Every year as General Conference approaches I get excited. I love General Conference. I love listening to the prophet, the apostles, and other leaders of the Church. My mission president is now an apostle, Elder Neil L. Andersen. He once told us missionaries that when Elder Oaks came to Bordeaux during the creation of the Bordeaux stake, he happened to ask him how long it took him to prepare a General Conference talk. Elder Oaks said that he pretty much started preparing the next General Conference talk right after General Conference, so he would have plenty of time to find the will of the Lord. He wanted every word to be correct. He would revise the talk 9-10 times. Then, Elder Andersen asked us, how much time do we think we should put into preparing to hear the words of the prophets at General Conference, and how much time should we spend re-reading and studying their words after conference?
I’ve thought about that a lot. God speaks to us in many ways. But if we learn to prepare ourselves for those times when He is most likely to communicate with us, I think our personal revelation will be even greater. It requires us to sanctify ourselves and be in tune with the Spirit the best we can.
I grew up listening to AM radios in cars. You would turn the knob on the right ever so slowly to tune in the best signal you could to hear the radio station with little or no interference. We need to slow down and make a conscious effort to tune in to the Spirit. What a great opportunity conference is.
I have tried to explain and define the feeling that I get while listening to General Conference. I think we are limited as mortals with our language. You will see in the scriptures where they say that they could not write down the things which were said. (See 3 Nephi 19:32) Sometime I think they are commanded not to write sacred things. Other times, I think we just simply cannot communicate through mortal words Spiritual things. It’s on a higher plane. So the word I’ve come up with is, “sweetness”. There is a sweetness that comes into my life when I hear the prophets speak. They have prepared themselves to speak the word of the Lord. That is communicated to me through words, but also that sweetness. That sweetness testifies stronger than the words themselves of the truthfulness of the message. The Spirit can work on the soul. Words just enter the mind. God’s ways are not our ways. I’m looking forward to every minute of conference coming in just over 3 weeks from now.
Tune in and watch at lds.org or watch/read/listen to previous conferences lds.org/general-conference
Rocky Mountain Sunshine 