Thoughts on 181st Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

I was asked to give a talk on conference. Here are my notes of the talk given in the Millville 2nd Ward on April 17th, 2011:

Brothers and sisters I am humbled to stand before you today and pray that the Lord will bless me with the ability to speak by the spirit and that he will bless you to hear by the spirit that we may all be edified. I hope that you will each have a prayer in your heart that some portion of what I say will be meaningful and strengthen your testimony of the Savior.

I begin by asking you all to think back a few weeks and recall the events that took place in your life on the weekend of April 2nd and 3rd.

Where were you? Were you able to listen to General Conference? How did you do so?

I assume many of you basked in the joy and traditions that come every six months when the leaders of the Lord's kingdom on earth share with us what Elder Holland referred to as their “testimonies of love and warning.” Some of you may have spent the days in your pajamas in the living room watching the broadcast on television surrounded by loved ones. Some may have had the opportunity to travel to Salt Lake City and witness from the chairs of the Conference Center. Many others watched on laptops, listened from radios, or even viewed the prophets, Apostles, and General Authorities on a hand held device. Personally I had a mixture of the above methods as I spent most of that Saturday in waiting in or sprinting through airports as my flights were off schedule due to fatigue crack inspections.

I, like Elder Holland, ask you to reflect “not only on the messages you heard but also on the unique phenomenon that general conference itself is—what we as Latter-day Saints believe such conferences to be and what we invite the world to hear and observe about them. We testify to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people that God not only lives but also that He speaks, that for our time and in our day the counsel you have heard is, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, “the will of the Lord, … the word of the Lord, … the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.”

How blessed we are to have a Father in Heaven who loves us enough to provide us with Prophets and Apostles who speak to us on his behalf in our day. How blessed we are to KNOW he provides such direction. Perhaps more wonderful and awe inspiring however, is the blessing of how easy it is to access His words and share them with others.

HOLD UP PHONE
I hold here in my hand a device that has an endless supply to the Lord's words. Prophets testimonies from the beginning of time written in scripture, the glorious revelations of the Restoration, and the Hymns, testimonies, and teachings of the prophets of the latter-days all in the palm of my hand and at the touch of my fingertips.

But the good does not come without opposition.

In the Sunday Morning Session Elder Holland recounted to us the story of Brigham Young and the dream he had just prior to the pioneer saints' exodus from Navuoo of an angel atop a hill, now known as Ensign Peak where after the trying journey west Brother Brigham led the Brethren of the church and they unfurled a makeshift banner made from a bandanna and walking stick to symbolize the partial fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that the Lord would “setup an Ensign to the Nations.”

Elder Holland then went on to testify that the annual and semiannual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are a continuation of that declaration and prophecy. He spoke emotionally of the preparation process that each speaker goes through. The fasting, the prayer, the starting, stopping and starting again, and the tears and sleeplessness they likely wrestled with to be true to the individual prompting each of them had received from the Lord.

How easily it is for us sometimes as teachers, mothers, fathers, friends, co-workers and priesthood and auxiliary leaders to relate.

These “marvelous new methods of communication” (phones, internet facebook etc) as Elder Holland mentioned allow the Lord's voice to go out around the world to not only the members of the church but an ever growing proportion of non-members.

It was only a few hours before in the early sunday session tha Elder Uchtdorf said,

“With so many social media resources and a multitude of more or less useful gadgets at our disposal, sharing the good news of the gospel is easier and the effects more far-reaching than ever before. In fact, I am almost afraid that some listening have already sent text messages like “He’s been speaking for 10 minutes and still no aviation analogy!”

Elder Uchtdorf was right. More than 52,000 tweets were posted with the hashtag reference LDSConf, (if you don't know what a hashtag or trend is ask the youth in the ward) which is double what was shared only 6 months before during October's conference. It was the first time the church streamed conference live on Facebook and even allowed people to use the embeded code to stream conference on their own websites or blogs. The LDSConf hashtag conversation ranked as high as #2 on Twitter in the US involving more than 2,000 different Twitter users. Reaching to a network of more than 1 million followers. Tweeps if you will... Many of which who were unaware of the Restoration of the Gospel or what the trend was referencing.

Vicki and I both personally participated in the conversation during sunday morning and I referred over 24 people who asked what LDSconf meant to a link that led them to the live broadcast.

Uchtdorf went on...“perhaps the Lord’s encouragement to “open [your] mouths” might today include “use your hands” to blog and text message the gospel to all the world! But please remember, all at the right time and at the right place. Brothers and sisters, with the blessings of modern technology, we can express gratitude and joy about God’s great plan for His children in a way that can be heard not only around our workplace but around the world. Sometimes a single phrase of testimony can set events in motion that affect someone’s life for eternity.”

Many of us have access to an use things such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogging, but are we using it for the good that it can be?

Sure we have the Angry Birds app on our phone but do we also have the Mormon Channel app?
Many of us likely have setup our Facebook profiles but have we setup our own personal profile on Mormon.org yet?

The top three profiles on twitter by number of followers belongs to Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, and Britney Spears, but are we following @LdsNewsroom, etc.

Our Facebook friends and Likes may include local celebrities like Tai Wesley or The Utah Jazz, but what about Mormon Messages, or Church other church pages.

I understand that there are those of you out there that are not part of twitterverse or the Social Network, some may fear for privacy or other reasons that are understandable, I only ask that if you are using the devices and technology that you use it the way to fulfill your call to Testify and warn the people.

In D&C 88:121 the Lord warns us cease from all our light speeches and light mindedness, which regrettably is what most of these personal publishing technologies are used for, but they can be used for so much more. We don't need to laden or burden cyberspace with lengthy and prideful statements of self-righteousness, a simple declaration of gratitude or joy as Elder Uchtdorf and the other leaders of the church suggest will suffice.

It is interesting and I think of no simple coincidence that in the revelation given to Thomas Marsh and other saints called to preach the gospel—that being us-- the lord used the word “send”. In D&C 112:1 he proclaims, “Verily thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Thomas: I have heard thy prayers; and thine alms have come up as a memorial before me, in behalf of those, thy brethren, who were chosen to bear testimony of my name and to send it abroad among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, and ordained through the instrumentality of my servants...Let thy heart be of good cheer before my face; and thou shalt bear record of my name, not only unto the Gentiles, but also unto the Jews; and thou shalt send forth my word unto the ends of the earth. Contend thou, therefore, morning by morning; and day after day let thy warning voice go forth; and when the night cometh let not the inhabitants of the earth slumber, because of thy speech. Let thy habitation be known in Zion, and remove not thy house; for I, the Lord, have a great work for thee to do, in publishing my name among the children of men.”

14 Now, I say unto you, and what I say unto you, I say unto all the Twelve: Arise and gird up your loins, take up your across, follow me, and bfeed my sheep. 19Wherefore, whithersoever they shall send you, go ye, and I will be with you; and in whatsoever place ye shall proclaim my name an aeffectual door shall be opened unto you, that they may receive my word.

22Inasmuch as they shall humble themselves before me, and abide in my word, and ahearken to the voice of my Spirit.

28But apurify your hearts before me; and then bgo ye into all the world, and preach my gospel unto every creature who has not received it;

33Verily I say unto you, behold how great is your calling.


Elder Uchtdorf talked about receiving the savior piece by piece like a puzzle.

The best way to share is by what we do and who we are.

Are to do lists should reflect what is on our to be lists.

Just do it. Just Be it.

I must admit that part of my standing at this pulpit today is out of selfishness as I am reminded of the promised blessings of strength, personal edification, and sanctification to those who share their testimonies. In D&C 62:3 the Lord gives the promise that our “testimonies are recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon,” and our sins can be forgiven by this simply yet sometimes terrifying act. Terrifying because unlike incorrect statements or misspellings posted on Facebook or Twitter I do not think heaven allows you to delete such recordings.

We have the opportunity and means to do much good. Let us not be distracted. Let us not be afraid and let us not wait for the Savior to be given to us. We are children of our heavenly father with divine potential. Other stand in need of your help in realizing that they too.

Let us wave the ensign to all the world with our fingers, our mouths, our cell phones our computers and our deeds.

Easter is coming up.

Testimony.

Pedantic Fixation: Mormon Message and Some Running

Pedantic Fixation: Mormon Message and Some Running: "So everyone has seen at least one Mormon Messages Video right? The movies the church makes from some of the talks at General Conference and ..."

The Last shall be first, and the first shall be last...

In the parable of the laborers (Matthew 20), Jesus tells the story of a householder who goes out in the morning and hires laborers to work in his vineyard. The group and householder agree upon a price and then the laborers go to work. Later that day the householder finds some more laborers being idle and hires them on as well. A few hours later he does the same, finding and hiring others to work. He repeats this single-handed economic hiring boost several times until the work day is almost over, hiring the last group with only an hour left in the work day, promising them they will be paid "whatsoever is right." The work day ends and it is time to collect pay checks. The householder instructs his steward to pay those that came in the final hour first and follow in reverse order to those that worked the full twelve hours. All were paid an equal amount, despite the significant discrepancies in the amount of time worked. This obviously led to some discontent amongst the workers who were first hired and had "borne the heat of the day," but were still paid equal to those who had "wrought but one hour." This obviously seems to not "feel" right to the workers first hired, despite the fact that they had agreed for the one penny wage for their days work. The employer gives and affectionate clarification saying,

"Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee...So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen."

Despite, the urge I will not delve into any interpretations or lessons that can be learned from the Master Teacher on what it means to be chosen. Instead I selected this parable as a perfect fit for my first official post on SkippyN8tion because it seems appropriate and emblematic of the idea of me starting a blog. As there are endless spiritual parallels, life lessons, and symbolic auguries that can be drawn from this short allegory Jesus told, likewise, in number are the coincidences, questions and archetypical inferences this parable has to the birth of this blog.

Parables are hard to understand....my written thoughts are nearly impossible.

This blog is not for everyone (I'm not sure who it is for, its is only my first post, work with me here). "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear (Mark 4:9)." If you get something out of these posts, or they entertain you subscribe, read, comment, and come back for more. If my late night ranting inspires you, great. I'm supposing a lot of what I talk about may require some inside knowledge of me, or an observation or two. This blog is offered to all, but only those who have "ears to hear," and a lot of time to waste will likely make it far.

The last are first and the first are last.

I didn't invent blogging. This is likely not the first blog you have ever read, nor is it the first I have written. I just heard once that blogging was cool. I think someone told me on my brand new cell phone that looked like this.

Remember this? The Motorola TeleTac 200. I was one of the first kids at my high school to have a cell phone.

I didn't pick blogging up back in 1999 when Blogger made it all the rage, but you better believe I am jumping on the bandwagon now. It is the same thing I did with the New Kids On The Block. I hated those guys during the late 80's and early '90's, but in the 2000's, the cassette player in my Mustang always had "The Right Stuff" in it, and the volume was only turned down to make calls on the above pictured phone. The point is, I'm not the first blogger in the world and I am just now getting with a trend that some say died years ago, but in the blogosphere all blogs are equal. I may be late to the party, but I am still going to have a good time. Many of those early "web loggers" may be feeling much like the first group of workers in our parable that started at the beginning of the day (See "How blogging software reshapes the online community" by Rebecca Blood). Perhaps they are a bit frustrated with guys like me thinking I can just saunter onto the scene in 2010 when they were coding their own HTML pages of lists and links back in the day, in the snow, uphill, both ways, without any shoes. Despite everyone who came before me having their weblogs around for years/centuries, mine is now first on the list for at least a few seconds until the next blog gets made and abandoned. This post, now first, will ironically become last.

Why stand ye here all the day idle?

I work from home. As part of my work I sit in front of a computer for at least 8 hours a day. That's right, sometimes I don't even get dressed. Vicki is gone to school most the day, whilst I sit about the house answering phone calls and email. It therefore, follows that I am no longer the vibrant physical specimen, adventure seeker, and athlete I was while packing around my Motorola TeleTac 200. So in an effort to increase my physical excursions I felt there was no better way than keystroking my thoughts here as well as continuing to maintain my fantasy sports rosters. I mean, what kind of person lives that lifestyle and doesn't spend countless hours looking at and posting things all over this fad they call the Internet? Well, I will be idle no more! I am a tweeter (evidence to the bottom left of the page here), I have a FaceBook, and I'll even admit that I had a MySpace account once, but again, that was post-"MySpace-is-cool" era. I would credit my work environment, my insomnia, my path of undergraduate study at Utah State University, and my wife, Vicki and I's utter feelings of being pariahs amongst friends and family for the creation of this blog. I am not sure when it began happening, but I noticed Vicki discussing the blog content of several family members, friends from church and acquaintances of ours. This grew into the desire for us to begin a blog. We avoided this hankering to de-privatize our life for quite some time because we lacked a proper name to describe our online nakedness, but a rousing game of online Facebook Scrabble solved that dilemma real quick as evidenced by the creation of our family blog. So with the raping of our collective anonymity, I said to myself, "why not go all out?" Hence, the creation of the blog you are currently reading. I believe each of us has the desire, and love the excitement, of splashing the moments of our lives and our opinions and experiences all over the web to friends, family, strangers, and identity thieves. We, like the laborers in the parable are all equal in the eyes of Blog. Some may start early, and some may come in the eleventh hour, but we eventually all will give in. My rigorous efforts to find, follow, and subscribe to other's blogs yesterday proves that each of us needs to feel like we belong. I too needed confirmation I am not an outcast, or I fold under peer pressure and quickly sell out to avoid not fitting in. 

Many are called....

So I have answered the call that resides within each of us to join the blogosphere, and I will continue to do so that I may become one of the chosen that endures the heat of the day and doesn't forsake that call. It may come late, but when that TeleTac 200 within rings, we have to pick it up, eventually. 

http://www.thegreat80s.com/80s-Pop-Bands/New-Kids-On-The-Block.html