April 2012 World General Conference

Last weekend, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints enjoyed our semiannual world General Conference. General Conference is when every 6 months, the LDS Church leadership including: the President and Prophet and Chief Apostle Thomas S Monson, members of the Quorums of the 12 Apostles and 70's speak.

LDS Church leadership around the world listen to the conference broadcast in person at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, or by TV, radio, satellite, cable, and Internet. I listened to Conference by a combination of iPhone Internet radio stream, Roku Box, and satellite transmission at our local meetinghouse In Augusta, GA. I also monitored the twitter feed #ldsconf during the proceedings.

The Conference was wonderful. I really felt and enjoyed a spirit of unity and uplifted and strengthened in my resolve to try a little harder to be a little better. Some of the memorable thoughts conveyed during the Conference included:

"No cause, no force in the entire world can stop the work of God. Despite what comes, this great cause will go forward."-Pres. Thomas S. Monson

Come back!, Come up! Come in! Come home! Come unto me."

In this fast-paced life, do we ever pause for meditation?

“we enter mortality not to drift through the waters of life. We have the power to reason, think and achieve…”

Many of us are active in the Church of Jesus Christ, but are we active in the gospel of Jesus Christ?

The spirit housed the the body can manifest divine attributes: love, virtue, patience, and integrity.

A perfect physical body here on Earth is not a requirement for Eternal Life and Exaltation.

Heaven is filled with this kind of people: they are forgiven and they forgive.

Pres Uchtdorf 2-word sermon on resentment and envy: "STOP IT!"

Bumper Sticker Wisdom: "Don't judge me because I sin differently than you."

Do the right things, even when they are hard.

LDS Doctrine is not based solely on scholarship, hermeneutics and exegesis, but inspiration and revelation by the Holy Ghost.

LDS Priesthood authority and sealing keys to perform baptism and seal families together for eternity were given to the prophet Joseph Smith by the laying of of hands by heavenly messengers.

If you come across a person who is drowning, would you ask if you can help? Don't ask, just act.

Deliverance is a major theme of the Book of Mormon. Why was God slow to deliver the people of Limhi but quick to deliver the people of Alma in a more miraculous manner?

The attributes by which we shall be judged one day are all spiritual.

You can't be right by doing wrong. You can't be wrong by doing right.

Elder Nelson on the Big Bang Theory of Creation, "Could an explosion in a printing shop, produce a dictionary?"

“wise parents raise their children to get along without them…ultimately children need to depend upon the Lord, not their parents.”

"Are you a Mormon? If not, you should be!”. Elder Perry quoting his friend 'Scott'

Elder Christofferson quoting Joseph Smith, "a prophet is a prophet only when acting as such:" and Brigham Young, "This morning you heard what Brigham Young had to say…now you will hear what the Lord has to say”.

"There are going to be times in our lives when someone else gets the unexpected blessing or receives some special recognition."

"We are not diminished when someone else is added upon."

"It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ's Atonement shines."

"There are those who are in tune to the music of faith. You know who you are. You love the Lord and His gospel and continuously try to live and share His message especially with your families. You are in harmony with the promptings of the Spirit, awaken to the power of God's word, have religious observances in your homes, and diligently try to live Christ-like lives as His disciples."

"Pres. Monson has specifically asked us to have the courage to refrain from judging others. He has also asked every faithful member to 'rescue' those who have tasted the gospel fruit and then have fallen away as well as those who have not yet found the strait and narrow path."

"There are some principals and practices that enhance revelation…. Yielding to emotions such as anger or hurt or defensiveness will drive away the Holy Ghost... Loud, inappropriate laughter will offend the Spirit...Careful, quiet speech will favor the receipt of revelation... Exercise, reasonable amounts of sleep and good eating habits increase our ability to receive and understand revelation... One must ever be mentally and physically clean and have purity of intent so that the Lord can inspire... For spirituality to grow stronger and more available it must be planted in a righteousness environment... Humility is fertile soil where spirituality grows and produces the fruit of inspiration to know what to do... When we are acting as instruments in behalf of others, we are more easily inspired than when we think only of ourselves... Inspiration carefully recorded shows God that His communications are sacred to us. Recording will also enhance our ability to recall revelation."

"Our Father in Heaven did not put us on this earth to fail, but to succeed gloriously."

"Husbands and wives should understand that their first calling - from which they will never be released is to one another and then to their children."

"One of the great discoveries of parenthood is that we learn far more about what really matters from our children than we ever did from our parents."

Sacrifice of Jesus Christ has been called "the most transcendent of all events… ended the requirement for sacrifice by the shedding of blood, but did not end the requirement for sacrifice... Sacrifice is the central message of all the prophets."

"Christians have voluntarily given sacrifice motivated by faith in Christ and the desire to serve Him... For most followers of Christ our sacrifice involves what we can do on a day-to-day basis in our ordinary personal lives."