General Conference - President Eyring

Don't Forget to watch General Conference everyone!!

This Weekend a Prophet of God will speak to the World.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks: "Love and law"

General Conference is coming up on the 31st of March and the 1st of April.

Here is a previous Conference Talk from Elder Oaks.

182nd Annual General Conference

So....for those of you who don't know it is time for the 182nd Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Messages will be given by the First Presidency, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other General Authorities and General Officers of the Church.

General sessions will be held on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., followed by the priesthood session at 7:00 p.m. Central time. Two more general sessions will be held on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Central time; the morning session includes the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word.

Anyone can watch conference in local church meetinghouses, or in their homes.

For viewing conference at a local meetinghouse, check with local church leaders on availability of the broadcast by Satellite or Internet feed.

Live broadcasts will be available at the following locations:

• Conference.lds.org: video and audio in multiple languages
• Mormonchannel.org and Mormon Channel mobile apps: video and audio in English only
• BYU.tv: video and audio in multiple languages
• Facebook.com/LDS: video in English only (Choose “General Conference” from the left menu.)

In addition, many cable and radio stations will have the conference available.
Visit http://www.bonneville.info/ for broadcast information or check local listings.

The opportunity to listen to a Prophet of God doesn't happen very often. 

Everyone is invited to listen as Apostles of the Lord speak and teach.

General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

General Authorities are those individuals who God has put in place to govern the affairs of His kingdom here on Earth.  This is done by Revelation. (Matthew 16:17-19)

The true Church of Jesus Christ must have Prophets and Apostles.  Christ set up the Church this way when He was on the Earth, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8,Mormon 9:9)

Once upon a time the Children of Israel were met on the battle field by Amalek.  During the battle we see how the First Presidency of the Church works in unison.

"And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun."

-- Exodus 17:11-12

So we see that Moses was the Prophet at the time, and he had two others by his side to help him.

This is the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.  Left to right, President Henry B. Eyring, President Thomas S. Monson, and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.  President Monson is the Lord's Chosen Prophet on the Earth today.

The First Presidency presides over the entire Church, and is directly over the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

The members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are, President Boyd K. Packer, Elder L. Tom Perry, Elder Russell M. Nelson, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Elder M Russell Ballard, Elder Richard G. Scott, Elder Robert D. Hales, Elder Jeffery R. Holland, Elder David A. Bednar, Elder Quentin L. Cook, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, and Elder Neil L. Anderson.

The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is the second-highest governing body in the Church (the First Presidency being the highest).  Apostles are special witnesses of Jesus Christ, called to teach and testify of Him throughout the world.  They travel frequently, addressing and encouraging large congregations of members and interested nonmembers, as well as meeting with local leaders.  When they are not traveling, members of the Quorum of the Twelve counsel together and with other general Church leaders on matters affecting the worldwide Church, such as missionary work, temple building, spiritual and temporal welfare, and much more.

There are also Seventies, who are assigned to manage things in specific areas around the world, and to help the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  The Presidency of the Seventy is over all other Seventies.  There are Seven Presidents, and no counselors, in the Presidency of the Seventy.

The Presiding Bishopric is the presidency of the Aaronic Priesthood throughout the Church. The Presiding Bishop and his two counselors also serve under the direction of the First Presidency to administer the temporal affairs of the Church.

You can view a picture of each of the General Authorities at: http://lds.org/church/leaders?lang=eng

Learn From Trials, Then Act Upon Your Knowledge

"I love the musical and motion picture Fiddler on the Roof. There a wonderful Jewish father sings “If I Were a Rich Man.” His memorable prayer concludes with this pleading question:

Lord, who made the lion and the lamb,

You decreed I should be what I am;

Would it spoil some vast eternal plan,

If I were a wealthy man?

Yes, Tevye, it might. Let us give thanks for what we are and for the circumstances God has given us for our personal journey through mortality." --Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign May 2003, Give Thanks in All Things

I found this talk from the April General Conference in 2003 to be rather interesting.  I also quite enjoy this movie quite a bit.  But as Elder Oaks said, we must be grateful for the situations we find ourselves in.  Sometimes this can be rather difficult, but as long as we do our best to deal prudently with what we are given we will be able to see the lessons the Lord intends for us to learn from those situations. 

If everything was easy, nothing would be difficult.  We learn from struggle, when we want to gain more muscle or strength we don't sit around and play video games all day.  Instead we get up and go do something.  We lift weights, go for a walk, go jogging, go on a hike with friends, go outside and play tag, go play rugby or frisbee.  All of these options require GOing and DOing something.  If you are in a race and want to make any sort of progress towards the finish line, you must first GO forward.  If we sit back and are not actively looking for ways to do better, than we will indeed not do better.

From this we know that in order to gain spiritual strength, we must exercise our spiritual muscles.  We can GO to church, DO some scripture study, Pray to our Father in Heaven, watch video clips from General Conference.  There are many ways in which we can grow closer to our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ.  But each of them require that we DO something.  We must choose to learn of them and then follow their teachings.  Once we know what we need to do it is time to GO and DO it.

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father:

I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded,

for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments

unto the children of men,

save he shall prepare a way for them

 that they may accomplish the thing

which he commandeth them."

-- 1 Nephi 3:7