October 2009 General Conference -Saturday Afternoon

Henry B. Eyring -The Sustaining of Church Officers

Dallin H. Oaks -Love and Law

• "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" the Apostle Paul asked. Not tribulation, not persecution, not peril or the sword. "For I am persuaded," he concluded, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, ... nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God."
• Some seem to value God's love because of their hope that His love is so great and so unconditional that it will mercifully excuse them from obeying His laws. In contrast, those who understand God's plan for His children know that God's laws are invariable, which is another great evidence of His love for His children. Mercy cannot rob justice, and those who obtain mercy are "they who have kept the covenant and observed the commandment."
• We read again and again in the Bible and in modern scriptures of God's anger with the wicked and of His acting in His wrath against those who violate His laws. How are anger and wrath evidence of His love? Joseph Smith taught that God "institute[d] laws whereby [the spirits that He would send into the world] could have a privilege to advance like himself." God's love is so perfect that He lovingly requires us to obey His commandments because He knows that only through obedience to His laws can we become perfect, as He is. For this reason, God's anger and His wrath are not a contradiction of His love but an evidence of His love. Every parent knows that you can love a child totally and completely while still being creatively angry and disappointed at that child's self-defeating behavior.
• God's choicest blessings are clearly contingent upon obedience to God's laws and commandments.
• This great principle helps us understand the why of many things, like justice and mercy balanced by the Atonement. It also explains why God will not forestall the exercise of agency by His children. Agency--our power to choose--is fundamental to the gospel plan that brings us to earth. God does not intervene to forestall the consequences of some persons' choices in order to protect the well-being of other persons--even when they kill, injure, or oppress one another--for this would destroy His plan for our eternal progress. He will bless us to endure the consequences of others' choices, but He will not prevent those choices.
• The effect of God's commandments and laws is not changed to accommodate popular behavior or desires. If anyone thinks that godly or parental love for an individual grants the loved one license to disobey the law, he or she does not understand either love or law.
• Real love does not support self-destructing behavior.

Robert D. Hales -Seeking to Know God, Our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ

• Ask in faith, nothing wavering.
• "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."
• However, we must be careful not to constrain His influence. When we do not do what is right or when our outlook is dominated by skepticism, cynicism, criticism, and irreverence toward others and their beliefs, the Spirit cannot be with us.
• Brothers and sisters, you may already know, deep in your soul, that God lives. You may not know all about Him yet and do not understand all His ways, but the light of belief is within you, waiting to be awakened and intensified by the Spirit of God and the Light of Christ, which you are born with.

Jorge F. Zeballos -Attempting the Impossible

• The rich rewards come only to the strenuous strugglers.
• The Lord does not expect that wed o what we cannot achieve.
• Immediately after teaching that "it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength," King Benjamin indicated that "it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize." God will not require more than the best we can give because that would not be just, but neither can He accept less than that because that would not be just either. Therefore, let us always give the best we can in the service of God and our fellowmen. Let us serve in our families and in our callings in the Church in the best manner possible. Let us do the best we can and each day be a little better.

Tad R. Callister -Joseph Smith--Prophet of the Restoration

• God still speaks to man today--that the heavens are not close.
• Through Joseph Smith have been restored all the powers, keys, teachings, and ordinances necessary for salvation and exaltation. You cannot go anywhere else in the world and get that. It is not to be found in any other church. It is not to be found in any philosophy of man or scientific digest or individual pilgrimage, however intellectual it may seem. Salvation is to be found in one place alone, as so designated by the Lord Himself when He said that this is "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth."

Kent D. Watson -Being Temperate in All Things

• Being temperate is to use moderation in all things or to exercise self-control.
• "I trust that ye are not lifted up in the pride of your hearts; yea, I trust that ye have not set your hearts upon riches and the vain things of the world."
• A temperate soul--one who is humble and full of love--is also a person of increased spiritual strength. With increased spiritual strength, we are able to develop self-mastery and to live with moderation. We learn to control, or temper, our anger, vanity, and pride. With increased spiritual strength, we can protect ourselves from the dangerous excesses and destructive addictions of today's world.

Neil L. Andersen -"Repent ... That I May Heal You"

• When we sin, we turn away from God. When we repent, we turn back toward God.
• The invitation to repent is rarely a voice of chastisement but rather a loving appeal to turn around and to "re-turn" toward God. It is the beckoning of a loving Father and His Only Begotten Son to be more than we are, to reach up to a higher way of life, to change, and to feel the happiness of keeping the commandments.
• "Do not endeavor to excuse yourself in the least point." When we "pull the shades down," we stop believing that spiritual voice inviting us to change. We pray but we listen less. Our prayers lack that faith that leads to repentance.
• The scriptures do not say that we will forget our forsaken sins in mortality. Rather, they declare that the Lord will forget.
• The forsaking of sins implies never returning. Forsaking requires time. To help us, the Lord at times allows the residue of our mistakes to rest in our memory. It is a vital part of our mortal learning.

Boyd K. Packer -Prayer and Promptings

• No Father would send His children off to a distant dangerous land for a lifetime of testing where Lucifer was known to roam free without first providing them with a personal power of protection. He would also supply them with means to communicate with Him from Father to child and from child to Father. Every child of our Father sent to earth is provided with the Spirit of Christ, or the Light of Christ. We are, none of us, left here alone without hope of guidance and redemption.
•  You can know the things you need to know. Pray that you will learn to receive that inspiration an remain worthy to receive it. Keep that channel--your mind--clean and free from the clutter of the world.
• One of the adversary's sharpest tools is to convince us that we are no longer worthy to pray. No matter who you are or what you may have done, you can always pray.
• When temptation comes, you can invent a delete key in your mind--perhaps the words from a favorite hymn. Your mind is in charge; your body is the instrument of your mind. When some unworthy thought pushes into your mind, replace it with your delete key. Worthy music is powerful and can help you control your thoughts.
• "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

Until you next see these words;

I'll be watching the leaves.

Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi