Cornucopia

Sunday Afternoon General Conference Open Thread

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As we’ve done in the past, here’s a space to share any thoughts, inspirations, insights, and/or revelations that come to you through general conference. Enjoy!

93 comments for “Sunday Afternoon General Conference Open Thread”

  1. Has anyone got video to work at all? We’ve tried ksl.com and lds.org, and now just have to use audio. Any suggestions?
    (We’ve tried refreshing the picture,etc.)

  6. LDS.org’s American Sign Language video feed is still stuck on yesterday morning’s session, so don’t feel too bad. :)

  9. Thanks for the suggestions. We haven’t had any luck with byutv, BUT– Conference miracle alert–we’re getting the right channel on our TV! We usually don’t get channel 61, but when my husband just turned on the TV, there it was. Yay!
    What lovely yellow tulips.

  15. What I love most about Elder L. Tom Perry is his testimony of the Lard and the Bookamarmon.

  16. I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one whose kbyu feed stalled irrevocably, with several attempts to get it back having failed. (And this after I kept my kbyu link live since the last session in the hope of not losing it.) So right now I’m listing to the lds.org audio feed, with the cool Pink Floyd laser light show.

  18. Thanks. I’m pretty good at picking out the voices of the Twelve, but some reason, Eyring is the one I always miss (he’s also the one I miss when I try to list them from memory).

    Charter Communications isn’t covering it on cable this year, so I’ve only been going with the audio feed. I figured it wasn’t worth going with the video feed.

  19. Kevin — My 3-year-old daughter is enthralled with the WMP visualization . . . but she keeps wanting me to change the pattern every minute or so.

  20. Elder Eyring keeps smacking his lips like his mouth is dry. It reminds me of a video I have seen of one of Elder McConkie’s last General Conference talks when he kept smacking his lips.
    Is Elder Eyring’s health alright?

  21. DISH satellite service carries BYU-TV with their cheapest package. I’m paying ~$42/month for one dish/one TV with a DVR and local programming.

  23. And here’s another talk defending the Church’s view of the Godhead, this one from Elder Gary Coleman of the Seventy.

    Add that to Elder Ballard and President Hinckley from Sunday morning.

    Timely.

    (And Elder Coleman looks a lot different than he did when he was on Different Strokes back in the early 80s.)

  25. I’m just having a hard time getting past the whole Gary Coleman thing.

    “What you talkin’ about Willis?”

  28. [The satellite coverage you cite is still not as cost-effective for me — and I also have a DVR. Just having BYU-TV and the mtn is not worth the extra money to get a dish. I now have FIOS for my Internet coverage, but so far, FIOS-TV isn’t worth the extra cost, either.]

  33. OK I heard this same story in a satellite stake conference last month (the story about the inappropriate clad young woman and the brother whistling a hymn)…

  34. I’m remembering when I was in Priest quorum and we were taught if temptations arose we were to sing a hymn… as though given a queue, one of the guys started singing “There is Beauty All Around”… Bishop suggested we pick a different hymn.

  38. I had a scholarship at BYU, and it went directly to BYU–I didn’t get a check, so I didn’t think of it as income, so I didn’t pay tithing on it.
    But now my husband is in pharmacy school, we get a check for living expenses, so we plan to pay tithing on that.

  39. Reminds me of the classic Grondahl cartoon, where two missionaries walk by a gorgeous woman sunbathing in a bikini. One say to the other: “Sing a hymn, Elder…sing a hymn.”

  41. I paid tithing on scholarships and grants but not on student loans… as the scholarships and grants represented increase, while the loans represented debt.

  42. John #37 – Up to the person receiving the scholarship. Tithing payed on our gain, which has been left publicly undefined. Same question rises on paying tithing on gross/net. My Dad answered with another question – how do you want your blessings, gross or net? Other train of thought is that though there is a monetary value associated with education, the real value is the growth of your own personal capacity. Instead of paying a tithing in the form of money, you could in the form of your time, talent, sevice, or a myriad of other manners.

    Bottom line – personal choice. I know those who did, and those who didn’t. All of which are good people, but in the end its between the person and the Lord.

  45. Re #37: That’s up to the individual, I think. I don’t pay tithing on the part of my scholarship that covers tuition since it goes directly to the university, but I do pay on my stipend.

  46. Regarding federal student loans, I believe the gov’t specifically prohibits paying tithing on its money.

  48. #46 – I don’t know about tithing prohibitions, but lLoans don’t count as income anyway, its an advance on money you haven’t yet earned. Since its not income, government doesn’t count it as a taxable event. Sort of a tangental observation, but since a loan isn’t income, no tax, and I would think no tithing. Otherwise when you went for a mortgage it would require too much out of pocket for anyone to get a home.

  60. “Elder Uchtdorf sounds like Governor Schwarzenegger.”

    You really think so? Germans speaking English and Austrians speaking English usually sound different to me.

  61. He’s a dead-ringer. He should play Elder Uchtdorf if they ever do a movie / TV show on the Church in modern times.

  62. Go back and listen to the last 5 minutes – there were moments when his English sounded very much like the Governator….

  63. @Russell Arben Fox

    Mein Deutsch ist nicht gut genug zu verstehen die Unterschiede zwischen ein deutsche Akzent und ein Oesterreiche Akzent.

  65. John, I’m hardly fluent myself. I’m just saying that when I’ve listened to Austrians speak English, their accent has seemed to have a different tone to me than Germans. Of course, where you come from in Germany probably matters a lot. And I suppose I may have just imagined it.

  67. Pres. Hinckley has lived longer than I thought he would, and I always wonder if he will be around for the next conference. Today he said, “Good bye” not “God be with you till we meet again.” Might be nothing, but seems different from his typical benediction in a way.

  68. He’s living day-to-day. From here on out it will be a safe bet that each Conference could be his last Conference.

  70. Sorry I wrote that.
    Good observation, M&M–I hope it doesn’t have sad significance. I’m glad he ended with that comment about husbands and wives caring for each other. I like how he said that along with traffic safety, knowing it’s just as important to our wellbeing.

  72. This is the first time I’ve seen conf. outside Utah. They sure don’t know their market for the ads. It Utah, the ads right after conf. were always for food storage stores and Murdock travel.
    Here, we snapped off the TV when it started blaring rock music.

  73. I felt an urgency in the messages…Elder Eyring on not procrastinating and then Elders Uchdorf and Nelson back-to-back on repentance (again reiterating not procrastinating and preaching powerfully that repentance is possible for everyone, and so necessary). This was a powerful session.

  74. Um, so, no momentous announcements?

    goes to show we should take rumors with a grain of salt. : )

    Having a session back in the Tabernacle was Historic in and of itself.

  75. I think Elder Uchtdorf’s talk means either that chapter 9 of the Miracle of Forgiveness (entitled “Point of No Return”) should either be removed or retitled.

  76. Mea maxima culpa on the rumor thing. If it makes anyone feel better, I personally was totally fished in by them. Now I feel like an idiot. But the speculation did make for some fun blog conversation…

  77. I was also touched by Elder Kikuchi’s talk. You know, you hear a talk start on a topic that you have heard a million times, and the tendency for me is sometimes to think I can tune out or that what will be shared will not be relevant (“after all, I’ve been a tithepayer all my life”). But I felt a nudge to focus anyway, and that story of the people in Idaho was very, very moving…reminiscent of the classic story of the people in St. George when Lorenzo Snow (is that right?) preached tithing to them. It was a reminder to me that I can never have enough of the Spirit testifying of a truth and of the Lord’s goodness, even if a topic seems to have been repeated a million times.

  78. Kevin, don’t feel bad–the speculation gave many of us some fun moments over the past few days.

  79. If you see a women immodestly dressed and have an improper thought, shouldn’t you repent before singing the hymn? Or do you repent after the song? I’m pretty sure you are suppose to repent and not have any more impoper thoughts or are you repentent because you are singing?

  80. #79. The improper thought is just nature doing its job, not necessarily a sin. What we do with nature defines our progress.

  81. If you see a women immodestly dressed and have an improper thought, shouldn’t you repent before singing the hymn?

    I’m always afraid that it will work in reverse for me, and every time “my favorite hymn” gets played in church, it’ll just cause me to remember all the associated evil thoughts that it was intended to drive out in the first place. : – )

  82. Mark, a friend of mine who is a psychologist at BYU said that the situation you describe was a very real problem for quite a few students!

  83. I think I’ve participated in one or two open threads in the past, but today was the first time I had the laptop open and ready to go. Here’re my thoughts: number one, I noticed that I stayed completely awake during the sessions. That’s a good thing, as my attention span is about 40 minutes, tops… so conference is two times longer than I can normally bear to sit and watch/listen to something. But I also noticed that I focused a little more on what was being typed than what was being said… but that was balanced by my thinking through some of my critical thoughts more thoroughly — also a good thing, as I tend to be overly critical.

    So, I’m curious… how does an open thread impact your viewing?

  84. This time I didn’t do the open thread (minus a passing comment or two) because I found it distracted me the last time I did it.

  85. “Um, so, no momentous announcements?”

    I can’t believe that no one has mentioned that we now have a new General Relief Society president. Does this calling carry with it so little influence that no one even noticed?

    I missed the Sat. morning session (I had to work) and only heard about Sister Parkin’s release when she got up to speak in the afternoon session. (At least I think that’s what they said. Unless I got this wrong.) Does anyone know anything about the new sister who was called? Her name/background?

  86. Julie Beck (the new RS president) has been a councelor in the YW presidency. She lived in Brazil for five years as a child and speaks Portuguese. The 1st councelor is Silvia Allred. She is the first member of an RS presidency to have been born outside the US (in El Salvador). She joined the church when she was 15 and has served with her husband in Spain, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic. Barbara Thompson is the second councelor and works for Christmas Box International. She is not married. She has travelled a lot with her job.

    Sister Beck’s primary concerns are “the lack of self-worth and sense of identity that plague too many women.” She believes the RS, YW, and Primary should work together to help women.

    And that’s all I know, thanks to the Deseret News. They sound like a fairly diverse group of women.

  88. re: #69

    He did say he was in good health. I expect him to be here at least until October, but it would be cool if he was our first president to hit 100.

  89. I also noted Pres. Hinckley’s “Good-bye.” I’ve been jumpy about this kind of thing ever since BRM’s “in a coming day” speech and his funeral 2 weeks later.

  91. @Silus Grok

    (83)

    I’d say that participating in the open threads was a two-edged sword. It helped me focus more on the talks to hear something that might inspire me to make a comment, but at times I paid more attention to the threads than some of the talks. Frankly, some speakers were easy to tune out. Overall, I think I probably paid more attention than I have in the past.

  92. So, is the consensus among the faithful that nothing \”historic with a capital H\” occurred at this past General Conference, or is the consensus that Elder Nelson’s statement to DCP did not really happen?

  93. The last four general conferences have contained much warnings about hardship that lies ahead. I especially heard the call to spiritually prepare and temporally prepare for the storm that lies ahead. The doctrinal realities of things to come are always a stark reminder to me that these are the Latter-days. After the conference I for some reason went to the churches website to read up on some conference talks given before I was born. I came across this prophecy.

    Bruce R. McConkie
    General Conference, April 1979
    ‘For the moment we live in a day of peace and prosperity but it shall not ever be thus. Great trials lie ahead. All of the sorrows and perils of the past are but a foretaste of what is yet to be. And we must prepare ourselves temporally and spiritually.”

    At the same time I feel fine about the future. I feel a complete calm but feel that tempests will soon rage.

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