Let’s talk CONFERENCE

[Anonymous]

As we customarily do, let’s share our thoughts about General Conference talks.

Which do you find inspiring and why?

Which bother you?

Let’s share and learn.

[Anonymous]

As with other conferences, Pres Uchtdorf inspired me.

The Lord doesn’t care at all if we spend our days working stable stalls or marble halls (tried to capture thoughts as I heard it, it may be imperfect quote but that was the gist of it)

We are not so insignificant that God doesn’t know us in the universe. God knows us. It may be true that man is nothing compared, but always remember, YOU MATTER TO HIM!

1 god loves the humble and meek

2 lord entrusts the fullness of the gospel to the weak and simple

3 no matter where you live or humble your circumstances, you are not invisible to your Heavenly Father

4 what you see and hear now will not always be, have hope and faith, one day you will experience the promises in 1 Cor 2:9

Pres uchtdorf continues to be one of my favorite speakers. God bless his soul!

[Anonymous]

Urchdorf. Good message. it’s what I would expect a New Testament prophet to say to the world.

If there is such a thing as a “true apostle” of Jesus Christ – Urchdorf is it. He’s the best thing happening in the LDS church today, IMO.

Plus he mentioned planets and stars and worlds and such about a gazillion times. I take notice of those kind of things

[Anonymous]

I had to work this morning (homecoming at the college), so I missed the first session. I really want to read Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk.

I also heard that Pres. Monson was late to the session. Anyone know anything about that?

[Anonymous]

Ray,

President Monson spoke in the second hour of the first session andi wasn’t really a “talk” so much as the customary opening remarks. He announced several new temples including that the Provo tabernacle would be rebuilt and outfitted as a temple.

[Anonymous]

TSM Monson joked about the fact he was late through implication, but it was kind of a lame joke.

I phoned a close friend who has been by my side throughout much of my Church trials for over 20 years. I forgot it was the priesthood session of conference at the time I called, and his wife sort of chastised me for not being there. So, out of a sense of guilt, I listened to the Saturday Am session.

Impressions:

1. Elder Scott and Barabara Thomson

I liked the Elder Scott talk, and the woman after him on scriptures and revelation. When Elder Scott read the many powerful scriptures I had memorized on my mission, it brought back the feelings of comfort and goodness I used to feel from the scriptures, and sparked a yearning for that kind of spirituality again. However, when I think of reading them, I shrink a bit given all the bad stuff that has been dragged across my Church experience. I want to read them, but then, I don’t.

The scriptures he quoted were primarily about character, love, and individual spirituality. They were NOT about sacrifice for the Church, it’s truthfulness or any “give it all for the Church at all costs” principles. I did balk when he said the scriptures represent “absolute truth” as I no longer believe them that way — they are so open to interpretation the concept of absolute truth in the scriptures has little meaning for me any longer. However, later, he mentioned that a passage of scripture can be a conduit for personal revelation, which conflicted with his absolute truth statement, I felt. He implies each scripture can mean something different to each person, making its truth relative.

2. Elder Whitney:

Then, things took a turn for the worse with Elder Whitney’s talk, which was all about the greatness of the Church, how the sun never sets of the Church kingdom (spinning off a quote about the British Empire that was true during its Imperial days). It uplifted me not a whit.

As I listened, I was reminded of a quote I read from Michael Quinn’s book “Extensions of Power” in which he comments the Church has always been about business, and that the Church “is in the business of growing the Church”. (I know Quinn is part of the September 6, but at least a chapter on Church finances gave me SOME idea how they work since no information is given to us through official channels).

With some of my experiences providing the lens for my interpretation of his talk, the whole talk was painful to listen to.

3. Thomas S. Monson:

This pain continued as TSM launched into a list of temples to be built across the world, again, showing a focus on the organization’s growth, spiking Elder Whitney’s talk, and reminding me how insignificant individual member’s needs can be in the grand picture of worldwide growth. I yearned for comments about the growth of services sponsored by the Church, aid to the less fortunate, and perhaps even an anecdote about someone whose economic, emotional, or spiritual well-being was dramatically fuelled by their Church experience — not about the egocentrism I’ve grown tired of in the Church.

And then, as I teach finance, I found myself musing that perhaps Temples do have a strong economic benefit to the Church –with tithe payers increasing when a temple is close by. I envisioned an investment analysis where the investment in the temple is offset by increased cashflows due to tithing.

4. Jose Alonso

I had trouble getting past his rather thick accent and occasional breaches of English language grammar rules. But I did listen and found nothing objectionable. His lost son analogy reminded me of my own son and how I believe he is much like the lost son Jose described. I felt a bit inspired to engage my son in more spiritual activities in our home. I felt I’m doing too much in my work that is causing me to neglect my boy’s spiritual education.

5. Boyd K. Packer

Given his previous writings of “The Unwritten Order of Things” and his skirmishes with the Proclamation To The World regarding gender at the outset, I had a mental block in listening to him. I was aware of my prejudices, and tried to listen in spite of them. I found he mumbled when he spoke, and slurred his speech now and then, so overall, I didn’t really get his message due to the physical and mental inference I was receiving.

6. Elder Uchdorf

Unfortunately I fell asleep at this point. I will have to revisit this one when I get a chance.

Conclusion

This is the first time I’ve watched a session of conference in over two years. The guilt from my friend’s wife, adn the opportunity to share what I felt here were forces in favor of watching it…

Overall, I’m seeing that the value of these talks was heavily swayed by the thinking I’ve been doing over the last two years as I’ve been trying to reconstruct everything. No longer is the Church this grandiose, shining kingdom on a hill of which I am proud of; I have trouble listening to such organization-centric talks. They are reminders of how callous and unfeeling our organization can be, and how individual interests tend to pale in comparison to the business of growing the Church.

But at the same time, there are many beautiful and comforting principles to be found in one’s individual experience with God. The scriptures are that conduit, as Elder Scott and Barbara Thomson very eloquently described. My family is a free range for teaching and building spirituality in my children, which I am not leveraging as much as I could be. I felt that call.

[Anonymous]

SilentDawning wrote:

6. Elder Uchdorf

Unfortunately I fell asleep at this point. I will have to revisit this one when I get a chance.

Exactly what happened to me, SD. 😆

I love Pres. Uchtdorf but I was comforting my crying son and we were snuggled up together and those mommy hormones kicked in. We both fell asleep. I will be listening to the talk though later today. Not sure if it is just me or what but I just didn’t get drawn in to most of the talks yesterday. Hopefully today someone will speak to me.

[Anonymous]

Well, I guess you and I M&G need to make sure we get back to hear that talk from Uchdorf.

I tried to get through the priesthood session so when I talk to my friend we have something in common about conference.

1) Holland: Missionary Work

For the time being, I can’t go out and preach the gospel. So, a missionary a focused message was something I was going to fast forward through….but I kept listening. I concluded that preparing for a mission and getting a testimony and staying clean is a tremendously valuable exercise for a young man — and something I would hope for in my son. Few other Churches provide a significant challenge like that. I grew much on my mission, and although I generally have suspicion now toward the motives and decisions of some of the leaders I have worked with, my mission president was a jewel in the crown as far as priesthood leadership goes.

I decided I’ll support my son in preparing for a mission for the sake of his character; something I’ve been debating about silently for a while.

I thought it was a step in the right direction that the Church is going to supplement the cost of housing for couples. At first I felt like he was throwing a bone to the potential missionary couples as Holland was clear that it was only a supplement. But then realized that one must be thankful for every bit of progress that uses the Church’s wealth to ease the burden of people who serve. I thought it was interesting how senior missions can be reduced to 6 months, 12 months, 18 months or 24 months, and how E. Holland made it clear you don’t have to knock on doors or keep the same hours at regular 19 year old missionaries.

I left that talk realizing that when the Church membership holds back, and doesn’t respond to the sometimes unrealistic demands made by leaders in the church, they do alter their policies. It appears this may have happened since older couples aren’t willing to serve missions to the extent the heirarchy would like. However, such policy change in this case was related to lack of results in a core “business” area of the Church — intake of members. Nonetheless, I felt Holland’s talk represented a slight swing toward members looked as partners rather than mere backs on which to shoulder the entire burden.

2) Bishop McMullin: Missionary work

I can’t remember too much of what he said. It was directed at youth, but was delivered as for adults. I couldn’t focus on what he was saying to get anything out of it. I seem to remember some priesthood responsibility comments and feeling he was trying to teach me to be a good Mormon rather than a good person….

3) Christopher Wadell: Missionary Work

This former Spain mission president touched me with a story about a former missionary who learned the one baptism he saw on his Spain mission resulted in a temple marriage, six children BIC, 3 missions and a string of temple marriages by the children of his only convert. I actually felt quite moved by this, and I fought to understand why. I think it was twofold a) my mission was very hard to “get onto” because of my hard-nosed mission president who put a huge financial burden on me to clear off 3 years of student loans AND fund the entire thing without any Church help our encouragement All while chastising me for objecting to his apparent lack of spirituality in suggesting I just stay home. So, missionary stories about success like that touch me.

And second, I think it made me wonder if the time I spent sucking air as a HPGL for 3 years at great sacrifice to my family and emotional health had any effects that perhaps I wasn’t aware of.

Wadell confirmed the goodness it can do to a young man to prepare himself for a mission; I hope my son latches on to the goodness of character such preparation can spawn. He has a Dad who did it, so it strikes me as a good place to put my efforts as a Father, to encourage him to do likewise. My motive is for his character, and not for the growth of the Church though. Frankly, that is last on my list of reasons for sending anyone on a mission.

4) Uchdorf: Church Welfare

This was OK. I still give to the welfare fund as it goes to help the needy. It was a kind of a boring talk, but nothing inspiring, nothing objectionable. Altought it reminded me that he said caring for the needy is at the core of our religion, however, tithing is the commandment that gets the sit down interview and keeps you out of the temple if you don’t pay it. You can go your whole life and not pay one penny of fast offering, and be a member in full-standing. That sounds wrong to me if looking after the poor and needy is at the core of our religion as Uchdorf suggests.

5) Eyring:

At this point I totally lost interest. He launched into the Plan of Salvation and raised someting that bothers me– the idea of a veil of forgetfulness from our pre-mortal life. He said we have to forget everything and re-learn it. As a university teacher, the thought of that seems to inefficient after realizing what it takes to really learn something.

At this point I couldn’t watch it any longer, as the veil thing never did sit well with me. I’ve always wondered why we don’t get to keep our knowledge of the pre-mortal life so we have a legacy of good choices to continue in this life. I see no purpose for it really, other than to justify that portion of our existence. Having to live by faith never seemed like a justiable answer to me, as the lack of clarity over which Church is true leads to so much confusion and bickering among sects who all think they are right. The mass suicide/murder by the People’s Temple is another casualty of the lack of clarity we have about what is right and good in this life.

People have spiritual experiences in all Churches which makes them believe they are true. The veil bothers me, regrettably.

******

And then my wife came into my office and told me a number of things — one thing that really struck me was the fact that the Church no longer requires Wards to send money back at the end of the year!!! This came up in Ward Council she said. That money carries over to the following year, as do deficits. The old policy was a huge stumbling block for me the old way, when our ex-Bishop would say “no” to my request for mailing list funds for people who didn’t want to see home teachers, so I paid it at $400 per year for 2 years. And then, I learned he sent money back to the Stake or SLC or wherever. Plus he refused to fund some $150 socials we held with great success for a while. All that seemed dead wrong.

At that point, I’d had enough of Conference, however, but feel thankful there is some loosening of funds for the good of the local Wards.

After I listen to Uchdorf’s Sat Am talk, I’ll have to take a break from all this. It’s both inspiring and angst-producing at the same time given the tension I feel in my Church experience right now….

[Anonymous]

Uchdorf: Sat Am Conference

I listened to this one. Was completely awestruck and touched. He words counteracted so many of the negative experiences I’ve had in the Church. I wish all leaders viewed the individual with the same love and worth and kindness as Uchdorf did in this talk.

I felt that the Church has interefered with my relationship with God, but that Uchdorf showed me there are glimmers of thought about how members should be treated, viewed, and revered as important instruments of God, whatever circumstances they may be in. I see Uchdorf as a champion for the souls of men, rather than than the leader of a cold, impersonal organization concerned only with its own aims — as many leaders have convinced me to believe through their actions.

Congratulations Elder Uchdorf on a moving talk that boosted my faith and healthy pride in our organization — somewhat.

“All the money in this earth will not buy a loaf of bread in the currency of heaven”….there were several good quotes like this in his talk.

[Anonymous]

I have listened to most of conference including the priesthood session. Perhaps it is my bias but I can not seem to get a thing out of all these talks. They are all so mundane and uninspiring. Even Ucthdorf who I like seems to be drifting toward the status quo. All the anecdotal stories are tiring. I would really like to hear something of substance. Maybe they should have two conferences. The milk conference and the meat conference.

[Anonymous]

I skipped conference. 😳 😳 😳 Am I allowed to say this?

Please someone give me a rundown of what you found inspiring and half a dozen talks which are worth my looking at. (Monson, Uchtdorff and Holland I’ll take as a given)

[Anonymous]

cwald wrote:

Urchdorf. Good message. it’s what I would expect a New Testament prophet to say to the world.

Couldn’t stay away, could ya? . I missed the Saturday AM meeting and will have to go listen to Elder Uchtdorf’s talk.

I saw the remaining eight hours. I heard little to be inspired about, and much to disagree with. I don’t recall ever being as inspired as some claim to be by GC in the past, but I also don’t recall ever being as unhappy about it. I suppose it’s me that has changed.

[Anonymous]

I would go with Elder Scott’s opening talk, Barbara Thomson immediately after him. And Uchdorf’s Saturday AM talk.

Hollands talk at Priesthood meeting was blunt but interesting. He made it sound a bit like serving a mission for seniors was something to be negotiated. Which, in retrospect, I kind of liked as it showed a softening toward the members and more of a partnership arrangement for missions.

The others weren’t very inspiring in my view. Uchdorf’s was the absolute highlight as it was pure Christian principles in my view, affirmation of the individual, and extremely touching and inspiring. Somewhat faith restoring in our leadership as well.

[Anonymous]

SilentDawning wrote:

Uchdorf’s was the absolute highlight as it was pure Christian principles in my view, affirmation of the individual, and extremely touching and inspiring. Somewhat faith restoring in our leadership as well.

I’d love to see that guy become prophet one day. It would be good for so many reasons.

[Anonymous]

Heber13 wrote:

…let’s share our thoughts about General Conference talks…Which bother you?…Let’s share and learn.

In this conference, I thought they were more careful about trying to avoid saying anything overly offensive than in the past. For example, Boyd K. Packer referred to “personally degrading practices” rather than going into specifics about what he meant. However, what bothered me the most about this conference was what seemed like a common theme of retrograde defiance toward any popular opinions that go against some of the Church’s old-school hard-line teachings. For example, there were comments about how the world is supposedly becoming increasingly immoral, that members that don’t want to have children as soon as they are married lack faith to obey the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth, and inactive members should be expected to just repent of their unacceptable habits without much resistance.

First of all, most of my non-Mormon and inactive neighbors don’t look particularly immoral to me to begin with but maybe that’s because I associate morality with things like integrity and how well you treat others not whether or not you have tattoos or drink beer. Meanwhile, I have known Church members with temple recommends that are guilty of all kinds of lying, ripping people off, adultery, physical assaults, etc. but you would never know it simply by looking at them because they go to Church every week and look like perfectly well-behaved Mormons most of the time.

Also, I don’t believe some of the major differences between what is considered normal and acceptable behavior by the majority of the free world versus what the Church teaches has really changed that much in at least 40-50 years. Maybe gays are gaining more widespread acceptance than before but it seems like drinking and pre-marital sex were already fairly popular long before I was born. In my opinion, continuing to act like avoiding some supposed sins completely is much more important than it really is will not help the Church’s cause going forward because this will alienate way too many people that don’t see any convincing reason why they should worry quite so much about some of these things the Church puts so much emphasis on.

[Author]

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