Posted by:
kimball
(
)
Date: April 03, 2012 02:47PM
I know I'm a couple days late, but I had to go back and find out who said what so that I could say it accurately. Once the official word comes out in the conference report it will be more concrete, but I thought you'd enjoy my take.
Dieter Uchtdorf made some very astute statements about not judging others because they are different. He quoted a bumper sticker that read "don't judge me because I sin differently than you!"
Russel Nelson then went on to make fun of the Big Bang Theory, using the intellectually painful analogy "could an explosion in a printing press create a dictionary?"
Todd Christofferson, perhaps not aware that he was going to be preceded by anti-science talk, gave a lengthy talk about how not everything spoken by church leaders is revelation. He quoted Joseph Smith who said that a prophet is only prophet when he speaks for God, and that he could say many things that are not actually true when he's not. He used the example of Brigham Young preaching to the saints that they needed to avenge themselves with violence or some such, then later that day getting up and saying "this morning you heard what Brigham Young had to say... now you will hear what the Lord has to say."
President Monson then taught us how most things we worry about in life are of little importance compared to the big questions we ask, "Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going?" He said that the answers can't be found on the internet or using a Google search, but only from he who has all knowledge. He told us we have the power to think and reason, and that we should use these tools to steer our lives, ie. answer those questions (which are the most important part of life).
M. Russell Ballard showed us the correlation between education and likelihood to have children in wedlock, and assumed everyone accepted that this meant that people who have higher education live higher morals. He then said something to the effect of "it has been asked whether the morals are the result of the education or the the education is the result of the morals. As members of this church we know it is the latter." He also talked about the GPS in his phone and what a mysterious, amazing and useful thing it was.
Larry Wilson gave a very interesting talk about teaching children to govern themselves. He used the example of a girl that asked her parents if she should play in her team's softball game on Sunday. Her parents taught her that it was bad, but told her that it was up to her. To their dismay she chose to play the game. However, being the good and wise parents they were, and staying true to their word, they let her do it. After the game she came to them and said "that felt awful! I'll never play a game on Sunday again," and she never did.
I really couldn't take much more after all that, so I zoned out for the rest. I didn't catch any of Saturday. I'm sorry if I missed some other really juicy stuff, but that's my report.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2012 02:56PM by kimball.