October 1995 General Conference Saturday Afternoon

Thomas S. Monson -The Sustaining of Church Officers

Neal A. Maxwell -"Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father"

• A second group of members are "honorable" but not "valiant." They are not really aware of the gap nor the importance of closing it. These "honorable" individuals are certainly not miserable nor wicked, nor are they unrighteous and unhappy. It is not what they have done but what they have left undone that is amiss. For example, if valiant, they could touch others deeply instead of merely being remembered pleasantly.
• If the Master is a stranger to us, then we will merely end up serving other masters. The sovereignty of these other masters is real, even if it sometimes is subtle, for they do call their cadence. Actually, "we are all enlisted," if only in the ranks of the indifferent.
• Many of us thus have sufficient faith to avoid the major sins of commission, but not enough faith to sacrifice our distracting obsessions or to focus on our omissions.
• Most omissions occur because we fail to get outside ourselves.
• He is only asking us to lose the old self in order to find the new self. It is not a question of one's losing identity but of finding his true identity!
• Thus, brothers an sisters, consecration is not resignation or a mindless caving in. Rather, it is a deliberate expanding outward, making us more honest when we sing, "More used would I be." Consecration, likewise, is not shoulder-shrugging acceptance, but, instead, shoulder-squaring to better bear the yoke.

Dallin H. Oaks -Powerful Ideas

• A life is not a trivial thing, and its passing should not be memorialized with trivial things.
• Knowledge is not of equal value. Some knowledge is more important than others.
• "Love is not just an ecstasy, not just an intense feeling. It is a driving force. It is something that carries us through our life of joyful duty.
• If we remember that we can pray and be heard and helped, we can always withstand that feeling of emptiness.
• "The difference between God and the Devil," he said, "is that God creates and organizes, while the whole study of the Devil is to destroy."
• Remember, our Savior, Jesus Christ, always builds us up and never tears us down.
• "Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can."

Loren C. Dunn -Witnesses

• A person so moved by the Spirit not only knows these things himself, but the Spirit carries them into the hearts of others.
• The witness of the Holy Ghost is even more compelling than the witness of sight.

Ted E. Brewerton -The Book of Mormon: A Sacred Ancient Record

• The sun rises rather quietly, and at times we think that the Lord's voice is that quiet, bu this voice is audible if we will only pray, meditate, and listen as he places clear thoughts in our minds.

Robert D. Hales -Blessings of the Priesthood

• While most of the earth's inhabitants do not recognize this priesthood power, all living creatures are its beneficiaries.
• The blessings of the priesthood are available to everyone.
• You brethren who have the priesthood--magnify it. You who have had the priesthood but have allowed it to lie dormant--reactivate it. You brethren who have never had it--seek diligently to obtain it.

L. Tom Perry -"If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear"

• As technology sweeps through every facet of our lives, changes are occurring so rapidly that it can be difficult for us to keep our lives in balance.
• The Savior made it clear that we cannot place sufficient oil in our preparedness lamps by simply avoiding evil. We must also be anxiously engaged in a positive program of preparation."
• "The Lord will not translate one's good hopes and desires and intentions into works. Each of us must do that for himself."
• We have been instructed for years to follow at least four requirements in preparing for that which is to come.
• First, gain an adequate education.
• Education has, of necessity, become a lifelong pursuit. we must, in our scheduling of time, allot sufficient time to educate ourselves for now and for the future.
• Second, live strictly within your income and save something for a rainy day.
• Third, avoid excessive debt.
• "Live within your means. Get out of debt. Keep out of debt."
• "Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies. ... Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you."
• If you do not have the discipline to control the use of credit cards, it is better not to have them. A well-managed family does not pay interest--it earns it.
• "Thems that understands interest receives it, thems that don't pays it."
• Fourth, acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life.

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi