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West wrote:
The sustaining of the officers is interesting. There are several people who are routinely shouting “opposed” when Ucthdor asks for dissenting opinion. The people sitting next to me are visibly disturbed by this.
That kind of protest IMO works against whatever they are protesting for.If you are ‘opposed’ raise your hand, just like those who are ‘for’ do.I can see no benefit that could possibly come from such a mockery. I don’t believe that God talks to the Prophets Seers and Revelators of the Church, but I find it rude, unloving, and uncharitable to take advantage of the Church’s stage to do such a thing. I sincerely doubt that Kate Kelly or John Dehlin would protest in that way. So two general presidencies were replaced (Edit: apparently not the full presidencies, just…young men and partial primary?). I didn’t catch the names of the new officers, though. No one seemed surprised at the releases and callings in our area. Alright, Bednar is first. The talk is about focusing on Christ and keeping our focus on him at all times. Relation of Peter walking on the water in the storm to life when Satan brings “storms” to distract us. Talk about how ordinances and covenants are how we focus on Christ. And…then a brief comment about relying on His timing, which reminds me a lot of what’s been talked about in the past two sessions. Conference theme, I suppose.
Anyway, then he talked about Godly fear and how it’s almost necessary for our progression. He emphasized that he doesn’t think we’ll be afraid of meeting God, but the fear of a perfect knowledge of ourselves, which will leave us with no excuse.
So main focus was on enduring to the end and focusing on Christ for the sake of this life and the judgment after. Actually I would title this talk “Godly Fear.”
nibbler wrote:This is the quote that rose from the Saturday morning session. There’s a nice image in my FB feed (the capitalization is theirs, not mine):
Quote:I am convinced that a HUSBAND is never more attractive TO HIS WIFE than when he is serving in his God-given roles as a worthy priesthood holder.
🙄 That was fast. Does DeseretNews.com have all the soundbites in advance? It feels a little canned, but admit I wouldn’t care as much if I agreed with their “bite” choices.On Own Now wrote:West wrote:The sustaining of the officers is interesting. There are several people who are routinely shouting “opposed” when Ucthdor asks for dissenting opinion. The people sitting next to me are visibly disturbed by this.
That kind of protest IMO works against whatever they are protesting for.If you are ‘opposed’ raise your hand, just like those who are ‘for’ do.I can see no benefit that could possibly come from such a mockery. I don’t believe that God talks to the Prophets Seers and Revelators of the Church, but I find it rude, unloving, and uncharitable to take advantage of the Church’s stage to do such a thing. I sincerely doubt that Kate Kelly or John Dehlin would protest in that way. I feel exactly the same to what everyone’s said so far. The actual dissenting opinion didn’t disturb me, but the way they did it was ridiculous. Also I felt, ah, sad I suppose for the TBMs who are here and excited and just want to listen. Reminds me of the last time I was in here and protesters somehow got in in a group and started shouting protests on the balconey at the beginning of the session.
Christofferson is up. When the talk starts off about marriage, you know where it’s going.
Pretty much an overview of the divine plan starting with the fall of Adam and Eve, the necessity of the Savior, and mortal birth and families of husband and wife.
Example of what’s in this particular talk: Nothing can be more important than physical birth spiritual rebirth. The “best” setting is a union between man and woman. It’s in matrimonial union between man and woman that is the close as we can get to the perfect image of God. I’m paraphrasing here, though, so exact words these are not. But that should give you a very basic idea of what this talk is. If you want to hear yet another talk about the ideal we’ve talked about on this forum, then here you go. Otherwise…
There’s a theme this conference, I think.
Thanks for the summaries, West. I’d say that neither of the apostles’ talks were out of the ordinary more or less hardline black and white obedience talks. Probably most people here will want to skip them. Wilford Andersen of the Seventy now after the rest hymn. “I can teach you to dance. But you have to hear the music.”
I foresee quotes from this talk appearing a lot on Facebook this weekend.
I personally enjoyed this talk. I was a bit uncomfortable at people laughing at the Native American story, but I’m just sensitive that way. I would call the talk the Music of the Gospel, which is actually what he said.
He related to being in tune with the Spirit to tuning a radio to hear the music. He didn’t go too far into that thought, but it made me think. Where on the dial you needed to turn depended a lot on the material of your house, where you lived, how you positioned the antenna, etc. Not everyone tunes in to the channel the exact same way with the exact same procedure.
There was a lot of focus on teaching your children and teaching in your home. “If you aren’t hearing the music of the Gospel in your home, keep practicing.” He acknowledged that even trials and challenges are part of the music.
I love music a lot, though, so I might be biased to this talk.
Dale Renlund of the Seventy is next. Started off with a quote from Nelson Mandela about saints and sinners. Then a minute later, he said, “God cares more about who we are and who we are becoming than who we were. He cares that we keep trying.”
I liked this talk. It was about accepting our past mistakes by saying yes, that’s who I was, but I am not that person anymore. As expected, it was also about Christ and God’s mercy and how God is “disappointed when we don’t recognize that others are trying too.” I loved that. From the perspective of someone in a faith transition, I took more out of it than he may have intended, but we do what we can.
“If we don’t let others try, we are just Latter Day hypocrites.”
Personally I would recommend this talk.
Michael Ringwood of the Seventy now. The talk focused on Helaman and his brothers, particularly Shiblon as an example of the good people who “are more willing to serve than have dominion.” Pretty much the talk was about the good people who selflessly serve with no desire for recognition.
Probably the best part of this talk was about his experience as a missionary. He was assigned a missionary others in the mission talked about because this missionary struggled with the language and had never held a leadership calling. Brother Ringwood talked about how he quickly discovered that everything he had heard about this missionary was false; the missionary was the most obedient and hard working companion he ever had. It was about not judging someone on the successes you can clearly see like titles and recognition, for God knows, and that is what matters.
There was good stuff in this talk, although I felt the focus wasn’t as clear as the previous talks. What I got out of it was don’t put focus on the positions and titles you and others hold. God knows, and the people who are important know. Serve others selflessly (with tbr emphasis of service on the Church). Not a bad message. Others might get slightly different things out of it. Some here may not be huge fans of it, I think.
I liked all three of the Seventies (Andersen, Renlund, Ringwood), just basic stuff. I don’t think any will become all time favorites, but they’re all food for thought and I don’t see anything controversial or objectionable. Elder Cook is up, surprised that it’s not Pres. Monson. Looking to see the last time (if ever) he didn’t address either the first or second session (now known as second and third sessions).
Looks like we’re ending with Elder Cook. Emphasis on family with this talk. It has some good stuff. Also talks about how husbands and wives are equal but have different roles, which is very Proclamation-sounding. I was hoping he would stay more on his initial focus of creating a loving, Gospel-centered family life, but what can you do.
Ah. Ahhhh he talked about doubt and people leaving the Church in that “don’t worry about that, the Church has never been stronger.” And how people leaving and removing their names is significantly less than in years past. “Let me repeat, the Church has never been stronger.”
Well. What can you do. I didn’t find much value on this talk, and it might not be great for some here.
Gotta say, once you wade through all the ideal family talk and some of the talk around the SSM debate (there’s lots of it again) there are some really good isolated thoughts in many of the Saturday afternoon talks. Wilford Andersen’s talk was a standout as was the comment about Latter-day Sinners, Saints, Quitters, and Hypocrites. I was hoping for a Billy Joel quote. I I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. Sinners are much more fun.
West wrote:…Also talks about how husbands and wives are equal but have different roles, which is very Proclamation-sounding…
I’m listening on an audio only feed that drops from time to time so I miss who says what but one talk had one blurb that I felt stood up against traditional family roles in declaring that men and women are equal
in authority. I wish I could remember who and what specifically. Elder Cook started off so well with a talk centered on the atonement. This one is a skip for most of us, unless you like hearing that the answers are prayer, scripture study, church attendance, etc. He did take a direct jab at doubters setting it up with an “it’s OK” but following with things that probably got many of here to begin with, things that don’t work for all of us. Please oh please reign me back in here… At one point Cook came out of nowhere with a comment about how people leaving due to doubt isn’t nearly as big a problem as the critics claim it to be. I don’t get why they dedicate any time during GC to address the critics. IMO GC should be a “message of Christ to the world” but we get apostles taking pot shots at critics from the pulpit. A forum from which there can conveniently be no rebuttal.
This sort of thing happened last conference as well.
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