talk a lot

Well, here are mine and Clark's talks from Sunday. The parts I highlighted in red were cut out of the talks because of time. We ended up having about 15 minutes for the both of us. I think I would rather get stuck taking stuff out, rather then not have enough to say. I am just glad that we finally have gotten this done and over with. I told Clark that we now can't move for a long long time, so we don't have to speak again for a while. I think that sounds like a good plan.

STACI'S TALK

I would like to start by reading a conversation that President Hinckley had with Mike Wallace on 60 minutes. Mike Wallace asked President Hinckley how he became the president, or “the man” of this church. And this is how the prophet responded:
“When the last President of the Church passed away, I was the senior Apostle, and the senior Apostle succeeds to the office of President of the Church. It’s the smoothest kind of succession that you could see in this world. By the time a man gets to be the President he has been trained; he has been refined…he know this Church inside and out; he knows the people of the world-their problems, their aspirations.”

The prophet of this church has been trained for years by the Lord to fulfill his calling. It is very important that we listen to the counsel that President Hinckley gives us. Because as the prophet, he acts as the voice for the Lord. D&C 21:5 says the following:

When we follow the counsel and commandments of the prophet, we are promised that we will be blessed. In the Book of Mormon, Nephi is a good example of someone who is obedient to the Prophet’s counsel. The Lord commanded Nephi, through the prophet Lehi, to go and get the plates of brass from Laban. In 1 Nephi 3:7 he said…

It was not until Nephi’s third visit to Laban, that Nephi was able to obtain the plates of brass and return them to his father Lehi. So how were the people of Nephi blessed as a result of Nephi’s obedience to Lehi’s counsel? In Mosiah 1: 3-4 King Benjamin teaches the Nephite people the following…

As you can see, the Nephite people were extremely blessed because of Nephi’s obedience to the prophet.

Today I would like to focus on 3 specific blessings that we will receive when we are obedient to the Prophet’s counsel:
Direction
Safety
Peace

When Clark and I first moved to Colorado, I had a really hard time finding my way around town. I have made many U-Turns, and have become really good at using Map Quest. And I have been grateful that I can get online and print out the driving directions to the places I need to go. We are lucky enough to also have a map that we can turn to, to receive spiritual direction and guidance in this world. That map is the words and counsel of our living prophet. In just a few weeks, we will have the opportunity to hear from the prophet and his apostles during general conference.
In a 1996 Ensign article, Elder Neil Anderson quoted President Harold B. Lee “As the Latter-day Saints go home from this conference, it would be well if they consider seriously the importance of taking with them the report of this conference and let it be the guide to their walk and talk during the next six months. These are the important matters the Lord sees fit to reveal to this people in this day.” He went on to suggest that once the conference Ensign comes out, that we should get a copy for every family member, so that they can underline all the counsel that stood out to them specifically.

The second blessing that I would like to go over, is the blessing of spiritual and physical safety. President Hinckley is a prophet and seer, which means that he knows of things that are, as well as the things that are to come. The parable of the watchtower, found in D&C 101 is a perfect example of this. The lord of the vineyard commands his men to create a tower, and put men in it to guard and protect his vineyard. Yet the men don’t think this is necessary, and so they don’t make the tower. The enemy then comes in the night and brakes down the olive trees. The lord of the vineyard then says to his men that if they would have made a tower and placed watchmen in it, they would have been warned of the enemies presence, and they could have then saved the vineyard from destruction. The watchmen in the tower are symbolic of our church leaders, who have the guidance of the Savior. They can see the dangers that exist in society and then protect us from those dangers.
Does this parable apply to us today? Do we need a watchman on lookout for us? President Benson said the following in 1973:
“Let me ask, do we need a true prophet of the Lord on the earth today? Did the people in Noah’s day need a prophet to warn them spiritually and temporally? Had a man refused to follow Noah, would he have been saved from the flood? Yet the Bible tells us that in the last days in which we live, the wickedness of the people will become comparable to the wickedness of the people in Noah’s day when God cleansed the earth by flood. Do you think we need a prophet today to warn us and prepare us for the cleansing that God promised will come, this time by fire?”
Noah and his family were spared from the flood because they listened to Noah the prophet and built an ark. We too can receive safety and strength by following the commandments that President Hinckley gives to us.

Sometimes we might not immediately see the safety that will come from following the counsel of the prophet. For example, when Joseph Smith received the revelation for the Word of Wisdom, I am sure and many men and women in the church did not understand why they no longer were supposed to smoke, chew tobacco, or drink. Yet because of their faith they followed this new commandment. And now, over 100 years later we finally know the logic behind this commandment. These are things that are not good for the body, and they are habit-forming. In a talk he gave in 2000, President Hinckley said the following about the Word of Wisdom: (BLUE BOOK QUOTE)

The saints in the 1850’s did not know or understand the reasoning behind the regulations of the Word of Wisdom, yet they were willing to follow it. Those that follow the Word of Wisdom receive the blessing of physical safety. Our bodies are kept healthy, and free from harmful substances.

The last blessing that I would like to talk about today is that of peace. We live in a crazy world, and yet we know that living the commandments will bring peace into our lives. In 1995 the First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12 Apostles presented us with “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” I think it is very important that this proclamation was issued just a few years before our society started to discuss alternative family formations. It is such a comfort to me that we have this revelation that clearly states to the world that marriage is ordained of God, and that it exists only between a man and a woman.

We have been promised that we will receive many blessings when we follow the counsel of the prophet.

CLARK'S TALK

I would like to start off my talk with a story related by Elder Neil L. Andersen in the April 1996 Ensign. The story reads as follows:

“On one occasion some years before my call as a General Authority, I conducted a meeting presided over by one of the Apostles. After the meeting, I asked him about his stake conference talks. Do you prepare something specific for each stake conference? I asked. He replied that he generally did not, but relied upon promptings received just prior to and during the conference. But then he added, but my general conference talk is very different. I will normally go through twelve to fifteen drafts to be certain that it is what the Lord would have me say.”

Brothers and Sisters, if an Apostle of the Lord will go through twelve to fifteen drafts when preparing his General Conference address, would it be pleasing to the Lord if we do nothing to prepare ourselves to receive his message?

SCRIPTURE: Alma 12:24

While there are many things we can do to prepare ourselves for General Conference, I have come up with three main ways to prepare that will bring us closer to our Father in Heaven.

Prepare Ourselves
Repentance- Mosiah 2: 1-3, 2 Nephi 32:5
Prayer- D&C 68:4 (Definition of Scripture) This scripture teaches us that the words that are spoken to us during general conference are considered Later-day scripture.

President Ezra Taft Benson has said the following:

“It has always been so- that whenever God has had his prophets upon the earth, men could go to them to learn of Christ and his commandments. The inspired words of these prophets, when written down, became scripture, and whenever God has his representatives on the earth, there is always new revelation and new scripture. “

Just as we are counseled to pray before reading the scriptures, we should also pray before listening to General Conference, our latter-day scripture. When we pray we should focus on specific questions to receive guidance through the messages that are presented to us during Conference. But how should we pray? Moroni from the Book of Mormon teaches us that we should pray with real intent having faith in Christ. James from the Bible teaches us that faith without works is dead and that we should not just be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. When Elder Smith came to speak to us during Stake Conference, he taught us that when Joseph Smith went to the grove of trees his question to the Lord wasn’t “which church was true, it was which church should he join.” The difference between these two questions is that one question suggests that upon receiving an answer from the lord, Joseph was willing to act. One way in which we can demonstrate our willingness to act is through fasting.

Fasting-

Fasting involves our abstaining from food as a means of putting off the natural man and strengthening our spirits. This will show the Lord the true intent of our hearts while making it possible for us to be in tune to the messages presented by the Lords servants during Conference.

President Gordon B. Hinckley in one of his Conference addresses said the following:

“I constantly marvel at these great semiannual gatherings. We have heard 26 speakers during these two days. That’s a very large number. Each is told how much time he or she will have. But none is told what to speak about. And yet all of the talks seem to harmonize, one with another, each a thread in the tapestry of a grand and beautiful pattern. I think nearly everyone in this vast worldwide audience can now say of one or more of the talks, “That was intended just for me. That is just what I needed to hear.”

I know that if we approach the lord with clean hands, in prayer and in fasting that he will reveal to us during General Conference those things we need to hear to be strengthened spiritually.


Prepare Our Families

How do we prepare our children for General Conference? I suggest we take the following council from our prophet and apply it to our lives before Conference:

“In our family home evenings I hope we will discuss with our children these things and let them taste the sweetness of the truths we have enjoyed. And when the Ensign magazine comes out in November, with all of the conference messages, please don’t just throw it aside with the comment that you have heard it all, but read and ponder the various messages. You will find many things that you missed when you listened to the speakers.”

I feel that we should not only hold a special Family Home Evening after Conference, but also before Conference in order to familiarize our children with the current Church leaders; so that children will recognize these leaders when they present their messages.

In the same message given by Elder Neil L. Andersen in the April 1996 Ensign he said the following:

“I once found myself among a group of deacons in the southeastern United States. The subject turned to the Atlanta Braves. The boys knew each of the players on that baseball team. They knew the starting lineup, the home run leader, the pitcher with the best record, and those on injured reserve. My questions then turned to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I asked if the boys knew the names of those Church leaders. Silence. Finally the name of the prophet was spoken. With some encouragement, the last name of one of the counselors in the First Presidency surfaced. No other names were known. Some might say it is not the leaders who are important, but the message they bring. Yet, if our children do not know the names of the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the most likely will not know their messages either.”

This story illustrates why it is so important that we prepare our children for Conference by helping them to know and recognize the First Presidency and the Quorum of the twelve Apostles.

Another way in which we can prepare our children is by setting a good example. In the November 2005 Ensign Elder Paul V. Johnson of the Seventy tells a story of how he gained a greater appreciation and love for General Conference from his mother.

READ ELDER PAUL V. JOHNSON’S STORY


Prepare our Homes

Read D&C 88:119

In this scripture the Lord commands us to be organized and to prepare every needful thing. It’s important that we not only prepare ourselves spiritually for Conference but temporally as well. We should do all that we can to avoid doing chores or any other activity that would potentially distract us from listening to the spirit.


CONCLUDE

I have talked with you today about three ways in which we can prepare to receive the messages presented to us during General Conference. First, we need to prepare our- selves spiritually, second, we need to prepare our families, and third, we need to prepare our homes.