Preparing for General Conference

Next weekend Oct 2 & 3 is the 180th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

The four sessions of conference offers each of us individually and as a worldwide Church a wonderful opportunity to listen to the Prophet’s voice and hear the words of the Lord through him and our Apostles and General Authorities.   We can hear them testify of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Ideas to help prepare for General Conference: “Idea List: Listen, Learn, Live It,” New Era, Mar 2006, 41

• Come to general conference prepared to learn and listen carefully to the talks. Fasting and prayer can help you be prepared.
• Write down what you learn so you can think more about it later.
• Talk about general conference with your family. Share with them what you have learned, and listen to and learn from their experiences.
• Listen carefully to [the Prophet’s] talks, and write down at least three things he asks you to do or to become. Pray about these things, and see how you can make them happen in your life.
• If the Spirit prompts you to do something while you are listening to or pondering general conference, do it.
• Set goals on how and when to apply the counsel you receive during general conference. Write your goals and deadlines in your journal, and refer to them often.
• Be with people who make it easy to do what the prophets say. Then, when you try to apply the speakers’ counsel, you will have support.
• Share what you have learned with a friend who could also benefit.
• Live worthy of the Holy Spirit, and pray for guidance on how to live what you have learned during conference.
• Listen carefully to what the Church leaders encourage you to do, and work on becoming better. Remember to “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only” (see James 1:22–25).
• Look up and mark in your own scriptures the references quoted in the talks.
• Read the conference talks when the Liahona and Ensign come out so you can gain new insights and renew your enthusiasm.

Family Home Evening Idea: In the family home evening before general conference, prepare to produce your own family’s newspaper on the conference proceedings. Assign different family members to be reporters. Speakers can be divided up ahead of time. Have each reporter take notes on the important points of a talk. Write up a brief summary including a headline. Also include younger siblings by having them draw pictures. Assemble your newspaper on poster board during the family home evening following conference.  “What’s in It for You,” NewEra, Oct 2007, 47

Preparing Children (and ourselves) for General Conference: “It is when children are young that parents must be innovative in helping them develop good habits regarding conference participation. As our children are given opportunities to observe and learn the role of these special witnesses, they will receive a spiritual confirmation of the sacred calling of their Church leaders, and they will feel a deeper love for and interest in these leaders and their message.” Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Presidency of the Seventy, “Teaching Our Children to Love the Prophets,” Ensign, Apr. 1996, 47.

• Use the Insert of the photo chart of the General Authorities from the most recent general conference edition of the Ensign. Use it to learn to identify the names of the speakers.
• Create general conference traditions by participating between sessions in a family activity, such as playing games, watching old family videos, taking a walk, or talking about the session that just ended.
• Each time children hear a key word spoken from the pulpit, let them help themselves to a small reward or treat. You might be surprised by how much young children can and do listen. Praise them for their reverence and their attentiveness.

Children’s Activities for Conference: http://new.lds.org/general-conference/children?locale=eng

• Conference Notebook: http://new.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/content/english/pdf/notebook.pdf
• Conference Squares Game: http://new.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/content/english/pdf/conference_squares.pdf
• Conference Coloring Game: http://new.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/content/english/pdf/conference_coloring2.pdf
• “Preparing Our Children for General Conference,” Ensign, Mar 2009, 23–27
• Conference—a Time for Listening

Conference Sessions: Eastern Time: 12:00 – 2:00pm & 4:00- 6:00pm

• Watch Conference in the Chapel: (any church bldg with satellite transmission)
• Watch or Listen to Conference online: http://lds.org/broadcast/gc/1,5161,9199,00.html
• Watch Conference on TV on BYUtv: Verizon Fios Channel 290; Direct TV, & Dish Network (www.byutv.org)

“It’s such a blessing to watch general Conference at Home!” Unlike these people in the picture, plan and prepare to stay awake and be spiritually filled and edified!

Found this clever blog of comical Mormon commentary: http://www.9thwardcartoons.com/search/label/General%20Conference

Sunday Report: Sharing Christ

Teachings for Our Times: Neil L. Andersen, “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus,” Ensign, May 2010, 108–12

“We hold in our arms the rising generation. They come to this earth with important responsibilities and great spiritual capacities.

We cannot be casual in how we prepare them. 

Our challenge as parents and teachers is not to create a spiritual core in their souls but rather to fan the flame of their spiritual core already aglow with the fire of their premortal faith.

In our world today, each child, each young man and young woman needs his or her own conversion to the truth. Each needs his or her own light, his or her own “steadfast and immovable”7 faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, independent of parents, youth leaders, and supportive friends.

The stories of Jesus can be like a rushing wind across the embers of faith in the hearts of our children. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”8 The stories of Jesus shared over and over bring faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strength to the foundation of testimony.

Can you think of a more valuable gift for our children?”

Elder Anderson poses the following questions to aid us in teaching and help us realize our own example and spiritual development and progression as we are examples to all those around us – family, friends, co-workers, strangers, children, and others.

• Are the life and teachings of Jesus Christ embedded in the minds and souls of our children?
• Do they think about the Savior’s life when they wonder what to do in their own lives?  This will be more and more important in the years ahead.
• Have our children visualized the premortal council,9 where Jesus—the greatest of all—declared, “Here am I, send me”?10
• Do they see their own willingness to serve as following His example?
• Do they think about His humble birth,11 the Savior of the world lying in a manger?12
• Do His circumstances help them better understand the proper place of material possessions?
• Do they know that Jesus often taught, “Ask, and ye shall receive”?
• Do His prayers of thankfulness14 and His pleadings to His Father15 flow through our children’s minds as they kneel in prayer with their own concerns?
• Have we told them of the love Jesus has for children, how He held them in His arms, prayed for them, and wept?16
• Do our children know that Jesus stands ready “with open arms to receive [them]”?17
• Do they take strength in the stories of Jesus fasting18—as we teach them the law of the fast?
• In their own loneliness, do our children know the loneliness the Savior felt as His friends deserted Him and as He asked His Apostles, “Will ye also go away?”19
• Have our children felt the power of the Savior’s miracles? Jesus healed the leper,20 gave sight to the blind.21 He fed the 5,000,22 calmed the sea,23 and raised Lazarus from the dead.24
• Do our children believe that “it is by faith that miracles are wrought,”25 and do they pray for miracles in their own lives?
• Have our children taken courage from the Savior’s words to the ruler of the synagogue: “Be not afraid, only believe”?26
• Do our children know about His perfect life,27 His selfless ministry, His betrayal and cruel Crucifixion?28
• Have we testified to them of the certainty of His Resurrection,29 of His visit to the Nephites in the Americas,30 of His appearance to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove?31
• Do they anticipate His majestic return, when all will be made right and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ?32
• Do our children say, “Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear”?

Do our children have these valuable teachings with them? Do we, ourselves have these with us?

“Live up to your important responsibilities and great spiritual capacities. Seek to know more about Jesus; open the scriptures.”

“…speak more frequently about Jesus Christ. In His holy name is great spiritual power. “There [is] no other name given nor any other way … whereby salvation can come unto the children of  men, only in and through the name of Christ.”34

“… I promise you that as you speak of Jesus Christ, you will feel the power of heaven blessing you.”

Helps and resources for teaching the Gospel:

• Family Home Evening
• The Friend Church Magazine for Children
• Talks on teaching children the gospel

Sunday Report: Faith Jesus Christ

We had a beautiful lesson on Faith in Relief Society today “Chapter 18: Faith in Jesus Christ,” Gospel Principles, (2009),101–6  In order to increase our faith we need to work on at it – like a skill, talent, or ability. We need to take an active part in increasing our Faith. 

“We can increase our faith in God by acting on our desire to have faith in Him.  We can also increase our faith by praying to Heavenly Father about our hopes, desires, and needs (see Alma 34:17–26). But we must not suppose that all we have to do is ask. We are told in the scriptures that “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” (James 2:17).

President Spencer W. Kimball explained, “There must be works with faith. How foolish it would be to ask the Lord to give us knowledge, but how wise to ask the Lord’s help to acquire knowledge, to study constructively, to think clearly, and to retain things that we have learned” (Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972], 205; italics in original).

Faith involves doing all we can to bring about the things we hope and pray for. President Kimball said: “In faith we plant the seed, and soon we see the miracle of the blossoming. Men have often misunderstood and have reversed the process.” He continued by explaining that many of us want to have health and strength without keeping the health laws. We want to have prosperity without paying our tithes. We want to be close to the Lord but don’t want to fast and pray. We want to have rain in due season and to have peace in the land without observing the Sabbath as a holy day and without keeping the other commandments of the Lord. (See Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], 142.)

An important way to increase our faith is to hear and  study the word of the Lord. We hear the word of the Lord at our Church meetings. We can study His word in the scriptures. “And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118).

Today, I was sorting through my RS binder – tossing and organizing old papers and came across an excerpt from the April 2010 General Conference  by our General RS Pres. Julie B. Beck “And upon the Handmaids in Those Days Will I Pour Out My Spirit” speaking on Personal Revelation 9which is contingent on our faith and what we do with our faith) she states:

“A good woman knows that she does not have enough time, energy, or opportunity to take care of all of the people or do all of the worthy things her heart yearns to do. Life is not calm for most women, and each day seems to require the accomplishment of a million things, most of which are important. A good woman must constantly resist alluring and deceptive messages from many sources telling her that she is entitled to more time away from her responsibilities and that she deserves a life of greater ease and independence.

But

with personal revelation, she can prioritize correctly and navigate this life confidently.”

The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life. Qualifying for the Lord’s Spirit begins with a desire for that Spirit and implies a certain degree of worthiness. Keeping the commandments, repenting, and renewing covenants made at baptism lead to the blessing of always having the Lord’s Spirit with us.² Making and keeping temple covenants also adds spiritual strength and power to a woman’s life. Many answers to difficult questions are found by reading the scriptures because the scriptures are an aid to revelation.³ Insight found in scripture accumulates over time, so it is important to spend some time in the scriptures every day. Daily prayer is also essential to having the Lord’s Spirit with us.⁴ Those who earnestly seek help through prayer and scripture study often have a paper and pencil nearby to write questions and record impressions and ideas.

Revelation can come hour by hour and moment by moment as we do the right things. When women nurture as Christ nurtured, a power and peace can descend to guide when help is needed. For instance, mothers can feel help from the Spirit even when tired, noisy children are clamoring for attention, but they can be distanced from the Spirit if they lose their temper with children. Being in the right places allows us to receive guidance. It requires a conscious effort to diminish distractions, but having the Spirit of revelation makes it possible to prevail over opposition and persist in faith through difficult days and essential routine tasks. Personal revelation gives us the understanding of what to do every day to increase faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and seek those who need our help. Because personal revelation is a constantly renewable source of strength, it is possible to feel bathed in help even during turbulent times.

We are told to put our trust in that Spirit which leads us “to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously.”⁵ We are also told that this Spirit will enlighten our minds, fill our souls with joy, and help us know all things we should do.⁶ Promised personal revelation comes when we ask for it, prepare for it, and go forward in faith, trusting that it will be poured out upon us.”

Our Faith, as we work to increase it, benefits us and those around us in many ways, especially as we are more in tune with the Spirit and understand how our lives are guided.  As we exercise our faith – our spiritual muscles develop and become strong, we become stronger, we are able to do what he would have us do in righteousness – we are better for it.

Through the gift of faith, miracles are wrought, angels appear, other gifts of the Spirit are given, prayers are answered, and men [and women] become the sons [and daughters] of God (see Moroni 7:25–26, 36–37).  “When faith comes it brings … apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, gifts, wisdom, knowledge, miracles, healings, tongues, interpretation of tongues, etc. All these appear when faith appears on the earth, and disappear when it disappears from the earth; for these are the effects of faith. … And he who possesses it will, through it, obtain all necessary knowledge and wisdom, until he shall know God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has sent—whom to know is eternal life” (Lectures on Faith [1985], 83).

General Relief Society Meeting

Join your Chesapeake Ward Relief Society Sisters at the Annual General Relief Society Meeting

Saturday, September 25 6:30pm Dinner and Fellowshipping 6:30 followed by the Live Satellite Broadcast at 8- 9:30pm

“We must follow that same principle as the Lord gathers more and more people... the Atonement brings the same changes in all of us. We become disciples who are meek, loving, easy to be entreated, and at the same time fearless and faithful in all things. The Saints can accomplish any purpose of the Lord when fully united in righteousness.” Henry B. Eyring, “Our Hearts Knit as One,” Ensign, Nov 2008 “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” Ephesians 2:18–19. “And he commanded… that they should look forward with one eye , having one faith… having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.” Mosiah 18:21