General Conference Talks - Please post your favorite here

[Godislove]

....or any thoughts you have regarding certain talks.

[Teancum1]

....or any thoughts you have regarding certain talks.

Carl Cook’s talk about conducting our meetings as the Spirit directs was refreshing. (He will likely have to do a re-do like Elder Poehlman did years ago- not enough correlation)
He seemed sincere while teaching the scriptural based importance of following the Spirit in church.

[CuriousThinker]

I really enjoyed Elder Gong discussing ministering.
The gap between those who say they minister and those who say they are ministered to.

[JK4Woods]

....or any thoughts you have regarding certain talks.

Carl Cook’s talk about conducting our meetings as the Spirit directs was refreshing. (He will likely have to do a re-do like Elder Poehlman did years ago- not enough correlation)
He seemed sincere while teaching the scriptural based importance of following the Spirit in church.

I liked his message…. Tho he did prepare his remarks, stuck to the script he wrote, and read it with no room for practicing what he was taught by E. Packer…

“Do as I say, not as I do..”

[Teancum1]

....or any thoughts you have regarding certain talks.

Carl Cook’s talk about conducting our meetings as the Spirit directs was refreshing. (He will likely have to do a re-do like Elder Poehlman did years ago- not enough correlation)
He seemed sincere while teaching the scriptural based importance of following the Spirit in church.

I liked his message…. Tho he did prepare his remarks, stuck to the script he wrote, and read it with no room for practicing what he was taught by E. Packer…

“Do as I say, not as I do..”

Good point.

[Teancum1]

Elder Haynie- never seen him before- talking about the importance of following the living prophet- saying that it’s more important to follow the living prophet than those prophets who’ve gone before.
The brainwashing in this talk …ugh.

Not my favorite.

[RosyPosy]

I normal never cared for Eyering. But I liked his message of peace through Christ.

[Wolfwoman]

Pres. Nelson looks like he’s doing okay. Walking briskly.

[OldGlory]

I really enjoyed Elder Gong discussing ministering.
The gap between those who say they minister and those who say they are ministered to.

How about him saying those that understand ministering are now doing more than before, and those that don’t understand it are doing less. Is this a form of passive aggressiveness to make you feel guilty? I already get enough of that from my MIL.

[Godislove]

I really enjoyed Elder Gong discussing ministering.
The gap between those who say they minister and those who say they are ministered to.

How about him saying those that understand ministering are now doing more than before, and those that don’t understand it are doing less. Is this a form of passive aggressiveness to make you feel guilty? I already get enough of that from my MIL.

My sweetheart says in our ward ministering from the women is about 90% compared to the men about 30%.
Maybe it's different elsewhere but in my own experience it seems that when it got changed to ministering people took it as a license to do much less.

[Lizzy60]

Elder Haynie- never seen him before- talking about the importance of following the living prophet- saying that it’s more important to follow the living prophet than those prophets who’ve gone before.
The brainwashing in this talk …ugh.

Not my favorite.

He is a General Authority Seventy. Serves as the North America Northeast Area President.

[HeberC]

Elder Cook talked about gathering Israel. He made a clear distinction, with his body language, when he said, 'by our beloved prophet', stretching out his right arm, then, 'and by the lord', stretching out his left arm.
Elder Bednar said RMN is a prophet, then he quoted RMN speaking for himself.
According to them, RMN is a prophet in name only.
Elder Bednar's talk was nice, even though he is still confused about the first and second comforter.

I really liked the first talk about the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine of Christ. I wish he had said that the Book of Mormon was a "testimony of Christ" instead of 'knowledge of Christ'.

Then, some guy mentioned 'the Lord's mouthpiece'. Where does that term come from? Is that some idea from the 'philosophies of man'?

[ransomme]

I really enjoyed Elder Gong discussing ministering.
The gap between those who say they minister and those who say they are ministered to.

How about him saying those that understand ministering are now doing more than before, and those that don’t understand it are doing less. Is this a form of passive aggressiveness to make you feel guilty? I already get enough of that from my MIL.

Is it like understanding what Apostles should be doing per the scriptures both ancient and modern?

[Godislove]

Elder Cook talked about gathering Israel. He made a clear distinction, with his body language, when he said, 'by our beloved prophet', stretching out his right arm, then, 'and by the lord', stretching out his left arm.
Elder Bednar said RMN is a prophet, then he quoted RMN speaking for himself.
According to them, RMN is a prophet in name only.
Elder Bednar's talk was nice, even though he is still confused about the first and second comforter.

I really liked the first talk about the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine of Christ. I wish he had said that the Book of Mormon was a "testimony of Christ" instead of 'knowledge of Christ'.

Then, some guy mentioned 'the Lord's mouthpiece'. Where does that term come from? Is that some idea from the 'philosophies of man'?

I think it's from this: D & C 1:38

38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

[Teancum1]

So Carl Cook speaks about following the Spirit more in general - but as was pointed out delivered a prepared message.
Then Quentin Cook speaks on ministering which is a highly correlated program- even to the point of telling you who you are to minister to.
How about encourage following the Spirit and following Jesus Christ. Pretty sure Jesus wasn’t “assigned” 3-4 people that he was supposed to see.
Which is it- do we follow the Spirit and Jesus or wait to be assigned who to see, what to speak on, etc?

[ransomme]

Elder Cook talked about gathering Israel. He made a clear distinction, with his body language, when he said, 'by our beloved prophet', stretching out his right arm, then, 'and by the lord', stretching out his left arm.
Elder Bednar said RMN is a prophet, then he quoted RMN speaking for himself.
According to them, RMN is a prophet in name only.
Elder Bednar's talk was nice, even though he is still confused about the first and second comforter.

I really liked the first talk about the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine of Christ. I wish he had said that the Book of Mormon was a "testimony of Christ" instead of 'knowledge of Christ'.

Then, some guy mentioned 'the Lord's mouthpiece'. Where does that term come from? Is that some idea from the 'philosophies of man'?

I think it's from this: D & C 1:38

38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

That scripture is twisted. For one, anyone can become a servant of Christ, and the difference is the Spirit. If things are not said in Christ's name and by the Spirit then it does not qualify.

[Godislove]

So Carl Cook speaks about following the Spirit more in general - but as was pointed out delivered a prepared message.
Then Quentin Cook speaks on ministering which is a highly correlated program- even to the point of telling you who you are to minister to.
How about encourage following the Spirit and following Jesus Christ. Pretty sure Jesus wasn’t “assigned” 3-4 people that he was supposed to see.
Which is it- do we follow the Spirit and Jesus or wait to be assigned who to see, what to speak on, etc?

I think also though that if everything was left up to being done completely by the spirit and not assigned, some people would likely get left out or not ministered to. Assignments are a way of trying to assure that all get ministered to....unless it's unwanted of course.

[Godislove]

Elder Cook talked about gathering Israel. He made a clear distinction, with his body language, when he said, 'by our beloved prophet', stretching out his right arm, then, 'and by the lord', stretching out his left arm.
Elder Bednar said RMN is a prophet, then he quoted RMN speaking for himself.
According to them, RMN is a prophet in name only.
Elder Bednar's talk was nice, even though he is still confused about the first and second comforter.

I really liked the first talk about the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine of Christ. I wish he had said that the Book of Mormon was a "testimony of Christ" instead of 'knowledge of Christ'.

Then, some guy mentioned 'the Lord's mouthpiece'. Where does that term come from? Is that some idea from the 'philosophies of man'?

I think it's from this: D & C 1:38

38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

That scripture is twisted. For one, anyone can become a servant of Christ, and the difference is the Spirit. If things are not said in Christ's name and by the Spirit then it does not qualify.

Maybe that's why it says 'servants' instead if servant.

[Teancum1]

So Carl Cook speaks about following the Spirit more in general - but as was pointed out delivered a prepared message.
Then Quentin Cook speaks on ministering which is a highly correlated program- even to the point of telling you who you are to minister to.
How about encourage following the Spirit and following Jesus Christ. Pretty sure Jesus wasn’t “assigned” 3-4 people that he was supposed to see.
Which is it- do we follow the Spirit and Jesus or wait to be assigned who to see, what to speak on, etc?

I think also though that if everything was left up to being done completely by the spirit and not assigned, some people would likely get left out or not ministered to. Assignments are a way of trying to assure that all get ministered to....unless it's unwanted of course.

True friendship and kindness is what should be practiced among the Saints. I’m not sure that Jesus had a ministering assignment or Joseph Smith etc.

The idea is a good idea, but in practice it is highly dysfunctional. I reach out to many people that I know are struggling and yet they aren’t assigned to me. I do not report these interactions as it is a personal ministry and hopefully blesses them as well to know that someone reaches out because they want to and are not a project of assignment.

Do not your alms before men. I do not visit my assigned families on a monthly basis. I feel that the principle is that we should be serving whoever is in front of us.

Again I am not against ministering, just the heavily correlated way the church does it.

[silverado]

So Carl Cook speaks about following the Spirit more in general - but as was pointed out delivered a prepared message.
Then Quentin Cook speaks on ministering which is a highly correlated program- even to the point of telling you who you are to minister to.
How about encourage following the Spirit and following Jesus Christ. Pretty sure Jesus wasn’t “assigned” 3-4 people that he was supposed to see.
Which is it- do we follow the Spirit and Jesus or wait to be assigned who to see, what to speak on, etc?

I think also though that if everything was left up to being done completely by the spirit and not assigned, some people would likely get left out or not ministered to. Assignments are a way of trying to assure that all get ministered to....unless it's unwanted of course.

Yes. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. As it is, some people get left out anyway, because some of us don't minister very well.

[Teancum1]

So Carl Cook speaks about following the Spirit more in general - but as was pointed out delivered a prepared message.
Then Quentin Cook speaks on ministering which is a highly correlated program- even to the point of telling you who you are to minister to.
How about encourage following the Spirit and following Jesus Christ. Pretty sure Jesus wasn’t “assigned” 3-4 people that he was supposed to see.
Which is it- do we follow the Spirit and Jesus or wait to be assigned who to see, what to speak on, etc?

I think also though that if everything was left up to being done completely by the spirit and not assigned, some people would likely get left out or not ministered to. Assignments are a way of trying to assure that all get ministered to....unless it's unwanted of course.

Yes. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. As it is, some people get left out anyway, because some of us don't minister very well.

So that’s the real question. Do we really want to minister the way the Savior does or not? I personally do not like the way ministering is structured and when I served as a bishop, I tried to change it. Personal agency should be developed. Why does the program have to be done exactly the same everywhere- we are capable of serving members, nonmembers, everyone. How did Jesus minister? It wasn’t the way that we do it.

Correlation has negatively impacted how the Spirit works in our wards, stakes, homes and individual lives, IMO.

[Atrasado]

Elder Haynie's talk was completely riddled with false doctrine.

The Audit Report made me throw up, spiritually. If we were a Church of true saints the leadership would have already been thrown out of the Church just for Ensign Peak, let alone the numerous other false and ungodly things they do.

[Teancum1]

Elder Haynie's talk was completely riddled with false doctrine.

The Audit Report made me throw up, spiritually. If we were a Church of true saints the leadership would have already been thrown out of the Church just for Ensign Peak, let alone the numerous other false and ungodly things they do.

Not even a blink of an eye or a peep about shell companies, financial misdeeds. The matter is closed. TBMs do no even know or care about any false or ungodly things the brethren do. If they do, they quickly rationalize or through cognitive dissonance attribute any misdeed as them “seeing around corners”.

[silverado]

I think also though that if everything was left up to being done completely by the spirit and not assigned, some people would likely get left out or not ministered to. Assignments are a way of trying to assure that all get ministered to....unless it's unwanted of course.

Yes. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. As it is, some people get left out anyway, because some of us don't minister very well.

So that’s the real question. Do we really want to minister the way the Savior does or not? I personally do not like the way ministering is structured and when I served as a bishop, I tried to change it. Personal agency should be developed. Why does the program have to be done exactly the same everywhere- we are capable of serving members, nonmembers, everyone. How did Jesus minister? It wasn’t the way that we do it.

Correlation has negatively impacted how the Spirit works in our wards, stakes, homes and individual lives, IMO.

I think the ministering program we have in the church is just 'ministering for beginners'. We should start there and make it better, not stop there.

[endlessQuestions]

The patriarchal blessing talk. Excellent, I thought.