Sunday Study - About GCBC

Since Sunday is General Conference and I am assuming all of you are going to be watching General Conference I thought I would post this - it's just the "about" page for General Conference book club (see link about - "About GCBC").

I hope you all enjoy watchig Conference today and tomorrow!! Remember to check back tomorrow after the PM Session for GCBC Week 1!! I am really excited!

See you there!!


What is General Conference Book Club
The goal of General Conference Book Club is to read a talk from the most recent General Conference and discuss it together in an online book club.

(If you're not familiar with General Conference or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you can visit the Church's official pages for more information - here and here)

How do I Join GCBC?
It's really simple! There are two steps to joining and participating in this awesome club!

1.) Read the conference talk that will be announced each week on Sunday
2.) Come back to the blog (at any time) and comment on the GCBC post

Not sure what to say? You can simply say "I read the talk and it was amazing!" or whatever else you want to say about it. Don't feel like you need to say something profound or though provoking. Simply stating you read the talk is good enough. You can go one step further and reply to a comment with something like "Me too!" or "Great insight! I never thought about that before!" or you can get really impressive and write your own dissertation right here in the comments! (no comment length is inordinate for the GCBC posts!) If you feel uncomfortable writing an entire page in the comments, write your own blog post on your own blog and then give us a link in the comments. There are plenty of ways to participate!

That's it! Once you have read the talk and participated in any way in the discussions in the comment section, you have joined the GCBC!

Optional Steps:
1.) Subscribe to the comments (click on the little link below the comment section that says "subscribe to comments")
2.) Come back often during the week (and after the week) and comment and reply - participate in a real discussion
3.) Add the GCBC button to your blog or blog post:

<a href="http://diapersanddivinity.com/gcbc" target="_blank" title="General Conference Book Club"> <img src="http://diapersanddivinity.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/genconfbutton1.jpg" width="150px" alt="General Conference Book Club" /></a>

Why General Conference Book Club?

A fine member of the Church was talking with a neighbor who was not of our faith. When the topic of discussion turned to general conference, the neighbor asked, “You say you have prophets and apostles? And twice a year in a worldwide conference they reveal the word of God?” 

“Absolutely,” the member replied with confidence. 

The neighbor thought about that for a moment. He seemed genuinely interested and then asked, “What did they say in the last general conference?” 

At this point the good member of the Church went from feeling excited about sharing the gospel to feeling embarrassed. Try as he might, he couldn’t think of the details of a single talk. 

His friend found this troubling and said, “You mean to tell me that God speaks to man in our day and you can’t remember what He said?” 

The brother felt humbled by this exchange. He vowed that he would do better to remember the words spoken by the Lord’s servants in general conference.

                           No Ordinary Blessing, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf  

Where did General Conference Book Club come from?
General Conference Book Club is actually the inspired work of Stephanie at Diapers and Divinity. She started the online book club as a way for Latter-day Saints in the online community to share insights about General Conference talks. Due to her recently acquired gainful employment, Stephanie asked me if I would host GCBC here on My Soul Delighteth. Of course I said yes. I love Stephanie, and I love GCBC, and I love General Conference.

What if I missed some of the talks?
Never fear! Back-linking is here! Check out the links below to find the posts from previous GCBC posts.

GENERAL CONFERENCE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2012:

Coming soon!!

Conference 101–note taking and conference

Once upon at a time when I attended Especially for Youth – a week long summer camp of sorts for LDS teens – I attended a class in which the instructor told us not to try to write down everything he said, but rather “When the Spirit moves you, write down what you are going to do!” I have tried to take this counsel to heart, and now when I listen to a speaker I try not to get caught up in writing down all the principles they talk about, or the words they say (unless it’s not General Conference and they say something in a way that I want to remember – you know, like a catchy phrase or a particularly clear explanation of something). The thing is – most principles that are spoken of in talks can be found in the scriptures, or in General Conference talks. So I try to concentrate on what the spirit is teaching me rather than what the person is teaching me.

During conference, rather than try to write down what the speaker is saying I try to focus on what the Spirit is teaching me by what they are saying. I usually draw a little arrow before a note if it is something that I feel the Spirit instructing me to do. For example, in my notes from October General Conference, I wrote this:

    Sunday AM Session

    President Henry B. Eyring
    Baptismal Covenants
->study the covenants I have made (baptism, sacrament, temple) Write them down
        * we promised to be charitable
        * we promised to be a witness of God everywhere
        * bear each other’s burdens
->BE FULLY CONVERTED
       endure faithfully (SERVE faithfully) to the end. Press on and live the gospel to the end.
     Steps to FULL CONVERSION – faith, read the Book of Mormon, take Moroni’s promise.
->READ the Book of Mormon and take Moroni’s promise. Read the Book of Mormon every year

That is directly from my notes. Your notes are probably different. I tried to write what I felt impressed to write down by the Spirit. I went back and read this talk and looked for some of those things. What I wrote wasn’t exactly what President Eyring said, although he did talk about covenants (and the list is word-for-word what he said) and he did talk about full conversion. There have been times where I have found something in my notes from General Conference that is so beautiful to me, and I want to share it with someone, but because I am a stickler for sources I will go back and look for that quote in the conference talk and I can’t find it! That’s when I realize that what I “heard” wasn’t what was said, but rather what the Spirit inspired me to write down.

Don’t worry about getting everything down word for word – these days, the videos are available practically the same day with transcripts available within the week. If you hear a phrase that really struck you, write that down and it will help you search that talk later (the “find” function on your browser can be an invaluable tool when searching Conference talks online). Or if there was a talk that you felt particularly inspired about, make a note so you can go back and listen to it or read it after conference.

I really like the counsel given in the General Conference Notebook that is published by the Friend. In the “After Conference” section it says “Write down… what [you are] going to do because of what you learned.” This, I think, is the more important thing to get out of General Conference – what we are going to do because of what we heard.

The March 2012 New Era published an article for teens on getting the most out of General Conference.

“If you decide to take notes, keep them short and simple so you can pay close attention to the speaker and to the Spirit. Consider writing down what the Spirit teaches you or some specific things we are counseled to do, not just the exact words of the conference speakers.”

For those of you participating in #TwitterStake (Mormons on Twitter during General Conference – tweeting conference notes with the hashtag #LDSConf) this is good advice – and probably more easily followed on Twitter (where your notes are limited to 140 characters) than on paper – but it is probably easy to get distracted from the speaker and the spirit if you aren’t careful.

I will be participating in #TwitterStake this year, and I’m pretty excited. I’m not sure how I will like it, but I think it will be a great opportunity.

How do you take notes at General Conference? Do you keep your notes simple? Do you take notes at all? Do you participate in the “tweeting” of General Conference?

Conference 101–Conference with Kids

If you’re like me, you love soaking in all the beautiful messages shared from our living prophets in General Conference.

If you’re like me, you also have little children who make listening to General Conference like listening for a pin drop at a shuttle launch…

Image Source: Elder Nelson's Apr 2011 Conference Talk

However! There is hope!

Help Your Kids Get Familiar with General Conference

First off, prepare your children for General Conference. When General Conference only happens twice a year it’s hard for small children to understand why the big fuss – it’s just another Sunday, right?

Find ways to make the weekend super special. We drew pictures of the prophets speaking from the podium on the Saturday and Sunday squares on our calendar. Watch talks online of previous conferences. Talk about how excited you are to listen to/watch General Conference. Mention the General Authorities by name frequently and even talk about principles from their talks. For example, “Last conference President Uchtdorf reminded us about how much God loves us!” (You Matter to Him, October 2011) It might even help to show them a picture of the prophet you are mentioning.

Have a special “General Conference” edition of Family Home Evening to prepare. Practice using your conference games (be careful not to wear them out!) and consider playing some General Authorities matching games. (find Jocelyn’s here and mine here) We usually watch the “General Conference Highlights” video from the previous conference and practice naming the apostles as they come up. The video is nice because it is short and has background music so the kids are able to tune in a little better.

Start including a plea for Heavenly Father to prepare your hearts for General Conference in your individual and family prayers. This will help your kids know that General Conference is important to you (my kids know that the most important things are things that we pray about) and I know these prayers will be answered as you prepare for General Conference.

V’s birthday happens to be after General Conference and today he told me, “I am so excited to hear the prophets talk” (cue proud mother smile) “because after the prophets talk it will be my birthday!!!” (cue “mother-fail” face…) So we need a little more work with that one…

General Conference Activities

Your next step before conference starts is to arm yourself with more conference activities than you would ever need. There are a lot of great suggestions around the internet for conference activities. Jocelyn at We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ has a lot of great ideas here. I am planning on using several of her ideas, especially the General Conference wall (anything that gets my kids moving during conference is good for them – little kids don’t sit still well for long periods of time!). I also made several writing practice sheets.

A few days ago we read the story of Alma (the formerly wicked priest) and the story mentioned that Alma wrote down all the words of the prophets. A day or so later, following my own advice from the first tip above, I mentioned to my son how excited I was to listen to the prophets. My son turned to me and said, “Will you turn the prophets on the TV so I can write down what they say?” I definitely could not say no to a request like that, so I pulled out some old Conference DVDs from 2005 and popped one in the DVD player. V grabbed some paper and a pen and situated himself directly in front of the TV and proceeded to “write” the words that Elder Eyring was saying. His faith and love of the prophets melts my heart every time.

So I made some writing practice sheets for some things relating to General Conference – “We listen to the prophets speak at General Conference” “Families can be together forever.” “Keep the Commandments” etc. You can print them here from Google Documents (no sign in required). You can also get to them by clicking on the image above.

Here is a sampling of the things I will be preparing for my kids:

General Conference Wall (from We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ)
Word Buckets (from the R House)
Gospel Picture Puzzles (from Bits of Everything)
Writing practice sheets (from My Soul Delighteth)
“Note-taking” station (this is just going to be their journals, and I will help them write down what they hear – we will probably have them listen to at least one of the talks from the apostles or a member of the First Presidency)

Some of these activities (the Gospel Picture Puzzles and the Writing Practice sheets) are going to go into our church bag for Sunday. I am hoping to get the writing sheets laminated so they can be wipe-away sheets.

The Friend publishes several General Conference activities. You can download them from the Friend website. I especially like the notebook. It is set up for kids to take notes either with words or with pictures. This can be a really good pre-writing activity for your kids. We plan on using the Friend notebooks.

Sugardoodle also has a plethora of resources.

We may even let the kids play some of the Friend’s online games during General Conference. The family computer is in the same room with the TV.

I am thinking of having them switch activities with each speaker, so they can realize that a new person is speaking. We will also continue our tradition of having a poster of the General Authorities where the kids can find who is speaking and put a sticker on the picture. They really like putting stickers on the faces of the General Authorities. When you think about them like grandpas it seems a lot more reverent than it appears… right?

The Friend had a cute activity this month with the pictures of the apostles for the kids to set up in their chairs, and a pulpit where they can move the apostle when they speak. I think I am going to make a sturdier version of this with craft sticks. We’ll use it in conjunction with the other activities. The more exposure they have to the faces of the General Authorities the better, I say.

You Know Your Kids Best

Remember to make sure you prepare activities that your kids would be interested in. Jocelyn has a cool “build a Lego temple” activity – but my kids would probably just throw the Legos around the room… Sugardoodle has a bunch of coloring pages, but my kids would probably just rip them into little pieces and scatter them around the room. So not every activity will be appropriate for your kids. I think V might enjoy the Lego temple project some time when he’s a little older, and maybe some day my kids will enjoy coloring – for right now they are really into writing, matching games, and puzzles – you’ll notice those are most of the activities we will be doing.

What activities are you going to prepare for your kids? How do you prepare your kids to be ready to watch General Conference? Feel free to link to your favorite websites and activities for conference for kids!

Guest Post: Shelter From The Storm

Today’s guest post comes from Whitney at The Life of a Mormon Teen. I am excited to have her as a guest on my blog, and I absolutely love her blog, and the other teen bloggers out there trying to share the gospel. I am so impressed with their testimonies and maturity!

Hi! My name is Whitney. I am the teenager behind The Life of a Mormon Teen.

Let me just start off with saying the scriptures are awesome. As a teen, life is really hard. It’s emotionally draining, physically tasking, mentally challenging, socially awkward, and then just add acne to it. This is why I love the scriptures so much. In my world full of mean kids, hateful remarks, scary media, peer pressure, expectations, final exams, homework, and bullies, the scriptures are my sanctuary. I know that I can find peace in the scriptures. The scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, provide ways for us to take a break from our hectic lives and study the will and patterns of God. It is in the scriptures that we can feel of His pure love for us.

My favorite part of the Book of Mormon is when Christ appears to the people of the Americas after His crucifixion in the east. For three days after His death, there was complete darkness in the western world. Darkness, and all manner of storms and natural disasters. There were earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, volcano eruptions, you name it. Many people died.

“And it came to pass that there was thick darkness upon all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof who had not fallen could feel the vapor of darkness;”
3 Nephi 8:20

But after three days of terrible suffering, there was light. The tempests ceased, raging winds calmed, and everything was still. The people of the land heard a voice from heaven saying:

“Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,
in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him.”
3 Nephi 11:7

Then Jesus descended from heaven. Pure white, light emanating from Him, I can only imagine that He was a sight for sore eyes. Jesus proceeded to heal the wounded and sick. He taught the Father’s gospel and brought the people peace.

Even though we live two thousand years in the future, this story still has tremendous meaning for our lives.

This darkness can be compared to the world around us. Sometimes, it feels so dark that we cannot see any light. It is so easy to get discouraged in this world full of sin and woes. Through the trials we have, it’s not hard to feel as if we are in the middle of a hurricane. With wickedness on all sides, we may feel like a tempest is raging. People are easily provoked and offended, erupting like volcanoes at the things people say. And the media pelts us with monstrosities, like dump truck-sized hail.

But even with all of this, we know that we can find shelter from the storm through Christ. We have an open invitation to His loving arms. I have felt peace through Him countless times. Right when we feel as if we will drown in the storm, His tender mercies appear. And, we also know that He will soon come to earth again to reign. It has been said that we are a highly favored generation. It’s true. We do have it hard. There is so much wickedness around. But we have been blessed with the strength, faith, and power to overcome all things that might stand in our way. The blessings we will receive from withstanding these trials will be far greater than any hardships we have ever or will ever face.

I know that the scriptures are true. I know that Jesus loves all of us and that He is always there in our hours of need. And, I know that He will come again. When He does, I will be ready.

Thank you, Whitney, for sharing your amazing testimony with us! I am inspired by your faith-filled life and your ability to understand the gospel.

Check out more of Whitney’s works over at The Life of a Mormon Teen.

What is your favorite scripture? How have you found strength in those favorite scriptures? Have those scriptures become your friends?

What if I make a wrong choice?–the miracle of forgiveness

I have mentioned before that I am kind of tender hearted (i.e., a sap) and just about anything will make me bawl like a baby.

Like today when we got our April Ensign and Friend magazines and I started looking through the Friend magazine (I like to find the stories that will be applicable to our family so I can turn to them quickly when I want to read them with the kids – although we usually end up reading the entire magazine) I cried reading just about every single story in there. Little children are very precious to me, and perhaps this is why I am such a softy when it comes to kids (a few weeks ago the choir sang A Child’s Prayer with a children’s chorus and let me tell you how I cried – I couldn’t help myself!)

I am assuming the editors chose a theme of repentance for the Friend this month because we will celebrate Easter this month, and that’s what Easter is all about (the atonement and resurrection). But whatever their reasoning, I want to give a big hug to the editing team of the Friend this month. Toward the middle of the magazine was a big colorful spread about making good media choices. There were some cute stories from kids around the United States, and then I saw this in the middle of the page:

If you don’t know how important it is that we teach children that making unwise choices is part of this mortal experience let me tell you now.  Please, please teach your children that it is okay to make mistakes – Why? Because you need to teach them how to access the atonement.

I cannot stress the importance of this enough. I have seen the despair and hopelessness that comes from an understanding of the commandments without an understanding of the atonement. Please do not teach your children the commandments of the Lord if you are not following up immediately with teachings of the atonement.

Think about what you are teaching your children if you spend all your time teaching them about obedience and do not teach – by word as well as by example – about the power of the atonement. You are teaching them what they should or should not be doing, but you haven’t taught them what to do when they don’t get it right. It’s like you are throwing your child into the ocean without teaching them how to swim. Who would do that to their child?

What do you do when you make a poor decision? Do you use the atonement? Let your children see you using the atonement. Teach by example.When you get frustrated with your children, apologize to their faces, and ask for forgiveness, and tell them that you are going to pray to Heavenly Father to forgive you as well. Our children need to see us using the atonement.

We cannot just teach our children what the atonement is by giving them the cute little “ABC’s” of the repentance process. What would we expect if we gave our kids a neat little rhyme that tells them how to swim, but we never take them to the pool to practice swimming?

I think that teaching the atonement by example is harder for us to do as parents than maybe teaching other gospel principles (such as service) because we often think of repentance as a private thing. Of course I am not suggesting that you tell your kids every bad things you have done/said, but when they witness you make a poor choice let them also witness the repentance process. You don’t have to invite them to come watch you pray, but you can let them know that you are going to go say a prayer now to ask Heavenly Father for forgiveness, and you can tell them how you are going to make things right (and be really specific with this one, and let your children watch you make the thing right).

When your child makes a poor choice, do not scold them or lecture them. Use it as a teaching moment to bear your testimony to them of the power of the atonement.

There are too many people who were raised in the Church who have either left the Church or are still active but in deep despair and pain because they were not taught the true Gospel – that the Savior suffered for our sins and that by His blood we can be made perfect. Not just okay again, but perfect. Absolutely sin-free through the atonement. I see the hurt in their hearts and in their lives when they think because they broke a commandment (even a very serious commandment) that there can be no forgiveness for them – and they are good for nothing. But how wrong are they! They are good for everything, and if only someone had taught them of the atoning sacrifice of their Savior and how to use it!

Can you tell this is close to my heart?

I believe in the atonement of our Savior. I know that He took upon Himself every poor choice we can even imagine making. I know more perfectly than I know just about anything that we are not lost causes, that we can be okay with ourselves because He loves us and wants us to come to Him with our burdens and our struggles and our pain and our agony because He suffered it first. He already took everything on Himself. We just need to be wiling to give it all to Him.

I realize that in order for us to teach this gospel principle to our children we need to understand it and be applying it ourselves. If you don’t have a testimony of the atonement, if you don’t know how to use it, start today and learn about it. Study about the atonement, talk to your bishop/parent/spouse. And most importantly, start using the atonement in your life! (it is a daily-use principle)

Here are some resources I found for you:

What is the Atonement of Jesus Christ? (mormon.org)
The Atonement of Jesus Christ (lds.org)
Sins and Mistakes, Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Helping Children Repent
The Miracle of Forgiveness, Spencer W. Kimball
Believing Christ, Stephen E. Robinson (there is a BYU speech here that is probably like a short version of the book, but I highly recommend the book – you can get it for about $1 on Amazon)
everything I have written about the atonement – me

How do you teach your children about the atonement? Do you let your children see you use the atonement?

A Great Responsibility – GCBC

As you may (or may not) know, I am a huge fan of Stephanie’s General Conference Book Club. I have been studying General Conference talks on this blog for a while, but Stephanie’s GCBC got me really studying them – and gave me the opportunity to hear the thoughts of others on the General Conference talks.

So you may be able to imagine my surprise (shock?) when I received an email from Stephanie asking if I would mind hosting GCBC for a while (enter jaw drop). I wanted to say yes right away, but I made sure to run it by the hubster (who thought it was awesome) and I wanted to pray about it a little (although I completely trusted Stephanie’s judgment – well, I would have completely trusted her judgment if she had asked anyone besides me… so I mostly trusted her judgment).

Well, apparently it’s the right thing for me because I am happy to announce that after April 2012 General Conference, I will be hosting General Conference Book Club here on my blog! I hope that you will all come and join with us as we study the General Conference talks.

If you’re new to GCBC, here is some info from Stephanie’s Website:

“The goal is to read one General Conference talk a week and discuss it together as an on-line “book club.”

(If you’re not familiar with General Conference or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, go here and here and here for more information.)

A new talk will be posted each Sunday.

You don’t have to do anything to “join” the club– You can just visit the Sunday post at any time during the week and share thoughts, findings, favorite quotes, applications, even questions from the talk of the week. Personally, I think it would be a good idea to subscribe to comments from the post so that we can read each other’s insights and have a “real book club” conversation.  (One way to do this is to click the link below the comments that says “subscribe by email” – this will sent you email updates when people comment on the post) Or of course, you can just check back often to see what folks are saying.”

My goal with GCBC on Stephanie’s blog was to study the talk and record my thoughts on my blog. Since I will be hosting GCBC I may not write a full length post anymore – I will probably just put my thoughts in the GCBC announcement post each Sunday and then follow up with the discussion in the comments.

Here is the button for General Conference Book Club and sometime this week I will be adding a link in the header that will go back to the information page on Stephanie's blog. Eventually I’ll get around to hosting an information page here. The actual posts for General Conference book club will be here on Sunday evenings!

<a href="http://diapersanddivinity.com/gcbc" target="_blank" title="General Conference Book Club"> <img src="http://diapersanddivinity.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/genconfbutton1.jpg" width="150px" alt="General Conference Book Club" /></a>

More from Stephanie’s page:

“And try to comment when you’ve read each article, even something as simple as “I did it.”  Then we have a certain motivation/accountability to each other to meet our goal of reading all the talks from the previous General Conference. The objective is to read the words of the living prophets and learn from them.  Our book club community is for sharing and encouraging, but please don’t feel pressure that you have to come around and make profound insights or write eloquent summaries.  Just show up and be counted!”

I am not sure if I am more nervous or excited to host GCBC, but I guess we’ll find out once General Conference is over!

Speaking of which, make sure you head here on Sunday to talk about all your favorite quotes and personal prophetic epistles from April 2012 General Conference as our General Conference Book Club “kick off” for April 2012!

Hope to see you there!

Teaching and Agency

I mentioned yesterday in my Sunday Study Link Up that I was going to start studying the Teaching, No Greater Call manual (hereafter referred to as TNGC). Since the best place to start is the beginning I just read the first chapter. The first part of the manual is Part A: The Importance of Gospel Teaching in God’s Plan.

The first statement that really stood out to me in the manual was this “To be able to fully exercise our agency in righteousness, we must learn of the Savior and the doctrines of His gospel.” (p. 3). I read an absolutely fabulous post over on Faithful Freja about the fall of Adam and Eve and agency. Freja pointed out some important principles of agency:

1.) You must have a choice.
2.) You must know the alternatives.
3.) You must have an indication of divine will.
4.) You must have absolute freedom to choose.

In order to fully exercise agency it is not enough to simply have a choice. We have to know what the Savior wants us to do (have an indication of divine will). We cannot fully exercise our agency if we do not understand the principles of the gospel and the plan of salvation. It’s like the oft-quoted scene from Alice in Wonderland when Alice asked the Cheshire cat which direction she should go, and the cat replies, “That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter which path you take.” There has to be some kind of understanding of what the right choice is, otherwise we’re not really making a choice – we’re just… doing whatever. (which seems like a kind of lame way to live)

As I read this chapter in TNGC, I was reminded of the purpose of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you were asked what you think the purpose of the Church is, what would you say?

Here’s what the Church’s official purpose is:

To “provide the organization and means for teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to all of God’s children. It provides the priesthood authority to administer the ordinances of salvation and exaltation to all who are worthy and willing to accept them.”

So the purpose of the Church is to teach the gospel. And then of course to administer the ordinances necessarily for exaltation. The Church exists so that the children of God can be taught. In TNGC the question is asked, “Can you imagine a duty more noble or sacred?” (p. 4)

This leads us to the question, “Who is a teacher?”

There were some scripture references given in TNGC that I would love to study but I don’t have time this evening. They basically teach us that Christ’s followers are expected to teach the gospel to their family, to other members of the Church, and to those who haven’t yet received the gospel. Remember that saying “Every member a missionary?” What is a missionary, really? Every member is a teacher – I would say first and foremost, a teacher. “The responsibility to teach the gospel is not limited to those who have formal callings as teachers.” If you think about how every person has their own perspective of the world and life, and no two experiences are the same, and we need to learn everything it makes sense that we are all teachers, but we all need to learn from each other.

We are called upon, as teachers, to “increase [our] understanding and improve [our] skill” as teachers. The Lord has taught us, “Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men.” As teachers, we must increase our understanding and our skill – and I believe we do that by following the Lord’s admonition. The most important principle in which we need to increase our understanding is that of the plan of salvation. That is the purpose of this life – to understand and follow the plan of salvation – but we cannot follow something that we do not understand.

As we seek first to obtain an understanding of the plan of salvation we will be blessed to be more effective teachers – whatever our circumstances may be.

How do you “increase your understanding and improve your skill” as you teach? In what ways are you a teacher?

Sunday Study Link-up

Welcome to Sunday Study Link-up again! It’s been a crazy week, and I am really excited for the Sabbath so I can recharge. And tomorrow is Fast Sunday in my ward, due to General Conference so I am doubly excited. I really enjoy Fast Sunday, and not just because I usually get to watch V bear his testimony (and here) – which is always moving – I just really enjoy the extra spirit on Fast Sunday.

I have been listening to the Teaching, No Greater Call podcast on the Mormon Channel. Yesterday one of the hosts mentioned that he met a woman in Costa Rica who read the Teaching, No Greater Call manual every day. Every day! She read out of the Book of Mormon and then would read out of the manual. Every single day. She explained why and talked about how she wanted to be a better teacher – both at Church and in her home.

Since we are all teachers, and since I specifically have a teacher calling in my ward, I thought I will start studying the manual more. I think I will follow this good sister’s example and read from the manual after my nightly page-and-a-half from the Book of Mormon.

What are you studying this week?

Link up below – either put a link to an article that you are going to be reading this week, or a gospel-related article you really liked, or something you wrote about a gospel topic that you studied. Feel free to add the button below to your post! For more info check out the Sunday Study page.

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General Conference 101–preparing for the feast

(This is the second post in the General Conference 101 Series at My Soul Delighteth)

So now that you know what General Conference is, and how to participate in it, let’s talk about how to prepare for it. Last time in General Conference 101 I mentioned that anyone can find something in General Conference to touch them individually.

President Jeffrey R. Holland said this, “If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.” (I highly recommend his entire talk as pre-conference reading – I plan on re-reading his talk before conference starts next weekend)

What we find, and how deeply it touches us is largely dependent on our own preparation. “Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.” D&C 9:7 If we are just expecting to turn on our TV at 10:00am Saturday morning and be spoon-fed revelation, we’re probably going to be missing out on the actual feast that is available. You have to prepare for the revelation which is readily available at General Conference.

The first suggestion I would give you in preparing for the upcoming General Conference is to read past General Conference talks. Study the words of the prophets from previous conferences. If you want to value the upcoming conference, learn to value the previous conferences. One of these days I want to start reading conference talks going backward in time until I have read the conference talks from every conference there has ever been. I’ve only got probably 10-15 years of conference really under my belt, since before then I wasn’t really mature enough to sit through 8 hours of conference.

Here are some talks I might start with:

- Until We Meet Again
- As We Meet Again
- At Parting
- It’s Conference Once Again
- Till We Meet Again
- As We Meet Together Again
- An Ensign to the Nations

Also, here is the General Conference Highlights Video from October General Conference:

My next suggestion is to prepare questions you need/want answered. Now, don’t think that by preparing questions you will get word-for-word answers from the prophets to these questions. However, as you listen to the prophets the Spirit can and will help you know the answers to your questions, whether or not any particular speaker specifically answers your question. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s counsel in last September’s Ensign explains it this way, “Answers to your specific prayers may come directly from a particular talk or from a specific phrase. At other times answers may come in a seemingly unrelated word, phrase, or song. A heart filled with gratitude for the blessings of life and an earnest desire to hear and follow the words of counsel will prepare the way for personal revelation.” I would even say to write down the questions you have. Ponder those questions daily for at least a few weeks before General Conference and let the Spirit prepare you to receive the answers.

My final suggestion for preparation is to prepare your children and prepare for your children. I don’t naively mean that you can actually prepare for your children the way you will prepare for yourself. What I mean by this is that you make sure your home (or wherever you will be participating in conference) is going to be a place where your children can get as much out of General Conference as possible – and will be content enough to be occupied with simple games, with paper and crayons, etc so that you are not too distracted from General Conference. I don’t expect General Conference to be perfectly calm at my house with small children, but I know that if I prepare well enough for my kids, they will at least let me listen to a few talks. The next post in General Conference 101 will be resources for enjoying General Conference with children.

How do you prepare for General Conference? Do you have questions that you find answers to at General Conference? How often do you study previous General Conference talks?

Children–the worst heartache and the greatest joy

The other day I read this post by Emily at Lioness at the Gate about motherhood and bearing children. I loved all of her thoughts, but her final thought really stuck with me. She said, “Imagine if we valued women for their abilities to reproduce and also valued children for their ability to help out and be productive, not to be a drain.”

In the past few years I have read a few articles/seen a few videos about having children and their effect on our happiness, and one article suggested that people who have kids psych themselves out, or convince themselves that they are happier than they really are (apparently psychologist call this a “focusing illusion”). In effect, the article was arguing that people who have children aren’t really happier than people who don’t have children, they simply convince themselves that they are.

There was also that French advertisement for protection that seemed to have the same message – avoid all the trouble of children by not getting pregnant in the first place.

Children truly do bring happiness. They also bring a lot of heartache. Parents probably know more stress, fatigue, and heartache than anyone. However, they also know love, compassion, happiness, and joy more fully than anyone. And this is a gospel principle – opposition in all things. How can we think to really know what it means to be happy if we never truly know sorrow?

The scriptures teach that if Adam and Eve had stayed in the garden, and not transgressed and partaken of the forbidden fruit, “they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing good, for they knew no sin.” (2 Nephi 2:23; emphasis added) So true happiness and joy comes from knowing true misery and sorrow. Having children is the ultimate way the Father could teach us about grief and sorrow and heartache, and also the ultimate way He could teach us about love and joy and happiness.

After all, the Father gave His only begotten Son to atone for the sins of the world and die for man on the cross. We want to be like our Father (see Matt 5:48) and if we are to be like Him, we need to try to understand the emotions that He feels in being a parent. I think of my parents, who buried a son, and I wonder if my parents don’t know now the character of God a little more than most – because of the grief and sorrow they have experienced. And yet, how much more sweet is their joy because they have tasted the bitterness of grief?

I hope that we can see children as a blessing, and that we can value women for their ability to bear children, and not seek to minimize that significant and important role that women have.

Do you value women for their ability to bear children? Do you value children for their ability to teach you heartache and sorrow, but also love and joy?

Arise–2012 Mutual Theme

I was looking for an arrangement of Love is Spoken Here for our Youth to sing in sacrament meeting (I’m the choir director in our ward and I’m trying to get more people involved in the music in the ward) and thought “I wonder if there is a song for the Mutual Theme for this year.”

Sure enough, there is! I don’t think it’s appropriate for sacrament meeting – more for a fireside or youth activity – so we won’t be using it to sing in sacrament meeting, but it was really a neat video, so I had to share. I hope you enjoy it. The tune is really catchy, and the young man’s voice is really beautiful (or handsome? not sure if that rule applies for voices…). If you have youth in your family you should download the song for them. You can download it free here. I am going to download it for myself. I love the seminary video soundtracks. Some of those songs are my favorite to listen to. This one is just as inspiring. I hope you will listen and enjoy and share!

What are your favorite songs for youth? Do you have youth in your home? Do they listen to the seminary music?

General Conference 101–What is General Conference?

Because I love General Conference (seriously, it’s probably my favorite holiday, after Christmas and Easter – and it even occasionally coincides with Easter! Now all they need to do is move fall General Conference to Christmas, and we’ll be set!) I will be posting “Conference 101” – a series about General Conference and how to prepare and what to expect and how to keep your children focused. I’m pretty excited to gather all these resources – for my own benefit as well as yours!

I figured that the best place to start is with the basics, so the purpose for my first post will be to explain a little bit about what General Conference is.

If you don’t know already, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) believe that God has a living prophet on the earth today, as well as twelve apostles (who are just like the twelve apostles that were called to be “fishers of men” when Jesus lived on the earth). see Article of Faith 6 here This is an amazing blessing, because a prophet is the mouthpiece of the Lord, and it means that if we listen to the counsel of the prophet and try to follow that counsel, we will be following the Lord and we will be blessed. see more about following prophets here 

Since it’s so important to listen to and obey the prophets, we should have a way to hear them speak regularly. One of the ways we can “hear” the words of the prophets is to read the First Presidency Message published each month in Church magazines called the “Ensign” and the “Liahona”. This message is usually pretty short (although the magazine typically contains many articles by the apostles and prophets, as well as other Church leaders, and Church members), but it comes every month like clockwork. You can also read it online at LDS.org.

I don’t know about you, but if there were living prophets on the earth today I would not want to only read a little blurb once a month from them. I would want to hear sermon after sermon from them!

And that is exactly what we get at General Conference.

Twice a year, in the spring (usually the first weekend in April) and then again in the fall (the first weekend in October), the entire world (including Church members) are invited to join together to listen to an entire weekend of prophets and apostles speak (as well as other Church leaders).

General Conference actually starts a few weeks before the general sessions with a special session for either the Young Women (in March) or the Relief Society – the women’s organization (in September). Then the first “general” session of the conference convenes at 10:00am (Mountain Time) on the Saturday of Conference weekend. The second general session is at 2:00pm (Mountain Time), and then at 6:00pm on Saturday there is a Priesthood session for all Priesthood holders – both Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood holders (that translates to “all men and young men ages 12+.” Then Sunday has two more general sessions, again at 10:00am and 2:00pm.

Each session is 2 hours long and consists of speakers from the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as well as members of the Quorums of the Seventy, auxiliary presidencies (Young Womens, Young Mens, Primary, Relief Society, and Sunday School), and the Presiding Bishopric.

Total that up and you get 8 hours of soaking in prophetic counsel (not counting Priesthood session and the special sessions for the women).

It may seem like a long time to sit and listen, but I crave it. I can’t get enough of it! And when it is over I can’t wait to get my copy of the General Conference Ensign so I can read the talks over and over again. Above is a picture of my October conference Ensign. It’s not nearly as marked up as my April 2011 Conference Ensign was, but I did most of my study of this conference online using the “study notebook” at LDS.org.

The conference takes place at the LDS Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City, UT. It used to be held in the Tabernacle, but in 2000 the Conference Center was completed and the conference moved there. It seats over 21,000 people, whereas the tabernacle only seats about 7000.

How can you access General Conference? There are a lot of different methods.

Watch it Live
- You can stream live video and/or audio at lds.org
- Bonneville Communications (the company that broadcasts General Conference for the Church) has availability information on their website for cable, satellite, and radio broadcasts across the United States
- You can check BYUtv’s website to find out if your cable or satellite provider carries BYUtv, or you can just watch live streaming on BYUtv
- in Utah you can watch conference on the local station, KSL-TV
- you can even watch General Conference live on Facebook. How cool is that?

Watch/Read it Later
- videos of General Conference are usually available online (on LDS.org and on YouTube) the same day as the broadcast, with transcripts usually available within a week or two. You can find out more about the availability of General Conference materials on lds.org
- the Conference issue of the Ensign is available toward the end of April/beginning of May and can be purchased at any LDS Distribution Center, some bookstores in Utah (and probably Arizona and Idaho) and online at store.lds.org
- audio, video, and pdf podcasts are also available

Participate in the Conference Discussion
- blog about Conference!
- join in the General Conference Book Club at Diapers and Divinity!
- Tweet about conference using the hashtag #ldsconf

No matter how you participate, I am sure you will find something to touch your heart. How much you find, and how much it touches you is up to you, and I’ll share a few tips for preparing to get the most out of General Conference in the next post in this series!

What does General Conference mean to you? How do you participate? Where do you watch? Do you listen to/watch conference over and over again through the six months between sessions, or is it a one-weekend deal for you?

Friday Fragments–and a call for guest posts

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I was recently extended an opportunity to help out a friend on my blog, and I am very excited for it! You’ll find out more soon! Really soon!

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I have been really enjoying getting involved in my community recently with the community symphony and the community theater,

my senior year of high school

and the president of the symphony board recently asked me to get involved and get ready to head things up. I am kind of excited and kind of nervous for that opportunity, but I absolutely love the symphony, so I’m mostly excited. I also have the opportunity to volunteer to help with our city’s fourth of July festival. I’m excited about that mostly because last year was lame, and I hope I can help keep this year from being lame again! I am pretty sure that is a little arrogant of me, but seriously… it was lame.

-3-

Our ward choir sang an arrangement of A Child’s Prayer with a children’s choir on Sunday. I love the ward choir, and I am so grateful for all the support of the ward members who come sing in the choir. We have a great ward choir, and I love them a lot! I should have recorded it. I was so proud of the kids – they totally sang their hearts out. The best part? All the kids afterward who asked if they could sing next time! (we had a hard time getting kids to commit, but I think they didn’t know exactly what they were going to be doing. Now that they know, I’m hoping we can get the Primary kids to sing more with the choir. Gotta love those children’s choirs. They melt everyone’s hearts.

-4-

My kids both have birthdays in the next two weeks. Lots of birthday celebrations are in our near future! I am excited. I love parties. We’ll be having a Star Wars party for V, and I am super excited about it. I’ll let you now how it goes.

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Yesterday afternoon my phone calendar popped up an alert for something I had today and I unlocked my phone to look at the details, and forgot to lock it while I was holding it, so I accidentally dialed my best friend and former roommate from BYU (not knowing that it was her I was dialing). It’s an iPhone, so when I noticed it was calling someone I only saw the little green bar that says “touch here to return to call” and so I did and tried to hang up, not wanting to bother her. We don’t talk frequently because she’s busy and I’m busy, although we do try to visit occasionally. I didn’t want her to think anything was wrong (which is what I would initially think if she was calling me) so I tried to hang up quickly, hoping that it hadn’t actually rung her phone yet.

Almost immediately, she called me back. I was secretly excited because I miss her and was thinking this would be a good excuse to catch up, but her voice sounded weird and she said she was actually glad I had called because she needed to talk to me, but right then wasn’t a good time, so she would call me back.

I was nervous all afternoon/evening.

She called me back around 7pm.

My friend’s younger sister had been found
dead in her apartment in Las Vegas
just 30 minutes before I “accidentally” called her.

Accident? Nope.

We shared a minute of silence as I cried.

It was likely an accidental overdose or alcohol poisoning, although they won’t be sure
until the toxicology report comes back. No evidence of foul play, and definitely not a suicide.
Likely just a bad cocktail of drugs and alcohol.

She had recently been diagnosed with possible cervical cancer.

My heart broke for my friend and I just wished that I could be there to hold on to her for a minute.

It’s really hard to loose a sibling. Even harder to lose one who was struggling. And I knew my brother was going to pass away. We expected it. Not as quickly as it happened, but we knew it was coming.

I’ll be driving down for the funeral within the week. I’m going to try to get some posts written and scheduled, but if anyone wants to submit a guest post that I can put up while I’m away at the funeral, I would really appreciate it. You can write the posts and email them to me at mysouldelighteth (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks in advance.

Check out Heather’s Friday Five here!

“Be Men”

Book of Mormon Papers - a series of posts
containing papers I wrote for a
BYU Religion class my freshman year of college.

(Note: This is one of my favorite papers. Ever since I found out my first son would be a boy I have fretted over how to teach him to be a man. What does it even mean to be a man? Our society has such twisted ideas on what makes a “man” – they don’t usually include being a worthy priesthood holder, serving others, obeying God, and protecting your family. The world is more likely to see a “man” as someone who is “buff”, someone who can “get the ladies” and someone who does whatever he wants to, without regard for anyone else’s needs or feelings. The Lord’s way is not our way (Isaiah 55:9), and is definitely not society’s way. Let’s teach our sons to be men. Godly men.)

Lehi and his family traveled for many years in the wilderness. Near the end of Lehi’s life, he spoke to all of his sons and gave them words of wisdom and admonishment. Lehi spoke to Laman and Lemuel and counseled his sons to be men. What did Lehi mean when he gave his sons this counsel, and how can this counsel be applied to how one lives in today’s world? When Lehi gave this counsel to his sons, he was encouraging them to be strong in the faith and stay true to the gospel of Jesus Christ so that they would be able to receive eternal life and live with their families in glory for eternity. Men and women today can take the same counsel to heart if they desire the blessings promised to those who become men or women of Zion.

Lehi was concerned about the spiritual welfare of his sons, which is seen throughout his life as recorded by Nephi. Along with his father, Nephi tried several times to convince his brothers of the truthfulness and necessity of accepting the gospel. Throughout their journeys in the wilderness, Laman and Lemuel rarely showed the qualities of manhood which were desired of them by their father. Lehi showed his great concern for his sons when he instructed them to “arise out of the dust… and by men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity.” The dying prophet was trying to get his sons to understand what qualities would make them part of Zion – by being “of one heart and one mind, and [dwelling] in righteousness.”(Moses 7:18) To Lehi, being a man meant possessing and developing the qualities of Zion.

Other fathers also counseled their sons to “be men.”(2 Nephi 1:21) On his deathbed, King David of the Old Testament pleaded with Solomon, “Shew thyself a man.”(1 Kings 2:2) David had the same ideas as Lehi on what would make his son a man. A son could become a man if he would “keep charge of the Lord thy God, to walk his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies.”(1 Kings 2:3) These qualities also can be included in the list of those that build Zion.

Laman and Lemuel were further instructed by their father to “put on the armor of righteousness”(2 Nephi 1:23) to escape the chains of Satan. This instruction is explained more fully in Lehi’s discourse to Jacob, his firstborn in the wilderness. Lehi teaches his family, or rather reminds them, of the plan of salvation and the law of the atonement and the Messiah, whereby men are justified. It is by observing the commandments of Christ that Lehi encouraged his sons to be men, and the commandments of Christ begin with the atonement and salvation through Him.

Lehi desired that his sons become men, just as the Father desires that all of His children become men and women, heirs to celestial thrones. Therefore, mankind must “stand fast in the faith… [and] be strong”(1 Corinthians 16:13) and “be of good courage”(2 Samuel 10:12) and be steadfast in keeping the commandments of the Lord. Mankind must choose to heed the counsel of Lehi and other fathers, including that of the Eternal Father, and be determined, be of Zion, “be men.”

How are you teaching your sons to be men, and your daughters to be women? Are we men and women of God? Are we courageous in keeping the commandments – a mark of true manhood and womanhood?

If you haven’t seen the movie Courageous, I can’t recommend it enough! It is an excellent movie, which testifies of the importance of fathers who are godly men, and also testifies of the redeeming power of the Savior’s atonement. Go watch it. You won’t regret it, I promise. It’s even action packed enough to keep your husband’s awake! Here’s the trailer if you need more convincing:

True Science. True Religion.

I was reading over at Fred’s Spiritual Corner the other day about science and religion, and it got me thinking…

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I studied mathematics and physics at the university level. I obtained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, and a minor in physics. I love math. I love physics. I am a lover of science, and a lover of religion.

I am not all that unusual. There are lots of Mormons (Latter-day Saints) who love science. In fact, President Ezra Taft Benson once said, “Religion and science have sometimes appeared in conflict. Yet, the conflict can only be apparent, not real, for science seeks truth, and true religion is truth. There can never be conflict between revealed religion and true science. Truth is truth, whether labeled science or religion. All truth is consistent.”

In 1973, President N. Eldon Tanner wrote, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has always taught that the glory of God is intelligence and that a man can be saved no faster than he gains knowledge.” Not only are many members of the Church well educated and lovers of science, but the gospel even teaches us to be lovers of science.

(image credit: euthman)

President Tanner went on to say, “Scientists who acknowledge God as a personal God and who accept the scriptures as the word of God may enjoy all scientific principles and scholastic training and progress as rapidly and as far as any other scientist.” We do not need to disregard religion in order to understand science. Nor is it necessary to separate the two.

The Lord has taught us that we should teach each other and learn “words of wisdom” out of the best books (not necessarily just scripture) by study – but also by faith.

It’s important that we don’t disregard our faith while we are studying. The most influential principle in my course of study in physics and mathematics has been learning that “by the power of the Holy Ghost [I can] know the truth of all things.” (Moroni 10:5; emphasis added) Notice the quantifier used here – all. The lack of any other descriptive term in this promise gives us a clue that Moroni doesn’t mean “all spiritual things” or “all things pertaining to the gospel of Jesus Christ”, but truly that by the power of the Holy Ghost we can know the truth of all things – even “secular” things. I have also come to realize that what President Benson said is true  - that “truth is truth, whether labeled science or religion.” There can be no truth that is not religious, because all truth leads us to our Father in Heaven.

We also need to be careful that we do not neglect to prioritize our study of the gospel. Surely we are encouraged to gain a knowledge of the way things work in this world, but these will do us no good if we don’t have a deep understanding of the most important things – things like our relationship with God and Jesus Christ, and our responsibilities in the plan of salvation.

President Tanner concluded his article with this statement, “Anyone who, with an open mind and a prayerful heart, will give as much attention to the teachings of Jesus Christ as to scientific and academic studies will keep his faith.” And, I would add, their understanding of those scientific and academic things will be multiplied.

There has been a lot of debate in the public eye recently about religion and it is very interesting to see how those who are not religious accuse those who are religious of being close minded. But how are those who ridicule religion not being close minded themselves? President Tanner said of these people, “They say one should keep an open mind and learn all the truth one can, yet they close their minds when it comes to the subject of religion.” It is also interesting that those experts in fields of science should feel bold enough to comment on religion, when if a religious expert comments on science they are ridiculed and mocked. Just because I lack an understanding of the principles of chemistry or biology does not mean those principles are not true. Similarly, a lack of understanding of religion does not make religion false or any more preposterous than the principles of evolution.

(image credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video)

It is interesting to observe how the “truths” of science have changed over time. As we discover “new” truths in science they frequently over turn other “truths” we thought we knew for sure. The whole method of science is that you can never prove something isn’t you can only prove that it is – or, in the absence of a convincing conclusion, you can say there isn’t enough evidence to prove that it is – but just because you can’t prove it is true doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Why would we not extend this method of thinking to religion? And yet people devote a lot of their time and energy to proving that God does not exist, or that one religion or another is not true when in fact, we should be simply dedicating our energies to finding out what is true.

The same scientific method that is used to prove countless scientific principles can be used with religion. The only difference is that the “measurement” can only be found in your own heart and soul. Only you can measure the results from your experiment (although the “fruits” of your experiments may be seen by others – Matt 7:20) President Harold B. Lee quoted Dr. Henry Eyring who said, “I have often met this question: ‘Dr. Eyring, as a scientist, how can you accept revealed religion?’ The answer is simple. The Gospel commits us only to the truth. The same pragmatic tests that apply in science apply to religion. Try it. Does it work?”

I testify that I have tried it. I have tried the gospel. I know that it works. I have also studied science. I know that many of the principles science has discovered are true. I believe that understanding the principles of science can bring us closer to God. I know that we can believe in true science and true religion – and indeed, that is our purpose as Latter-day Saints – to come to understand all truth.

How do you view science and religion? How did you decide that God is real? Did you experiment, just as you would have experimented on an scientific principle?

For more reading on knowledge, science, and religion, see these books/articles:

Find the Answers in the Scriptures – President Harold B. Lee, Dec 1972 First Presidency Message
Right Answers – President N. Eldon Tanner, Oct 1973 First Presidency Message
Your Charge: To Increase in Wisdom and Favor with God and Man – President Ezra Taft Benson, Sept 1979 New Era
Chapter 27: Learning by Study and by Faith – Brigham Young; Teachings of the Presidents of the Church 1997