Category Archives: General Conference Book Club

General Conference Book Club Week 3: Elder A. Packer

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01_05_packe It’s Week 3– So glad you’re back!  This week, we will study a beautiful and simple talk by Elder Alan F. Packer of the Quorum of the Seventy.  This talk, “Finding Strength in Challenging Times” was part of the Saturday morning conference session; it was actually right before Elder Christofferson’s talk that we just studied in Week 2.  Its basic message is that we are capable of receiving personal revelation and building a faith-filled testimony, both of which will give us the strength we need to face challenges in our lives and in the future.  The talk is rather brief, but I love the clear and powerful truths and promises he expresses.  I’m excited to read your insights and personal experiences with these principles.

>>Click here to read the talk “Finding Strength in Challenging Times!” by Elder Alan F. Packer.<<

As in weeks past, just leave your comments here on this post.  The previous weeks’ posts will remain open indefinitely, so you can always return to catch up or revisit those great talks as well.

If this is your first visit to the General Conference Book Club, click here to learn more about it. You’re welcome to join us at any point along the way.

In keeping with Elder Packer’s talk, I wanted to share this short video put out by the Church testifying that the gospel IS simple and God teaches us on our level.  Maybe I was particularly moved by it since I’m currently serving as the Primary president, but it’s a beautiful testimony of how personal and uncomplicated the gift of gospel knowledge can be.

General Conference Book Club Week 2: Elder Christofferson

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01_06_chrisWelcome back to the General Conference Book Club.   If you’re new to the book club, you can find details by clicking here. I can’t tell you how happy it made me to see so many people excited to participate last week.  Your insights were phenomenal.  For those who read and did not comment, we would love to hear from you too.  Your comments can be as simple or as elaborate as you feel compelled to share.  I felt strengthened just knowing that I was part of a “team” of individuals who were sincerely studying and trying to find personal application from the words of the living prophets and apostles.  Loved it.

The comments will remain open on the Week 1 talk by Elder Holland, so if you 1) are just joining us, 2) want to catch up, or 3) haven’t had a chance to read everyone’s insights, feel free to go back there.

So for week 2, we’ll turn our attention to a talk given during the Saturday morning session of General Conference, by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  He spoke about the blessings, promises, and protection assured to us through covenant keeping.  It’s a great talk.  I’m excited to study it this week, think about it, tie it into my scripture study, and then hear what you have to say about it.

>>Click here to find the talk entitled “The Power of Covenants” by Elder D. Todd Christofferson<<

His talk addresses covenants ranging from baptism to the temple, and the important role of the Holy Spirit in keeping those covenants.  The video below is a clip from (I believe) the PBS special done about Mormons, and experts both from within and outside of the Mormon faith define covenants and what role they play in temple worship.  I thought I’d throw it in as an additional resource as we study Elder Christofferson’s talk.

A few basic details (where there’s been a little confusion):

1.    Just a reminder that if you would like to get an update when others make comments on this talk/post, you have three choices:  A.) Under the Actions list below, click on “Comments RSS”  to subscribe to comments, or B.) When you leave a comment, before you click the “Submit comment” button, click the little box below it that says “Notify me…”.  If you don’t see either of those options, click on the title of this post; that will put it in a page by itself and you should find everything I referred to toward the bottom of the page.  Or C.) Come back to the post as often as you’d like and just read the latest comments.

2.  Leave your comments about this talk here on this post.

If you are looking at my main blog page where this post is followed by several other posts below it, you simply click the number next to the word “Comments:” directly beneath it,  or if you’re looking at this post in its own page, you can just type in the empty box entitled “Leave a comment.”

General Conference Book Club Week 1: Elder Holland

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04_05_hollaHappy Easter!  And welcome to the General Conference Book Club– Week 1.  It seemed fitting today to start off our study of all of the General Conference talks with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s poignant sermon about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His unique power to help anyone who ever feels alone.  The goal is to read one General Conference talk a week and discuss it together as an on-line “book club.”  A new talk will be posted each Sunday.

Click here to find the talk entitled “None Were with Him” by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

I realized that it’s not necessary for me to write up any post about my thoughts on the talk of the week.  All of us (including me) can just come to the Sunday post (this one) at anytime during the week and share thoughts, findings, favorite quotes, applications, even questions from this talk. Personally, I think it would be a good idea to subscribe to comments from the post so that we can read each other’s insights and have a “real book club” conversation.  (There are two ways to do this:  1. Below this post click on “Comments RSS” below the “Actions” list to subscribe to an RSS feed for comments, or 2. click the little box under the “Submit Comment” button so that comments are emailed to you.)

My own plan for this week, and for every week of book club, is to let the talk guide my personal scripture study throughout the week.  First I’ll read the talk all the way through, then look up and read all the scripture references he quoted, and then break the talk down into segments to study them carefully and try to find other related scriptures that help me understand it better.  Feel free to share any ideas of how you plan to study or apply the talks we read.  (You’re allowed to do this however you want.  You can have a goal to simply read the talk before the week is over, and that’s good, too.)

Here’s a little button you can put on your own blog if you’d like to.  Feel free to invite friends (the real kind and bloggy kind as well) to participate.  The more the merrier.  You can link it directly to the GCBC page (https://diapersanddivinity.com/gcbc/) since it has all the instructions for the Book Club challenge, plus I’ll put a link there each week to keep track of the talks we have covered.

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And try to comment when you’ve read each article, even something as simple as “I did it.”  Then we have a certain motivation/accountability to each other to meet our goal of reading all the talks from the previous General Conference. The objective is to read the words of the living prophets and learn from them.  Our book club community is for sharing and encouraging, but please don’t feel pressure that you have to come around and make profound insights or write eloquent summaries.  Just show up and be counted!

Here’s a recent video that the Church posted on YouTube as a summary of the main points of Elder Holland’s talk.  It’s beautiful and will get you in the mood to read it: