Pres. Uchtdorf conducted again, and following the customary audit report and statistical report, talks were given by Elder Boyd K. Packer, Elder Russell M. Nelson, Elder Russell J. Maynes, Elder Cecil O. Samuelsen, Elder Dallin H. Oaks and Elder M. Russell Ballard.
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf:
Sustainings (not complete and include many, many mispellings)
- Released Area Seventies: Jose Alanzo, Nelson, Anderson, Avila, Brown, Bulloch, Butler, Campeo, Canoles Cordon, Cornish, Costales, Curtis Jr, Dias, Ford, Gaviola, Gonzales, Jones, Kyes, Linhares, Morales, Paya, Jose, Rodrigues, Rubio, Zitult, Steri, Tolentino, Vodell, Walker
- New members of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy: Don R. Clark, José L. Alonso, Ian S. Ardern, Don R. Clarke, Carl B. Cook, LeGrand R. Curtis, Jr., W. Christopher Waddell, Kazuhiko Yamashita
- New members of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy: Randall K. Bennett, J. Devn Cornish, O. Vincent Haleck, Larry Y. Wilson.
- New Area Seventies: Allen, Allen, Badarama, Cluf, Bu, Botolo, Chapin, Coliado, Cummings, Giovani, Domingues, Doxey, Fermndes, Ferreira, Hines, , Jonhson, Jutenas, kim, Kiungo, man, mendoza, morales, munz, nobelsa, parrara, porter, reina, resek, rhodes, summerhays, perry, thomson, torres, valenzuela, valladares, vallejo, villa-lobos, waite
Elder Robert W. Cantwell:
- Church Auditing Department Report
Brook D. Hales:
- Statistical Report
- New statistic! Church Service Missionaries at the end of the year: 20,813
Elder Boyd K. Packer:
- Recognized the 400th anniversary of the publication of King James Version
- Told the story of Wm. Tyndale, who he calls “a great hero.”
- Name of the Church not Mormon, encouraged the use of the full name of the Church — an interesting contrast to the Deseret News article today that suggested that the Church is accepting “Mormon Church” more because of search engine and internet concerns.
- Authority is essential for the true Church.
- Covered briefly the Word of Wisdom and sexual sin.
- Family is key unit of society.
- He retells “John, Leave it alone” story he told in Fall 1987 Conference.
- Its not easy to be a latter-day saint, but in the long run it is the only thing to do.
Elder Russell M. Nelson:
- Told cute story, with picture, about his grandchildren blowing kisses when they saw him on TV.
- “Death is part of life.”
- From an eternal perspective the only death that is truly premature is the death of one who is not ready to meet God.
- We live in a time of turmoil.… but we do not need to let our fears displace our faith.
- Importance of faith and of teaching faith.
- The cafeteria approach to obedience will not work.
- To prepare to meet God one keeps all of his commandments.
- Tithing, commandments & quite a few other subjects
Elder Richard J. Maynes:
- Discussed heavenly families and the eternal nature of the family.
- Told how to establish a Christ-centered home.
Elder Cecil O. Samuelson:
- Talked about doubts we often have about about testimony.
- Answered a series of questions, including: Who is entitled to have a testimony? How does one attain a revelation and what are the steps to achieve it?
- Testimonies must be nurtured and grown. Listed 10 elements of growing and maintaining a testimony.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks:
The importance of desire
- Talks essentially about a hierarchy of desire.
- Gives examples of basic desires that can be temporarily overcome by other desires: hunger, shelter, sleep.
- Examples of higher desires overcoming other desires from the Book of Mormon.
- Summarized the Aron Ralston story — the one told in the movie 127 Hours and in Ralston’s memoir, Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Said this was an example of the power of an overwhelming desire. His discussion essentially said the equivalent of “If thy eye offend thee, cut it out.”
- Suggested that single men should work on getting married instead of focusing on having fun. He then added that there are some young women who do the same thing.
- Said that our desires dictate our priorities, our priorities lead to our choices, and our choices determine our actions.
Elder M. Russell Ballard:
- Gave a nice shout-out to the Temple Square flowers and grounds.
- Spoke about small and simple acts of service
- Told story of a Boston merchant who goes to the California gold fields in 1849 and finds not the gold nuggets he expected, but instead a lot of small flakes.
- Cites “By small and simple things are great blessings brought to pass”
- Says the gospel is simple. We should keep our lives simple — focus on the things that matter most
- “Active love. It is not manifested through large and heroic deeds, but rather through simple acts of kindness and service.”
- Ways that we can serve others:
- Charity begins at home – and serve in the Church
- Missionary service — not only as full-time missionaries, but also as friends and neighbors.
Very nice summary, Kent. When Elder Nelson started his gold field story, I thought it was going to be about Levi Strauss, who headed west to look for gold but ended up making tough, sturdy pants for the miners from the coarse khaki fabric used for tents. I suppose good flecks make a better gospel story than blue jeans.
Saturday afternoon talk notes are now posted at conference website at http://www.ldschurchnews.com/conference/
Excellent talks, and statistical report shows church continues rolling along right in mid-range of Rodney Stark’s forecasted numbers – as President Monson said in Oct 2010 opening remarks – “the work of the Church has moved forward unhindered” – despite the wailings and machinations of the Sunstone and Dialogue crowds and the anti’s.
I’ve noticed that speakers in sessions of General Conference usually speak in descending order of seniority until the intermediate hymn and ascending seniority afterwards. It appears that having Elder Oaks speak before Elder Ballard is either an exception to this order or a change in the practice.
An excellent summary, with some intersting points.
I had a little insight about testimonies from this session. I’ve thought that if it were easy to retain a testimony of the church that we would use this as “evidence” of the church. People learn arithmatic, but then later in life fight the truthfullness of arithmetic; why can’t it be the same with the truthfullness of the gospel?
The gospel is a rock, right? While the gospel may be a rock our individual testimonies of the gospel are not rocks. We compare gaining faith/testimonies to planting a seed and nurturing it. I’ve never taken the next logical step of then applying that analogy to what happens when the plant is fully grown. It still needs water, sunshine and nutriants. So do our testimonies. A fully grown/matured testimony still needs to be shared, borne, and excersised.