Mormons and General Conference

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Hey all you friends who do not happen to share my religion. How are you? During this past week you may have noticed your Mormon friends, me included, talking about General Conference. Or you may have read some inspirational quotes on Pinterest by cool guys like Thomas S. Monson, Gordon B. Hinckley, or Dieter F. Uchtdorf and pinned those suckers before realizing who exactly they were (Prophets and leaders in the LDS church). Maybe you even stumbled upon the hashtag #ldsconf and wondered what that's all about.

I am here today, to answer that.

So what is General Conference anyway?

In the simplest of terms, it's where we listen to the Prophet, Apostles, and other leaders of our church give uplifting messages that we need to hear from our Heavenly Father.

Twice a year us Mormons, (AKA members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS) don't go to our regular church meetings but instead view and/or listen to a broadcast of the Prophet, his counselors, the twelve apostles, and other various church leaders in which they give, what we as Mormons refer to as, talks.

Each of the people who were asked to talk were not given a specific topic. Instead they determine what it is the Lord most wants to tell his children (us) by thoughtful prayer and meditation. General Conference is in April and October and has 5 different sessions, Saturday through Sunday. It is broadcasted internationally.

General Conference messages are not meant only for Mormons, LDS, or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. General Conference messages are directed to everyone in the whole world. They are uplifting, spiritual, instructive messages that are meant to benefit all of us. Every last one.

Want a peek at what it's like? Go here, and read, watch, or listen some of the talks.  I'm not trying to convert you right now. I just want to share some amazing things that I heard this past weekend, with people who mean a lot to me (that's you).

This link will take you to some twitter and instagram posts about general conference, in case you didn't feel like following that last link.

And this link is going to tell you more in depth who us Mormons are and what we believe. You never know. We may have some beliefs in common.

Finally, this is a website for a new movie coming to select theaters called Meet the Mormons. You should try and find it somewhere near you. I mean, if you want. (But for real you should).

But I'm not going to let you off that easy. I want to tell you about a talk this past Conference that really stuck with me, one that I've been thinking about since I heard it on Sunday.

The talk was by Richard G. Scott, one of the 12 apostles.

In his message he described four tools that Heavenly Father has given us that must become habits for us. Those are:

1. Prayer
2. Scripture study
3. Family Home Evening
4. Visit the Temple

I've been thinking about these thing for the past few days because it all seems so easy. If we can do these four simple things our burdens will be lifted. So if it's so easy, why is it so difficult for me to stay on top of it?!

He mentions that these things will take away stress, give direction and add protection, but it doesn't mean that we will never again have hardships. It will just give us the means we need to deal with those hardships in a manageable way.

So this is me, telling you that I'm going to take it back to the basics and work on implementing all four of these things in my home and in my personal life. For the past two days, Christopher and I have worked on doing these things and I can already feel a difference. 

It's been two days of prayer and scripture study and I already feel a greater presence of my Father in Heaven in my life and it's because I made sure I was in a place spiritually that He could dwell with me. 

I know I won't be perfect, but I will certainly try to make these tools habits. I don't know anyone who couldn't use some extra peace and de-stressing and if this is what will do it, count me in.