April, 2013 Conference Report

“Let’s make sharing our faith online more a part of our daily life.  LDS.org, Mormon.org, Facebook, Twitter- all provide opportunities.”  Elder Neil L. Anderson

I am pleased to use my blog to share my faith.  This quote from Elder Anderson is similar to one from Elder Ballard, who said we must stand for truth and online is a great place to do it.  (That is not a direct quote, but is the essence of what he said in his Education Week talk.) 

I love General Conference.  I recently finished studying the talks from the April, 2013 general conference.  I found so many things that uplifted and inspired me.  I read all of the footnotes and look up all of the scriptural references.  For the first time this conference, I used my ipad rather than my paper scriptures to do this.  I was slow to convert, but I LOVED it!  It was so easy to just touch a reference and it would go there.  I could touch to tag it by subject or to write a note by that scripture.  I also referenced lots of scriptures back to the talks.  I have always written in the margins of my scriptures references to the conference talks, but now I can write as long of a note as I want.  There’s plenty of room.  Then, when I’m reading the scriptures, I can just touch the reference and it will take me back to the talk that enlightened me on that scripture.  I am so excited about that!   I thoroughly enjoyed studying. 

One gem I found in the footnotes was in Elder Quentin L. Cook’s talk.  Footnote 25 was from the Complete Poetical Works of Greenleaf Whittier:  “Heed how thou livest.  Do not act by day which from the night shall drive thy peace away.”   Is that not a great quote?

Some highlights of the conference talks:

I loved President Packer’s “Unfinished Composition.”  It included a beautiful testimony.  I hope he makes it to age 98 for the next addition to the poem.

Marriage: Watch and Learn was one of my favorite talks of the whole conference.  I loved it.  It was given by Elder L. Whitney Clayton.  I would love to teach that talk.

I always love Elder Holland’s talks.  “Lord I Believe” touched me deeply.  It’s okay not to know for sure.  Just keep trying and learning. 

Statistics

Here are the number of times each of the following were used in the references:

New Testament- the most with 228.  That is a remarkably high number- the most ever.  It was followed closely by

Doctrine and Covenants- 217.  This is something new- at least since I have been doing this.  Always The Book of Mormon and the New Testament are the two highest. 

Book of Mormon-131 ( it wasn’t that the Book of Mormon was quoted less, it was that the New Testament and Doctrine and Covenants were quoted way more than usual.)

Latter-day Apostles-66

Old Testament- 49

Pearl of Great Price-23

Church Handbooks- 9   I just started noticing as I was going through that they were quoting from the handbooks a lot, so I counted them.  I don’t know if I just didn’t notice before, or if this is a change.  They say that if you want to keep a secret, put it in a church handbook because no one ever reads them.  Maybe our leaders are trying to change that!

Hymns-13

World Literature-8

Proclamation on the Family-6

The speaker that used the most references was Elder Craig A. Cardon of the Seventy.  He had 154 references, including 71 from the Doctrine and Covenants and 41 from the New Testament.  So, he alone, made those numbers higher than usual.

As always, I express my gratitude for general conference.