184th annual general conference: saturday sessions

On April 5 and 6 I had the opportunity to listen to General Conference. I love Conference because it always seems to fall at the perfect time of the year. When I was at BYU, it was always right before finals and right after the school year started. I miss living in Provo because it was so easy to get tickets to Conference and attend one or multiple sessions. However, we are so blessed today to watch Conference from the comfort of our own homes, which is exactly what I did this year. I want to highlight my favorite talks and quotes from the weekend and I would love to hear your feedback and answer questions! (I am writing this post based on the notes I personally took while listening, so some of the quotes may not be exact and are most likely paraphrased).

Photo Credit to Meg Ricks

I’ve split up this post into Saturday and Sunday sessions to save you from reading a super long post. Here are my thoughts from Saturday morning and afternoon sessions:

Jeffrey R. Holland

• Talk about starting strong. Elder Holland is known for delivering powerful and emotional messages and this talk was no exception. My favorite part from this one was this line: It is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat boat but don’t even row it
• Christ-like love is the greatest need we have on this planet.
• Living the gospel is hard but it’s the most worthwhile thing we’ll ever do in this life.

Ronald Rasband

• To sustain our leaders is a privilege and is coupled with the responsibility to share their burdens
• What He asks of us is to take up the joyful burden of discipleship- discipleship is JOYFUL burden. Whoever thought the words joyful and burden would be used to describe one another. But this goes back to Elder Holland’s talk and the difficulty of living the gospel but the infinite blessings we receive from doing so.

Carlos H. Amado

• Props to the speakers who deliver messages in languages other than their native tongue. I can’t imagine how difficult that must be, and yet they still manage to convey their thoughts and the Spirit so well
•  Even during His immense suffering, Christ continued to pray for and think of others

Neil L. Andersen

• You are infinitely more precious to God than a tree- Ok ok, I know this is taken out of context but I giggled so much when he said this line. Like sweet, I’m more special than that sequoia!
• While many well-intentioned governments and politicians redefine marriage, God does not—simple statement about the sanctity of marriage.
• God has saved you for His final preparations before His return—I always get emotional thinking about being part of a chosen generation. It sounds a little conceited, but we truly have been saved for the last days. It’s frightening that of all the human lives who could have been brought to earth at this time, I am one of the ones chosen to live in this day and age- yikes. This concept makes me think of EFY and singing “As Zion’s Youth in Latter Days” and feeling a flood of emotion and humility.
• Elder Andersen talked mostly about the ever-increasing gap between the standards of the world vs. the Church. As Latter-day Saints we stick out more and more and have become more and more recognized throughout the world. Now more than ever we need to live like disciples of Christ and be the best examples of His Church we can be. 

Russell M. Nelson

• Even if everyone else is doing it, wrong can never be right—simple statement but hard to live but so, so true.
• Courage, not compromise brings the smile of the Lord’s approval
• Stand up for what you believe in. Let your faith show. Don’t be ashamed of the gospel.

Richard G. Scott

• Shoutout to Elder Scott for consistently mentioning his Sweet Jeanene every time he speaks. I actually yelled, “I LOVE JEANENE” during this talk to which Preston responded, “I know.”
• Teach with the vision of the importance of being sealed in the temple—It’s gonna be awhile before I’m teaching my own little ones about the importance of the temple, but it makes me remember how important the temple was in my family growing up. We always had a picture of the Washington, D.C. temple in our home and it was emblazoned in my mind that my goal should be to get married there someday. I dreamed about my wedding since I was little and imagined all the frivolous things like my dress and flowers, but my mom always reminded me that none of that mattered unless I was sealed to my husband that day. Yay for that dream coming true :)

W. Craig Zwick

• Kept shooting glances at Preston this whole talk cuz it was all about COMMUNICATION y’all. This talk is called “What Are You Thinking?” and I thought it was one of the most useful and practical addresses of Conference. Elder Zwick shared his own personal experience of miscommunication with his wife as well as an example from the Book of Mormon of different viewpoints resulting in abrasive words and hurt feelings.
• The willingness to see things through each other’s eyes transforms corrupt communication to ministering grace—Think before you speak! Think about what the other person might be thinking. This talk was for me because my feelings are easily hurt and I am a champion at holding a grudge and refusing to speak. 

Thanks for reading both my Saturday sessions thoughts. You can watch both Saturday morning and afternoon sessions here

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