afterwards, I asked him which talk helped him the most and he said, "Elder Holland's! You promised me if I came, I would find help and answers!" He suffers from long-term depression, which is why he hadn't showed up to Priesthood session. He was in one of his huge slumps and I had kept calling him to help him come. He came to exactly the session he needed to be at, not the one I thought he needed to attend.