October 1997 General Conference Sunday Morning

James E. Faust -The Weightier Matters of the Law: Judgment, Mercy, and Faith

• Over the centuries dogmatism, coercion, and intolerance have too often polluted the living water of the gospel, which quenches our spiritual thirst eternally. The Savior observed this in His day: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone
• "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel."
• Similarly, Paul said, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."
• There are three sources of guidance for making moral judgments.
• First is the guidance of the Holy Ghost.
• The second source is the wise counsel of priesthood leaders whom the Lord has put in place to guide us.
• Third, the constant demonstration of love should temper all our judgments. 
• "It is an easy thing to believe in the dead prophets, but it is a greater thing to believe in the living prophets."
• True religion is not looking primarily for weaknesses, faults, and errors. It is the spirit of strengthening and overlooking faults even as we would wish our own faults to be overlooked. When we focus our entire attention on what may be wrong rather than what is right, we miss the sublime beauty and essence of the sweet gospel of the Master.
• "Come on, dear brother, since the war is past, For friends at first, are friends again at last."

L. Tom Perry -Receive Truth

• If a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come."
• Mortality is the time to learn first of God and the gospel and to perform the ordinances. After our feet are set firmly on the path to eternal life we can amass more knowledge of the secular things.
• "Take advantage of every opportunity to enlarge your understanding of the gospel. Make the effort to participate in seminary and institute programs."
• It will put a shield of protection around you to keep you free from the temptations and trials of the world.

Harold G. Hillam -Teachers, the Timeless Key

• "We beseech you that whatever may be the methods employed, whatever may be the changes wrought in the fifty years to come, that you never forget for an instant the object of the great Sunday School work, viz: To teach the children the principals of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; to make Latter-day Saints of them."
• We have been blessed with magnificent tools and methods which can be used to assist in teaching, but as with all tools, they are to be used with wisdom and discretion if they are to bless and simplify our lives. Just as fire under control brings so many comforts and benefits, a fire improperly used or out of control wreaks havoc and destruction.
• We are in essence a church of teachers. Regardless of life's circumstances or the nature of one's calling, all members of the Church have the opportunity to teach and to testify. The very nature of our lives bears witness of what we believe and teaches all who come within our sphere of influence.

Jeffrey R. Holland -"He Hath Filled the Hungry with Good Things"

• The absence of spiritual strength, the paucity of spiritual nutrition, was an even more terrible hunger in the modern world.
• In our contemporary success and sophistication we too may walk away from the vitally crucial bread of eternal life; we may actually choose to be spiritually malnourished, willfully indulging in a kind of spiritual anorexia. Like those childish Galileans of old, we may turn up our noses when divine sustenance is placed before us.
• Whoever we are and whatever we reply, His response is always the same: "Come," He says lovingly. "Come, follow me."
• I have always loved that when Matthew records Jesus' great injunction, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," Luke adds the Savior's additional commentary: "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful" --as if to suggest that mercy is at least a beginning synonym for the perfection God has and for which all of us must strive. Mercy, with its sister virtue forgiveness, is at the very heart of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the eternal plan of salvation.
• Now, if you feel too spiritually maimed to come to the feast, please realize that the Church is not a monastery for perfect people, though all of us ought to be striving on the road to godliness. No, at least one aspect of the Church is more like a hospital or an aid station, provided for those who are ill and want to get well, where one can get an infusion of spiritual nutrition and a supply of sustaining water in order to keep on climbing.
• "No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is [against] His character [to do so].
• Those who will receive the Lord Jesus Christ as the source of their salvation will always lie down in green pastures, no matter how barren and bleak the winter has been. And the waters of their refreshment will always be still waters, no matter how turbulent the storms of life.

Gordon B. Hinckley -Look to the Future

• We cannot detract from their accomplishments. We cannot add to their glory. We can only look back with reverence, appreciation, respect, and resolution to build on what they have done.
• The time has now come to turn about and face the future.
• Conversion is more likely to come as a consequence of love. Let us be friendly. Let us be helpful. Let us live the Golden Rule.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

I remember it had a "Lone Ranger" flare to it. Trains, Mountains...fights...but not much beyond that.

-S.N.D