178th Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

I love General Conference. Not just because I can sit at home and "go to church" with out getting ready, but I love it because of all the wonderful truths that are spoken. I got so many (as a former seminary teacher would say) "gold nuggets" out of the 178th Annual General Conference. It was absolutely wonderful.

Let's do a recap.

Saturday Morning Session

D. Todd Christofferson is called as the new Apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve. This is cool in so many ways. For the first time in the past few years, I recognize the name of the newest member of the Twelve! The other 3 times an apostle has been called (that I can remember) I haven't heard of them before; however, I have always grown to love them. This time, I know D. Todd Christofferson, have heard him speak, and am excited for his future conference talks!

Next to hearing who the new member of the Twelve was, the other really cool thing about the Saturday morning session was particpating in the solemn assembly. Even though I was the only one in my apartment at the time, it was still very cool. I can only imagine what it would have been like had I been in the conference center. Another time perhaps.

Elder Nelson was the first speaker of this conference, and his talk on bringing up righteous children and spreading the gospel was a wonderful way to get things going.

There were many talks in this session, but the one I enjoyed by far, was Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin's. His talk on being disciples and helping those who have strayed from the gospel was so pure and simple that the power behind it was incredible. I love the gems of truth that Elder Wirthlin has in his talks. He is an amazing man and I love listening to him speak, and then rereading his talks later on.


Saturday Afternoon Session

This session was cool on many levels. The first being that Chilly got me tickets (thanks again hun!) and my seats were INCREDIBLE!!!! I took FHE brother TK and we went up to SLC to enjoy the session. We sat about 10 rows from the front and we were dead center. It was amazing, kind of like sitting in church! Looking at a tv screen wasn't really an option, it was much easier to see the speaker by looking right at them. It was very cool and so wonderful. The spirit was very strong.

My favorite speaker from this session was .... oh it's so hard to choose!! I loved all the talks from this session, but I believe the one that was most important for me and my life right now was Elder Oaks talk, with Elder Perry's talk a very close second. Elder Oaks talked about testimonies and what is needed for one. He discussed what a testimony is and how one should go about improving their testimony.

Elder Perry talked about a Recipe for Eternal Life. This was a wonderful talk, and I loved listening to his suggestions. My favorite line of his was, "Enduring to the end is not a do-it yourself project." I really liked that, because it is so true! We can't endure to the end by ourselves, we need our friends, family, church leaders, and most of all the Atonement and our Savior to help us get through the things we must endure to the end.

Also, Elder Scott's talk was very powerful. Wow, the spirit that was there so strong and I know that talk was meant to be mentioned at that time. Why, I am not sure, but it was definitely a very well done talk.

Sunday Morning Session

One of my favorite speakers has always been President Thomas S. Monson. I loved the talk he gave in the morning session of conference. The other talk that really seemed to stand out to me was that of Sister Susan W. Tanner. Her talk on delight and families really stood out to me. I'm not exactly sure why, but there was something about her talk that I really liked. I took some notes on it, but I think there was jsut something about the spirit and the way she taught the simple gospel truths. I am excited to reread her talk once the transcript becomes available.

Sunday Afternoon Session

For this session I went to my friend BG's house so that I didn't have to sit through a session of conference by myself (since I had already done that once this weekend, I didn't want to do it again...) The Afternoon session today was freaking amazing. I really enjoyed all of the talks. However, the ones that stood out to me the most were those of Elder Holland, Elder Bednar, and Elder Ballard. Talk about amazing spiritual gems. The experiences I had are close to my heart and are things I'm not going to share here...but if you want to sit and chat one day I might share some of my personal insights I had, especially during Elder Bednar's talk. That man has a talent for speaking in gold nuggets.

I loved how President Monson closed conference. I thought it was a wonderful ending to an amazing session of conference. There was a beautiful spirit about all the sessions of conference. In some ways it felt different without President Hinckley, but at the same it was a wonderful General Conference. I feel so uplifted, strengthened and I have a renewed zeal to carry on.