9718_6285_firstpresidency_stI didn’t get to relish Elder Uchtdorf’s talk yesterday.

Between some sort of scuffle over Legos and finding crayons and gathering ingredients for apple cake it was all too soon that his sonorous voice pronounced, “Of this I testify, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”

Argh! I missed it.

No worries. I can simply go to lds.org, pull up the screen with his handsome face and watch or listen to his talk as often as I please (but with Elder Uchtdorf it’s always best to watch). On Monday morning I may just turn on the entire session to keep me company as I clean the kitchen. By Tuesday, I’ll be able to pull up written transcripts, print them out if I like and start marking them up for my lesson next Sunday. A talk from this conference may remind me of an old favorite and with a few clicks on the lds.org search engine I’ll find that talk too.

It’s a wonderful, wonderful online life.

I grew up in Utah, so watching General Conference has always been pretty convenient. But once the words faded on Sunday afternoon, you didn’t see them again until the Ensign arrived 4-6 weeks later. And for my friends outside of Utah, the Ensign was their first glimpse at the modern prophet’s words.  Satellite dishes spread the feast across the United States in the 70s and the advent of VCR in the early 80s allowed tapes to be sent across the ocean. From my understanding these tapes were played during the 3rd hour of church over the course of several weeks– a strange sort of spiritual banquet.

If you wanted to reread a talk from conference, the dog-eared Ensign (or Liahona) was your only option. And if you wanted to find an older talk you’d better hope that Mom had saved them all in a box in the basement.

With greater access to the words of the prophets we should also gain greater understanding. How has the internet affected the way you watch General Conference? Have online discussions of conference talks enriched or detracted from your testimony? How often do you look up information on lds.org? How does the internet help you understand the words of the prophets?

Related posts:

  1. The General Conference Post
  2. Is church in pajamas better than church in pantyhose?
  3. Open Threads of Sunday Morning Conference


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