General Conference Pt. 1

This last weekend (April 6-7) was the LDS General Conference. And if there's one thing about my church that I love is that General Conference comes every six months and we are able to hear what we need to hear for the the upcoming year. We hear from our prophet and president of the church, Thomas S. Monson. And this past conference was, for me anyway, much needed. There were many talks about things that have been talked about before, but there is always a reason for this. It's because we still need to hear about this things; we still haven't overcome the challenges and so we still need to hear how we are loved by our Heavenly Father and so need to hear how we can overcome our challenges.

Some of my favorite talks from this past weekend were by M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Enrique R. Falaballa of the First Quorum of the Seventy.

Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk was about the work and glory of God. The title of Elder Ballard's talk is had actually reminded me of a scripture from the Pearl of Great Price: Moses 1:39. "For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of many." A lot of what I remembered from this particular talk was that the priesthood power that is given to worthy male members cannot fully function without the woman in a man's life.

"In the revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith in section 81 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord explains that the power of the priesthood is to be used to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees” (verse 5)."

Elder Ballard then gave an analogy of what this reminded him of: a young girl explaining to her grandfather her second-grade science project-that of growing a tomato plant from one little seed.

She then explained how if this one little seed grew and was well cared for, it was have many tomatoes grow from it, and all of their seeds could do the same. Millions of tomatoes could come from one little seed. The little girl then explained how she had almost killed her tomato plant. She had left it in a dark room and had forgotten to water it. After a while, once she remembered she had a tomato plant, she came back to see that it was wilted and looked dead. She told her mother about this, almost in tears about killing her little tomato plant, when her mother suggested that her plant wasn't dead, it only looked like it. If they watered it, and gave it the sunlight it needed, her tomato plant would be healthy again.

Elder Ballard then told us how we, as spirit children of our Heavenly Father, we are just like that little girl's tomato plant. We are so FULL of potential, unlimited, even divine potential! But if we drift away from this gospel of Christ, if we let ourselves fall away from the light and the living waters of Christ, we can end up like the tomato plant, wilted and nearly dead. Those that have the priesthood, but do not do everything that they can to use it to it's full potential deny themselves, and their families, the blessings that are inherent in the power of the priesthood. They and their families are deprived of all the blessings, the light, and the living water that we need as children of our Heavenly Father.

The main reason that I love this talk is because of the emphasis it puts on USING priesthood power for the helping and serving of others. The men are to use this power to help others, not to let it just sit and look awesome. It is a tool for service, not a trophy. It is to be used as our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ would use it: for the serving and succoring of others.

Now I would continue onto Elder Falaballa's talk, but I honestly believe that this is a good stopping point. So next post will be about Elder Falaballa's talk...and I just like writing Elder Falaballa's name. :)