LDS General Conference

Wow, that was a power packed general conference experience! I loved it so much and felt the spirit renew my faith and enthusiasm for the work.

For those of you who don't know, general conference is a semi annual gathering of the LDS church where instead of meeting in our regular local church meetinghouses, the entire world wide membership of the church gathers to hear messages from our prophet and apostles. These messages are streamed through various sources and families often gather in their homes to watch the conference sessions held over a Saturday and Sunday the first weekend in April and October. Some members outside of the United States gather to local meetinghouses to watch broadcasts of these meetings.

I have always loved general conference. It is a spiritual lift to my life and offers me the chance to reevaluate where my heart is and ally myself closer to the Savior. I love spending a weekend hearing talks prepared through inspiration that remind me of my purpose here on earth and help me renew my dedication to faith in Jesus Christ.

Once a general conference session is over, the talks shared in those two days become the basis for much of our instruction in church meetings over the following six months. Members are encouraged to re-read different discourses and listen to the talks again as much as possible. In the last month I've started training for a half-marathon and have used my running time to listen to general conference talks. It has really been an enlightening time for me and I often come back from a run with inspiration about a problem or a change of heart about an issue after having listened to a conference talk.

I especially loved this conference session as there were many changes made to programs of the church. It was so exciting I didn't want to miss a single session for fear of not being in the know about was going on. I would say the feeling was almost pentecostal in the revelation and inspiration present as the changes were announced and explained. I felt the Holy Ghost in great measure as President Nelson invited the men to stand in the priesthood session (start at 12:50), calling them to arise by quorum and then sing "Rise up, O Men of God." It was incredible.

I am also so grateful for the new Ministering program of the church. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints take seriously the Lord's instruction to watch over the church and care for the members of our local congregations.  As our family has been the beneficiary of this sort of loving, insightful, and ministering care for years I can see the benefit of this intuitive service in the lives of more members of the church.

Elder Jeffery R. Holland gave a talk entitled "Be with and strengthen them," explaining the change from home teaching to ministering.  To cite an example of what that effort means, he shared a story about a couple in Arizona who had a medical emergency and talked about how in that moment of extreme crisis the husband had the thought to call their home teacher.

I sat and listened to this story with tears in my eyes as I could personally relate to that experience. It was in the middle of the night on Sunday, March 8 when I woke to Jake having a grand mal seizure in our bed. Terrified and not knowing what to do, the thought came to my mind to call our home teacher Blair Smart. He had been our former bishop and was a dear friend and had been, for only the last month, serving as our home teacher. His name was the first that came to my mind on that terrible night and he and his dear wife Gina were at our home within minutes, helping me watch over Jake until the paramedics arrived, following the ambulance to the hospital and taking charge of our children in the morning when they woke up and we were gone. They were and are our dear friends and I knew instinctively that I could call on them at any time for help.

Ministering seems to be an invitation to learn to love people, to befriend people, to help people and to get to know people on a level so that when and if a need arises you will come to mind as a person they can call for help. The Savior is that person for all of us, but I am so grateful for Blair and Gina and for many other people like them who stand in for Him and answer the call to minister to the temporal and spiritual needs of His people.