General Conference

I realize this is quite belated, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to hear living prophets speak. No matter what the topic is, it helps me to feel the Spirit and makes my life suck a little less. And there are always fantastic talks that touch me in such a deep way that it makes me want to be a better person.

For example, Elder Richard G. Scott spoke about eternal marriage. Most of his talk was about his wife, who passed away almost 16 years ago. The way he spoke about her helped my testimony grow so much stronger. Love can transcend death. Eternal marriage is just that--eternal. It's such a comfort to know that when I find someone I love that deeply, we can be together forever, not just "till death do us part."

Another talk that I really needed was by Dallin H. Oaks. He's always been one of my favorite speakers, and this conference was no exception. He spoke on desires. "Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming." It helped me to examine my desires--what is shaping my priorities? I thought of a few overarching desires, like temple marriage, having children, and eventually eternal life. This talk helped me to remember that these need to be the root of all my actions.

The last talk I'm going to talk about is one I slept through (I know. I'm horrible.) but read online earlier tonight. Kent F. Richards of the Seventy spoke about pain, and how the Atonement relieves it. Just reading this brought tears to my eyes. "Sometimes in the depth of pain, we are tempted to ask, 'Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?' I testify the answer is yes, there is a physician. The Atonement of Jesus Christ covers all these conditions and purposes of mortality." He also quoted Dallin H. Oaks: "Sometimes a 'healing' cures our illness or lifts our burden. But sometimes we are 'healed' by being given strength or understanding or patience to bear the burdens placed upon us." This talk was beautiful, and you can read it in its entirety here.

There were so many other amazing things I was able to learn, but the common themes that struck me were marriage and service. Repeatedly, these leaders emphasized the importance of mourning with those that mourn, and comforting those that stand in need of comfort. With all the natural disasters that have been happening recently, there's no shortage of ways to serve.

Conference is such an incredible time for me, and I encourage everyone to read the talks again when the Ensign comes out--or just go to lds.org and you can read/listen/watch all of them if you don't want to wait.