- Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together, to work together, to labor in the Lord's vineyard to bring souls unto Him. He has prepared the means for us to share the gospel in a multitude of ways, and He will assist us in our labors if we will act in faith to fulfill His work.
Robert D. Hales -General Conference: Strengthening Faith and Testimony
- These conferences are always under the direction of the Lord, guided by His Spirit. We are not assigned specific topics. Over weeks and months, often through sleepless nights, we wait upon the Lord. Through fasting, praying, studying, and pondering, we learn the message that He wants us to give.
- Children and youth love to be included. We make a serious mistake if we assume that the conference is above their intellect and spiritual sensitivity. To the young members of the Church, I promise that if you will listen, you will feel the Spirit well up within you. The Lord will tell you what He wants you to do with your life.
- The Holy Ghost carries the word of the Lord unto our hearts in terms we can understand. When I take notes at conference, I do not always write down exactly what the speaker is saying; I note the personalized direction the Spirit is giving me.
- What is said is not as important as what we hear and what we feel. That is why we make an effort to experience conference in a setting where the still, small voice of the Spirit can be clearly heard, felt, and understood.
Ulisses Soares -Be Meek and Lowly of Heart
- Meekness is a fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, it can most easily be attained if we "live in the Spirit." And to live in the Spirit, our lifestyle must reflect righteousness before the Lord.
- Meekness is vital for us to become more Christlike. Without it we won't be able to develop other important virtues. Being meek does not mean weakness, but id does mean behaving with goodness and kindness, showing strength, serenity, healthy self-worth, and self-control.
- We are blessed to be born with the seed of meekness in our hearts. We need to understand that it is not possible to grow and develop that seed in the twinkling of an eye but rather through the process of time. Christ asks us to "take up [our] cross daily," meaning that it must be a constant focus and desire.
- "It is our duty to try to be perfect, ... to improve each day, and look upon our course last week and do things better this week; do things better today than we did them yesterday.
- The first step to becoming meek is to improve day by day.
- "If the husband can live with his wife one day without quarrelling or without treating anyone unkindly or without grieving the Spirit of God ... he is so far perfect. Then let him try to be the same the next day. But supposing he should fail in this his next day's attempt, that is no reason why he should not succeed in doing so the third day."
- Another important step to becoming meek is learning how to control our temper.
- Another step to attain meekness is to become humble.
- "Be thou humble and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers."
- The humble are meek and have the ability to influence others to be the same. God's promise to the humble is that He will lead them by the hand. I truly believe that we will avoid detours and sadness in our lives as long as we walk hand in hand with the Lord.
Carole M. Stephens -Do We Know What We Have?
- "Every man or woman that has ever entered into the church of God and been baptized for the remission of sins has a right to revelation, a right to the Spirit of God.
- The Holy Ghost is not restricted to men, nor to apostles or prophets it belongs to every faithful man and woman, and to every child who is old enough to receive the gospel of Christ.
- The endowment is literally a gift of power.
- We need the opportunity to renew our covenants each week as we partake of the sacrament. Latter-day prophets and apostles have taught that when we worthily partake of the sacrament, we can renew not only our baptismal covenant but "all covenants entered into with the Lord."
- These priesthood ordinances and covenants provide access to the fullness of the blessings promised to us by God, which are made possible by the Savior's Atonement. They arm sons and daughters of God with power, God's power, and provide us with the opportunity to receive eternal life--to return to God's presence and live with Him in His eternal family.
- Sisters who don't have priesthood holders in their homes need never feel alone. They are blessed and strengthened through the ordinances they have received and the covenants they keep. They should not hesitate to reach out when help is needed.
- "Our Father in Heaven is generous with His power. all men and all women have access to this power for help in our own lives.
- We all need each other. Sons of God need daughters of God, and daughters of God need sons of God.
- We have different gifts and different strengths.
Edward Dube -Look Ahead and Believe
- "In the service of the Lord, it is not where you serve but how."
- We should all be "anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of [our] own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness."
- "The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future."
- "Stand close together and lift where we stand."
David A. Bednar -The Windows of Heaven
- As we live the law of tithing, we often receive significant but subtle blessings that are not always what we expect and easily can be overlooked.
- Often as we teach and testify about the law of tithing, we emphasize the immediate, dramatic, and readily recognizable temporal blessings that we receive. And surely such blessings do occur. Yet some of the diverse blessings we obtain as we are obedient to this commandment are significant but subtle. Such blessings can be discerned only if we are both spiritually attentive and observant.
- A grateful person is rich in contentment. An ungrateful person suffers in the poverty of endless discontentment.
- Assurance, peace, faith, and hope initially might not seem like the blessings warriors in battle might want, but they were precisely the blessings these valiant young men needed to press forward and prevail physically and spiritually.
- First, the church lives within its means and does not spend more than it receives. Second, a portion of the annual income is set aside as a reserve for contingencies and unanticipated needs.
- Your faith strengthens my faith. Your devotion makes me more devoted. And your goodness and willing obedience to the law of tithing inspires me to be a better man, husband, father, and Church leader.
- The honest payment of tithing is much more than a duty; it is an important step in the process of personal sanctification. To those of you who pay your tithing, I commend you.
Dieter F. Uchtdorf -Come, Join with Us
- At a time when many churches throughout the world are experiencing significant decreases in numbers, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--though small in comparison with many others--is one of the fastest growing churches in the world.
- Believing in God is commendable, but most people want to do more than listen to inspirational sermons or dream of their mansions above. They want to put their faith into practice. They want to roll up their sleeves and become engaged in this great cause.
- In this Church that honors personal agency so strongly, that was restored by a young man who asked questions and sought answers, we respect those who honestly search for truth. It may break our hearts when their journey takes them away from the Church we love and the truth we have found, but we honor their right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience, just as we claim that privilege for ourselves.
- Sometimes there is a difference of opinion as to what the "facts" really mean. A question that creates doubt in some can, after careful investigation, build faith in others.
- I suppose the Church would be perfect only if it were run by perfect beings. God is perfect, and His doctrine is pure. But He works through us--His imperfect children--and imperfect people make mistakes.
- It is unfortunate that some have stumbled because of mistakes made by men. But in spite of this, the eternal truth of the restored gospel found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not tarnished, diminished, or destroyed.
- This is the Church of Jesus Christ. God will not allow His Church to drift from its appointed course or fail to fulfill its divine destiny.
- It's natural to have questions--the acorn of honest inquiry has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding.
- One of the purposes of the Church is to nurture and cultivate the seed of faith--even in the sometimes sandy soil of doubt and uncertainty. Faith is to hope for things which are not seen but which are true.
- We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Brothers and sisters, dear friends, we need your unique talents and perspectives. The diversity of persons and people all around the globe is a strength of this Church.
- The Church is designed to nourish the imperfect, the struggling, and the exhausted. It is filled with people who desire with all their heart to keep the commandments, even if they haven't mastered them yet.
- If you define hypocrite as someone who fails to live up perfectly to what he or she believes, then we are all hypocrites. None of us is quite as Christlike as we know we should be. But we earnestly desire to overcome our faults and the tendency to sin. With our heart and soul we yearn to become better with the help of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
- The Church of Jesus Christ seems to attract the kind and the caring, the honest and the industrious.
- If you expect to find perfect people here, you will be disappointed.
- If you seek truth, meaning, and a way to transform faith into action; if you are looking for a place of belonging: Come, join with us!
- If you are tempted to give up: Stay yet a little longer. There is room for you here.
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
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