general conference oct 2018

quote from elder jeffrey r. holland's talk "the ministry of reconciliation" ♥

with baby arriving and all the whirlwind surrounding it, it took me a while to watch the october general conference. being in australia, we have plenty of spoilers before we watch it a week later and wow was there a lot to take in! at this stage (blame it on the new addition to the family) i have only watched the sunday morning session, but my favourite talk was definitely the "role of the book of mormon in conversion" by elder shayne m. bowen telling the most wonderful story of conversion. it is well worth the read (or listen if you please) but here's a part of it below...

As a young missionary going to Chile, I learned a life-changing lesson about the conversion power of the Book of Mormon. Mr. Gonzalez served in a respected position in his church for many years. He had extensive religious training, including a degree in theology. He was quite proud of his biblical expertise. It was obvious to us that he was a religious scholar.

He was well aware of the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they went about their work in his home city of Lima, Peru. He always wanted to meet with them so that he could school them in the Bible.

One day, almost as a gift from heaven, so he thought, two missionaries stopped him in the street and asked if they could come to his home and share the scriptures with him. This was his dream come true! His prayers had been answered. Finally, he could set these misguided young boys straight. He told them that he would be delighted to have them come to his house and discuss the scriptures.

He could hardly wait for his appointment. He was ready to use the Bible to disprove their beliefs. He was confident that the Bible would clearly and articulately point out the error of their ways. The appointed night came, and the missionaries knocked on the door. He was giddy. His moment had finally arrived.

He opened the door and invited the missionaries into his home. One of the missionaries handed him a blue book and bore a sincere testimony that he knew the book contained the word of God. The second missionary added his powerful testimony of the book, testifying that it had been translated by a modern prophet of God named Joseph Smith and that it taught of Christ. The missionaries excused themselves and left his home.

Mr. Gonzalez was so disappointed. But he opened the book, and he started to leaf through its pages. He read the first page. He read page after page after page and didn’t stop until late into the afternoon of the next day. He read the whole book and knew that it was true. He knew what he had to do. He called the missionaries, received the lessons, and gave up the life he had known to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

part of the conference was the huge announcment, that our 3 hour church block will now be reduced to 2 hours as of january 1st next year. wowsers. that blew all of us away... even though there's been rumours galore about it happening for the last year or so, none of us thought it would actually happen! funny thing is, my parents branch has been running on a 2 hour program for the last few years anyway, as their branch is so small that they just didn't have the numbers to run the full thing. so... we are kind of used to it anyway - and now of course dad is making jokes about how much more righteous they are and how the rest of the world is following suit. ;)

i loved this quote from president dallin h. oaks which i think is something we would do well to remember in these times. the lord will not lead us astray and has sent good men to lead his church and guide us home.

i was especially excited to see the announcments of so many new temples, including salvador, my favourite city ever - and auckland new zealand!!

and as usual the memes were flowing fast and strong... this was the best! i was cracking up when i saw it.

general conference? simply the best!