I know I am not alone in loving President Uchtdorf. Today I was grateful for his heartfelt, genuine talk. I appreciate how hard he tried to articulate his love for the sisters of the church and how important he thinks we are. I thought it was important that he specified that this, the General Women’s Meeting, is the opening session of conference and should be counted as such. I think this counts as a change in the way we discuss this meeting. I also thought it was important that President Uchtdorf repeatedly mentioned the existence of Heavenly Parents.
It was obvious from his address that President Uchtdorf wants to help us return to our Heavenly Parents. He believes that the best way to do this is to walk the path of discipleship and obedience. President Uchtdorf acknowledged that obedience isn’t always joyful but that we need to have trust that God’s vision is larger than ours. Heavenly Father is eternally loving and focused on getting us home. Uchtdorf encouraged each us to cherish the light posts of obedience that will help us return to him.
In order to be a full disciple of Christ we have to choose Good–we need to be humble, exercise faith, take His name upon us, seek Him in all things and stand as a witness of God. We also need to realize that discipleship is more than just sitting in a pew. It is using our talents, capability and power to serve our sisters and brothers. To truly look for the needs of others and be more like Christ.
President Uchtdorf wants us to know that we are loved. Heavenly Father does not care about our physical appearance or our social media profiles. He ended his message by encouraging us to set aside our unworthy desires and worldly ambitions and instead live the gospel joyfully.
Did you watch the General Women’s Meeting? What are your thought of President Uchtdorf’s talk? The meeting?
4 Responses
I’m looking forward to reading his talk again because there was a moment that spoke to me, but I can’t articulate it. It was when he was talking about how God does not care at all what you look like, but what is inside. He said it really well. I thought some of his references were really relatable to the people in my ward (pinterest, instagram, Facebook etc.) but I did wonder whether they would speak well to everyone globally. Perhaps when they translate to other languages they’ll use culturally appropriate references?
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I was also glad to hear him refer to this as the opening session of conference. The commandment/cloud/umbrella analogy really spoke to me as well, and I was glad to see the church already had memes for that and some other quotes on Pinterest within a few hours 🙂
I really enjoyed President Uchtdorf’s talk, this conference, more than I usually appreciate his talks. I especially appreciated that he described this meeting as the first session of general conference. I noticed that the Young Woman offering the closing prayer, however, prayed for us to be ready for “general conference.” I suspect that she pre-created her prayer as it would be in front of millions of people, but I hope that she, and all members of the church really think, believe and teach this to be a General Conference session.
I pray that the women’s talks from this conference will be assigned as HOME teaching messages, the women’s talks from this session might be assigned as topics for RS and Priesthood classes and that men of the church will make the effort to listen to this session of conference and apply the lesson material as much as women (in the same way we are all instructed to listen to the PH session of Conference.)
I somehow feel a little despairing when I hope for these things, but still…. I hope.