General Conference Discussion

Ok, as a divorced mother of three who worked full-time (and over-time), my loving older sister came to me one day and declared, “get rid of all the clothes that have to be ironed, use ONLY permapress”. This was just one of the little time management tricks I had to learn. The ironing withdrawal was difficult at first. I think the part I missed the most was the stream. I actually had to buy one of those hand held stream cleaners. It helped. Next, I just graduated to that spray on dewrinkler. It smelled pretty good, not as good as starch, but if you inhale enough of it you can get your fix.

After just a few short months, I was off of ironing, almost completely. I even started to like the little permapress clothes my kids were wearing. I was actually saving about 3 hours a week. Sometimes, I even had time to read to my children instead of ironing!!!!

Then came the great day that a brand new RS President would speak to us, “we should all be in church with our children’s clothes perfectly ironed”. I think Deseret Industries has MY iron. I’ll just have to go buy it back, but when I get there, it’s already been sold. I guess I could just borrow an iron. My friend took an official poll and no one that I know actually has an iron. I, I, I, am just a hopeless mess of a Mormon and so are all of my friends.

Got back in time to listen to the last half of the session. I really liked the talks I heard.

Did anyone else like the advice to prepare lessons with the manual but be willing to close them when inspired to do so?

or the statement that we need to love more than we need to worry about a long list of do’s and don’t’s?

I hate to see Boyd Packer unable to get up to the podium. I’ve agreed and disagreed with him through the years but respected his opinions nevertheless.

I think it was him that come up with the idea that gay/lesbian issues, feminism, and intelectualism were the main threats to the Church. I can certainly understand a lot of folks here on the forum disagreeing with that .

just me – thanks for sharing your notes. I really liked E. Scott’s talk and E. Uchtdorf’s talks most of all. A few general observations:

– I heard a LOT more “believe” than “know” this time. Perhaps this is feedback that was received, or perhaps it’s just serendipitous. Either way, I am very glad!

– So many talks were about love – that was also great to hear. Who can argue with that?

– E. Oaks’ talk, which some will doubtless perceive as harsh, seemed like it was a deliberate upgrade on his homosexuality interview: 1) instead of telling parents what they should do with wayward children, he said parents are entitled to their own revelation, 2) he said it was an extreme approach (to be avoided) to shun one’s wayward kids entirely, just as extreme as ignoring grievous sins, and 3) instead of referring to homosexuality specifically, he referred to sins like unlawful cohabitation (putting heterosexual and homosexual violations of the law of chastity on equal ground – making the objection be purely on the grounds of chastity, not sexual orientation). Anyway, it was a nice softening for Oaks although in contrast to other speakers, he still seems like the hard guy. What can you do?

– I liked E. Bednar’s examples of what a failure some of his FHEs were. It was nice to hear some real stories that sounded like actual things we might have experienced.

– I wasn’t a big fan of E. Callister’s talk about JS either. It seemed a little simplistic and Stage 3 in terms of his views of the FV and JS.

– E. Uchtdorf referred to “heavenly parents” rather than just HF. We need more of that. It was a nice detail.

– E. Scott warning against pornography in the general session rather than just PH session might have been because of the stats that 25% of porn viewers are women, and the number is increasing.

I heard that the talk Ballard gave in PH about sons & fathers was really good.

Thanks for that more positive overview of Elder Oaks’ talk. I have REALLY been struggling with that one and headed to trusty old stay lds this morning in hopes that someone wiser and more positive than I had something to say about it!! I guess I hadn’t heard the talk he’d given previously on homosexuality. I woke up in the middle of the night in sweats, worrying that I was going to hell for the change in my beliefs and a desire to get my kids as far away from this kind of thinking as possible!! Do you think I’m still a little defensive 😆 😆 😆 ! I reminded myself this morning of the kind of talks that Bruce R McConkie used to give as well as Kimball. Like you said, Hawkgirrl, its just different personalities I guess. I’m sure he’s a great guy with pure intentions and the church is still good. I just wish I could talk to him in person, tell him how much people like me are trying to believe and help him to see that he ruins lives with this kind of dogma. Thanks again for this discussion. I too really enjoyed Uchtdorf and Bednar. I need to go back and listen to Elder Andersons talk if some of you liked it so much. I turned it off after Hales to vent to my brother so I have some catching up to do. Here’s to some great listening today!

I liked the obvious love and gentleness of the greetings between the spouses at the end of the first session today – and the fact that a couple of the widowers in the 12 were supporting each other as they walked out. That sight choked me up a bit.

These are deeply good men and women.

– E. Uchtdorf referred to “heavenly parents” rather than just HF. We need more of that. It was a nice detail.

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Interesting since the new RS, PT, Gospel Principles manual is taking out all references to Heavenly Parents and mother now. Have not been able to watch any of Saturdays that I taped. Been real sick with Ragweed hayfever and sinus infection so I appreciated all the commentary on Sat. sessions. Interesting that Monson’s daughter, Ann Dibb spoke. Good analogy of Scaffolding and using life saving equipment but the females who speak at conference all seem to still have that “primary’ teaching voice. Apostle Nelson’s talk on “Personal Revelation’ was fine until he mentioned that personal revelation will never contridicate church doctrine. I guess Nephi was wrong in the voice he heard to kill Laban then or if a mother hears the voice to work outside the home. Since Dallin Oaks gave the talk on Special Cases though that I post somewhere on this board, I know is probably not what Elder Nelson means. I also liked President Monson’s talk about what the children sent him for his birthday and the warm fuzzies. I actually enjoy watching the “Worldview reports’ about what the church is doing in the world between the conference sessions on the BYU channel the best.