Elder Carl B. Cook (I think - I had kids to tend to as well) of the Seventy spoke first. He reminded us of President Monson's most recent conference address in which he admonished us to read the Book of Mormon daily. As he spoke about this I though of how I keep the Book of Mormon apart of my scripture study when I am in other books. I am currently in the Old Testament, and as I read I use the footnotes to take me to Book of Mormon passages and I connect them to what I am reading.
Elder Cook also shared with us some notes his seven year old grandson wrote about what he has learned from the Book of Mormon:
- There are many bad things, but there are more good things.
- Jesus will protect you, if you will protect him.
- The Spirit will help you grow.
He ended with his own verse of "Follow the Prophet" about President Monson. Unfortunately I missed the majority of it, but I got these two lines written down:
"If we apply his teachings, things will turn out swell."
Elder Cook's main message throughout his talk was to follow the prophet.
Sister Christina B. Franco, 2nd Counselor in the General Primary Presidency spoke next. I missed the majority of her talk because my son had to go to the bathroom, but I did write down her quoting Elder Clayton, "The Spirit of the Gospel is optimistic." A friend of mine summarized her talk for me and said that she told the story of a remote mission area being reopened, and the new missionaries found 125 people studying each Sunday from the scriptures that they had. No one had the priesthood to bless the sacrament or hold any callings, but they still met and studied in faith. That sounds like a wonderful story, and I can only imagine that happiness those members felt when the missionaries found them and helped them form official branches and meetings.
Elder Juan A. Uceda, of the Seventy, talked about how mighty prayer can overcome apathy. He called apathy and "enemy to righteousness." But what is apathy? Apathy is having a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern. Can you imagine how having a lack of interest or concern can affect righteous decision making? Elder Uceda said that when we "offer a mighty prayer, we spend a moment in the heavens," and that a mighty prayer can overcome apathy. He pulled out his phone and talked about how he has no idea how his phone works, but he knows that he can call people, they can call him, etc. He compared that to prayer and basically said, if a phone works, prayer works.
Elder Gary E. Stevenson, of the Twelve, was our final speaker. He started by giving a very interesting history of the creation of the wards and stakes in the Utah South area. He told us that the St. George temple was the first temple dedicated in our area. That we have seven languages in which the conference was being translated into: Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Samoan, and Tongan. And the Utah South area has three missions: Provo, Orem, and St. George; there used to be no missions in Utah!
The remainder of his talk was about three specific Christlike attributes: humility, obedience, and virtue. He said that humility is the willingness to submit to the will of the Lord. It is gratitude. It is the opposite of pride. He said that obedience is the first law of heaven, it is an act of faith. Obedience will increase our strength and wisdom, and provide us with protection and safety. He said that we have virtue when we are clean and pure spiritually. We resist temptation and repent quickly. He suggested that we study these attributes in Preach My Gospel. (My upcoming RS lesson is on virtue, so I'm going to do just that!)
He ended by calling these three Christlike attributes the "HOV lane." He said that when we have the Holy Ghost as our companion and use humility, are obedient, and are virtuous, we will have a smoother ride home to our Heavenly Father.
This is the first time that I paid attention during regional conference, and I'm so glad I did!
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