Isn’t General Conference great? My testimony is always renewed, and I walk away with a list of items to work on implementing that I know will bring more power and blessings into my life. I am so grateful for living prophets and apostles. I know God lives and speaks to us today through His servants.
After 9 semi-annual conferences, I’m no longer going to host the online General Conference Book Club here on Diapers and Divinity, but I still hope that people will run with the idea and use it either for personal study or to do a collaborative study with friends. Here’s how it works:
- When general conference is over, study one talk each week until the next general conference. It just so happens that in the four general sessions of conference (not priesthood or women’s sessions), there are usually almost exactly the number of talks as there are weeks until the next general conference, so it makes for a really easy fit. So approximately 25 talks and about 25 weeks to study them.
- You can simply read the talk, or you can mark it up and study it and ponder it throughout the week. Write your thoughts in your journal. Look up all the scriptures quoted in the talk as part of your scripture study for the week. Find ways to apply the teachings in your life.
- If you decide to get together with others, either online on among friends, you can share your thoughts about the talk, share testimony, and share related experiences and goals. You can meet weekly, which is fairly easy to do online, or you can meet once a month and discuss the 4+ talks for that month. If you do get together as friends, it could be fun to meet up at a favorite restaurant, get together at a home and have refreshments, or tie it in with another fun activity like a game night or something. For an online book club, you can do it on your own blog, or use other social media outlets like Facebook (even creating a group or page), Instagram, or even Twitter. (#gcbc) 🙂
All recent conference talks are available on gc.lds.org for viewing, reading, listening, or sharing, plus they are always published in the general conference editions of the Ensign.
This is what President Monson said during the closing remarks of October 2012 conference:
“I know you will agree with me that the messages have been inspiring. Our hearts have been touched, and our testimonies of this divine work have been strengthened. As we’ve felt the spirit of the Lord, may we long remember what we’ve heard these last two days. I urge you to study the messages further when they are printed…“
I know I have been blessed as I’ve studied the words from conference and tried to understand them, apply them, and internalize them. Whether you do a book club or not, please make a goal to make these talks a priority over the next six months. You won’t regret it.
Diapers and Divinity 
I came over from Mina’s blog. I’m so excited about this! Thanks!
I sang in with the Tab Choir for 10 years. I love this site.
I’m also excited. This is already a part of my daily scripture study routine but I am very excited to hear from others. Printing my week one article immediately after this post!!
What a wonderful idea!!! i’d love to join in!! thank you for putting this together. I love week 1 already…i think i’ve replayed his talk about 10 times on my TV. I just can’t get enough of it….every time i learn something new. ♥
This is a great great great idea! I’m in!
Oh I forgot to update my Google Reader (despite your reminders!) and am just catching up here. I am so excited about this idea. You amaze me!
I followed your link from Mormon Mommy Blogs. This is a great way to get reading those talks. I also love the idea of sharing thoughts on their words. I will defiantly be participating.
I was in need of this talk. I was feeling a little alone in the world at the moment and this gave me some things to think about and to look deeper into my life to see what I can do to change some things.
This is a brilliant idea! I can’t wait to participate. I think I followed a link, from a friend, from a friend, from a friend. But no matter how I got here, I’m sharing this idea with my friends, hope they can stop by!
Thank you!
Kristin
“None Were with Him” Every quote, every paragraph seemed to have significance to me but one thought that I needed to hear and consider in my life was: when Peter denied Christ ‘thrice’ Elder Holland made a point to acknowledge that, “we don’t know all that was going on here, nor do we know of protective counsel which the Savior may have given to His Apostles privately…”, this spoke loud and clear to the commandment of not judging. We really DON”T know until we have walked in anothers shoes. How grateful I am that I will be judged perfectly by a loving Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ will stand with me as my mediator.
This seems like a great idea, my husband is the dreaded word “inactive”, so I sometimes feel a little vacant when it comes to finding people to engage in this kind of conversation. My life has not been easy and I have a lot of questions about the church and how it works for me. Am I still invited to be part of the group?
Absolutely. Glad to have you! Just hop over to the Sunday posts to see any of the articles and read the comments. (We’ve only done one so far, and are still working on week 2.)
This is a great idea.
Will you continue this after this when November’s Ensign comes out?
Yes! Join in. It’s fun stuff.
I am so looking forward to conference, and then keeping on track each week with the book club. I like to jot down in a notebook what impresses me during conference from each speaker. Then when I read the talk later I find there new inspirations. Always learning 🙂
I actually missed Saturday Conference and have been meaning to read through all the talks that I missed.. This seems like the perfect place to do that; sharing insights and keeping myself on top of that goal. Win win!
What a perfect idea! Thanks for sharing it. I’m going to grab the button & get started reading with this week!
i LOVE this idea! it made me happy when i read about it. and i can’t wait to join in. i will participate fully next week….like comment and everything. but for this week (since it’s already thursday) i will just read the talk for this week. i was thinking my goals (hate the word resolution it makes me fell like i have failed before i even start) for next year and i think this will help me in accomplishing some of them. YAY! thanks so much!! and now i will most likely be a stalker of your blog as well. 🙂 happy new year!
I love this idea. I was trying to figure out a system that I could stick with and I found your link on another website and she is right, you are wonderful. Now I will have some accountability too.
Joining in, very excited!!
Do you have a HTML code for your button? Trying to figure out how to put it on my blog… I’m not all that techy. 🙂
I love your idea. General conference is so important and we should all cherish the insight we have. I’m totally in! And when I get on the computer, I am definitely linking your blinkie up to my blog. I love sharing wonderful ideas that I have found with the world.
Oh, I want to join! Pick me! Pick me! I’ve been feeling prompted to study the General Conference edition of the Ensign instead of the Book of Mormon like I usually do and I didn’t know why. Now I know this is a part of it! Thank you!!! for starting this club! What talk are we doing this week?
Megan, Yes, of course! You don’t have to be picked. Join right in. A new talk is posted each Sunday, and there’s a running list of them on this page: https://diapersanddivinity.com/gcbc
And welcome!
I am so excited to participate in the General Conference Book Club! I just found this site when I did a search for a specific talk I was reading. I wanted to find out what others had thought on the subject (read other’s blogs). This was the first blog that I pulled up and I’m impressed. I love the gospel and love to share my feelings about it. I love to read. AND I LOVE CONFERENCE! Well, I love the talks anyway. Sometimes it’s hard to hear during the actual live conference since I make 5 unwilling listeners sit with me (the rest of my family). But that is why it’ll be so much fun to be in this bookclub and be able to read them again later and comment with those that share this passion for the truths we have been given! Conference is almost here again and we will be bestowed more truths! Yipee! I can’t wait!
I am so excited about this!! What a fabulous idea. And I linked to GCBC on my blog. 🙂
hey stephanie,
i love this…..thank you so mutch
love ya, buffy
My “Companion” of 46 years and I have always meant to read the whole Conference Ensign issue cover to cover after Conference (because we had enjoyed Conference so much) then the big BUT wiggled it’s way in and crouded out our good intentions! When we wandered onto your site we took your suggestion and can now say we’ve read April 2010 Conference talks and are anxiously awaiting Conference this weekend while we are serving here in Brasil. We learn so much from others! Thanks for sharing. Elder & Sister Allen, Belo Horizonte Mission, Ipatinga, BRASIL
I am ready to start!
You said the GCBC started today. Do you mean for October 2010 Conference or what talk are we supposed to be doing today?
Jenny, the week 1 post went up yesterday and you can find it here:
A new post will go up every Sunday evening. Let me know if you have any questions.
i love this and am so excited about it!
a friend and i started something like this between the sisters in our ward, and it was great for a while (called it “Conference & Cocoa”). but later it died out.
i LOVED it then, and am sooooo grateful to find this type of a forum again, cause i’ve been desperately missing it!
Terrific idea! What would you think of including the General RS Meeting talks, too? President Monson’s talk there is now one of my all-time favorites.
Depending on the number of weeks available, I sometimes add in “extra” talks. Yours is a great suggestion. I’d love to study President Uctdorf’s talk from priesthood session, too.
Lovely idea! I’m hoping this will help me with my goal to reread all the Conference talks before April. I may not have time to participate in the discussion, but I’ll be here. 🙂
P.S. I linked to you through my FB page but can’t seem to get your button to work on my blog. Thoughts?
Pingback: GCBC Week 6: Reflections on a Consecrated Life « Diapers and Divinity
I’ve been wanting a way to enrich my scripture study. So glad I found your site. Wonderful idea!
Pingback: Countdown to General Conference: Packets and Preparation « Diapers and Divinity
You have no idea that your blog was an answer to my prayers. I was to teach Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk On the Road to Damascus today in RS for Teaching for our times.. Nothing was coming. I loved this talk when I listened to him at Conference time. So I googled “how to teach Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk on the Road To Damascus” Your blog and another one came up. Both of them were connected to each other. The idea of listening to a talk and then giving your feelings or thoughts during/after were it. That was how I was to give his amazing talk. I am thrilled I was able to find you! And I hope I come back each week as you post new talks to listen and think about. Thanks from FL!
I have just found this General Conference Book Club. What a wonderful idea.
Tried the button and it turned out rather large (half the words get cut off), any ideas?
I’m really not very savvy in this area, but I’ll try. You’re on wordpress, right? Try uploading/saving the image into your media library in WordPress. Then resize it to smaller. Save it. Then in the code that I gave you for the button, Replace the part right after “src=” with the link to your resized image on your own blog. I think that will work. Anyone smarter than me, please jump in and make it better.
Hey, Steph. I think I’m going to have to join the club here and commit to blogging about it — hopefully I’ll get to the point where the spiritual things (which I really care about) outweigh the silly commentary from classes that get me riled up 😉
I stumbled upon your blog while preparing a RS lesson. What a good idea! I’d like to join in 🙂
What a great idea. I’d like to join.
I love, love, love this talk, You Matter To Him! Somehow, instinctively, I have always known these truths, but could have never, and still would have a difficult time, expressing them. In the last 8 years that it’s taken for me to begin that I have God-like potential I have started to understand my nothingness and couldn’t understand where this knowledge was coming from. I mean, I knew it’s something that my spirit was familiar with, but I still couldn’t understand why I knew it. Why was I okay w/ being “nothing” in comparison to God? Why was I not only okay w/ it, but found joy in knowing that I was nothing compared to Him? Though language cannot express my heart is full of understanding and continues to be expounded by the understanding that comes from this as my testimony is strengthened of this truth. One day I will stand before Heavenly Father and I anticipate that I will weep many long hours at His goodness towards me. I am grateful for President Uchtdorf’s knowledge and I am grateful that he was willing to pass through his trials as I know this is how he gained a higher understanding and is able to help me understand myself better.
Oh I love this idea! This is right up my ally of thing I love in life. Thanks and I hope to learn a lot from everyone as well as the conference talks.
Love this idea. How do I sign up?
I think I misunderstood, I thought it was find a talk you like and post it. Because I might find something different than ‘Stacy’ then we are seeing all these talks maybe no one has seen for a while… So I read Daughters Of God by PRESIDENT GORDON B. HINCKLEY. It was published in Ensign way back in 1991, but I think the talk was earlier than that, but now I can’t find the date. Anyhow, check it out: http://www.lds.org/ensign/1991/11/daughters-of-god?lang=eng
hi
just found out about this sight and am excited to discuss the articles with others. i am looking forward to the fun of learning. a great way to be reading the ensign.
i have looked over the site but can find no where where it says what time the discussion takes place and how to be apart of it. please help
Thanks for sharing! I’m anxious to be involved.
I’m excited to join the club this time around (April 2012). Would love to share and receive insight from others.!
Ahhhh… the more I read of your blog the happier my heart gets! 🙂 I am THRILLED about this!
I just found this site- and saw the most recent archives are from 2011. Am I late, or is this still going on? I’d love to have motivation to read conference articles, and I think this is a great idea!!
I did the GCBC for 2 1/2 years, but recently started teaching. I kind of stopped blogging and didn’t have time to maintain the book club, so my blog friend Becca is now hosting it at her blog. She puts up a new talk every Sunday and follows the same format I did here. You can find it at : http://delightinscripture.blogspot.com/
Thanks for letting me know- I don’t have time for blogging, and I don’t even work full time! But thanks for the link- I’ll check it out.
Pingback: Preparing Yourself for General Conference | Mormon Mommy Blogs