“[Our] Walk and Talk”
I love General Conference. I’m always a bit saddened when the spiritual feast comes to an end and the “conference is adjourned for six months.”
However, hasn’t the feast just begun?
Conference talks are now available for review on lds.org. We will all be receiving our Conference issue of the Ensign in a few short weeks. Will we continue to study and ponder the words of our prophets and other inspired leaders?
President Ezra Taft Benson (13th President of the Church) once said:
For the next six months, your conference edition of the Ensign should stand next to your standard works and be referred to frequently. As my dear friend and brother Harold B. Lee said, we should let these conference addresses ‘be the guide to [our] walk and talk during the next six months. These are the important matters the Lord sees fit to reveal to this people in this day.’
Following the example of a former bishop of ours, we plan on buying each member of our family a copy of the Conference Ensign, so we can study the addresses together as a family. My husband plans to buy the cassette tapes so he can be fed as he drives to and from work [our car is old — it has no CD player!]. I will probably do a combination of reading and listening to rebroadcasts on my computer.
Whatever medium we choose, I hope we can all continue to feast on the counsel we received in General Conference this past weekend, making the words of our leaders our “walk and talk.”
October 6th, 2006 11:35
I confess that I often get more out of reading the talks than listening to them. I have the opinion that many of the talks were prepared with that in mind. They seem to be prepared to be read more than to be listened to.
I am sure there are those that disagree, but I often look forward more to the Ensign that comes after conference more so than conference itself.
October 6th, 2006 18:23
Reading often gives me insights that I didn’t have while listening. But it can go the other way for me, too. Sometimes when I listen to scripture tapes, for example, I notice something different.
I think there are speakers who deliberately design their talks for reading — Elder Nelson, for example, always has footnotes with lots of scripture references and other talks and articles. Elder Perry even mentioned in one of his talks a year or two ago that he deliberately didn’t mention the sources of his quotes so we would study them later.
October 7th, 2006 08:21
For me listening to conference gives me a desire to read it later. I have found that when I am unable to listen/watch I am less likely to look forward to reading the talks later. (I know this is a personal fault, but it is what I have figured out about myself!) I think sometimes that there are things I miss if I don’t hear the speaker. Tones of voice, emphasis, etc. But some talks require that I read them to really ‘get’ what was said.
I feel very blessed that I have the opportunity to listen/watch and read.
October 7th, 2006 17:57
Karen,
Interesting insight. I think listening helps whet our appetites, no? I really think there is significant benefit to doing both.
October 7th, 2006 22:10
This year I took my 6 year old daughter with me to the Stake Center to “listen to the prophet” on a big screen. We have conference on TV at home but with 5 little ones distractions are a given. So I took my daughter with me and my friend and her daughter and we dressed up in our best clothes and went to hear the prophet. My daughter and I made a list of different key words… “Prophet”, “Jesus”, etc, and we made a column next to each word that my daughter would put a check mark in every time she heard those words spoken. She was excited when the Prophet spoke and loved to stand and sing the hymns. I found that this was the most enjoyable session of conference for me… no distractions, I was focusing clearly on the messages and listening for the promptings and feelings of the Spirit, and I was fed spiritually. I left feeling good inside. Often when I listen or try to listen on the computer or TV at home, I am too distracted by too many things to feel the spirit or to be in tune with what I need to hear. I hunger for the Conference report and pour over it as I do my scriptures. I look forward to this next Ensign and can’t wait to read the talks again! I find that I learn different things through reading and listening. Some people are auditory learners, others are visual, some are kinesthetic, some are a combo of a few, etc. Having both the opportunity to hear AND read the words, we are able to “hear” different messages each time. I think they are both equally superb and I love them both! I am grateful to parents who instilled in me a love for General Conference and for the words of our living prophets.
October 8th, 2006 00:16
Stephanie,
General Conference truly is such a blessing!!!
Thanks for sharing this experience! If you truly can’t wait until the Ensign comes out, you can print talks out and/or listen on lds.org.