General Conference is coming soon!

I love this time of year, as we get ready for General Conference!  We are blessed to be able to sit at the feet of the Prophet and Apostles and leaders of this Church and hear what the Lord needs us to know RIGHT NOW!  (For anyone unfamiliar, General Conference is a world-wide broadcast that allows the leaders of the Church to talk to all of the church membership at the same time.)  Our Stake also has Stake Conference this weekend, so I always feel doubly blessed to have so much counsel in a short period of time!

I am happy to say that this year I have studied the words that we heard in General Conference more than I ever have before!  It has been a very strengthening experience for me, as it has affected all aspects of my life.  I feel closer to my Heavenly Father and more in tune with His guidance than I ever have before.

For the past several years I have tried and tested several different ways of experiencing General Conference.  I have taken written notes. I have followed Twitter and Facebook as General Conference was being broadcast.  I have taken no notes at all and just listened.  I have kept notes on my laptop, while following Twitter and Facebook.  I did not like it when I took no notes.  I heard more, but I don't believe that I retained as much.  It is much more distracting to follow Twitter and Facebook, but I feel more a part of a world-wide gathering of Saints when I do, and if I miss a quote, someone out there heard it and posts it and I really appreciate that!  So, in a few weeks I will be sitting on my couch, watching General Conference with my laptop and my phone.  

This year I want to prepare better BEFORE General Conference even starts.  

From a talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf comes the following story:

     A fine member of the Church was talking with a neighbor who was not of our faith. When the topic of discussion turned to general conference, the neighbor asked, “You say you have prophets and apostles? And twice a year in a worldwide conference they reveal the word of God?”

     “Absolutely,” the member replied with confidence.

     The neighbor thought about that for a moment. He seemed genuinely interested and then asked, “What did they say in the last general conference?”

     At this point the good member of the Church went from feeling excited about sharing the gospel to feeling embarrassed. Try as he might, he couldn’t think of the details of a single talk.

     His friend found this troubling and said, “You mean to tell me that God speaks to man in our day and you can’t remember what He said?”

     The brother felt humbled by this exchange. He vowed that he would do better to remember the words spoken by the Lord’s servants in general conference.

     We all know how hard it is to remember every message of general conference, and I’m confident that we need not be embarrassed if we don’t remember everything. Nevertheless, there are messages in each general conference given as a gift and a blessing from heaven specifically for our personal life situations.  (General Conference - No Ordinary Blessing, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, ENSIGN, First Presidency Message, September 2011)

I want to be prepared not just for what Heavenly Father has to say to us, but what Heavenly Father has to say to ME.  And, I want to be able to retain that knowledge through the next six months, not have it just filter back into the rest of the information I have bouncing around in my head all day.  In the talk linked above, Pres. Uchtdorf goes on to give us three steps that will prepare us to "better receive, remember, and apply the words spoken by the Lord’s servants."  

I discovered a page on lds.org that talks about how we can prepare for General Conference.

There are two things that I plan to specifically do to prepare for General Conference.  

One, is to pray about the things that I would like guidance and direction on in my life.  I will write them down in my journal, and then this Sunday I will fast and pray about them as well.  Then I will follow up by writing in my journal what the Lord revealed to me during General Conference in answer to those prayers.

Two, in Family Home Evening this week, we will discuss as a family the things that we would like to receive guidance to as we watch General Conference.  I want my children to understand this principle as well.

I am excited! I am looking forward to Women's Conference on 27 September and General Conference on 4-5 October 2014.

" If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.” —Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

" I promise that if you will listen, you will feel the Spirit well up within you. The Lord will tell you what He wants you to do with your life. In conferences we can receive the word of the Lord meant just for us." —Elder Robert D. Hales

(I will be following and tweeting to #WomensMeeting and #LDSConf  -- @LTNehring)