Post-conference ruminations

Have you ever played General Conference Bingo (not to be confused with Leadership Roulette)? Many clever kid-friendly versions are available with a quick Google search or you could make your own. Each square has its own Gospel related theme, phrase or topic. Any time you hear reference to one appearing on your bingo board, you mark it (with a board game piece, a miniature cinnamon roll, a little piece of matzoh?). When you have a straight line of marked squares, hooray! You win! Congratulations on paying attention, hearing the words and engaging in conference actively.

Last weekend I listened to conference with keen ears, but no bingo boards. Here are some highlights especially worthy of a listen in their entirety (imho) for you who weren’t able to attend in any way:
Elder Patrick Kearon “Refuge from the Storm”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home”
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders among You”

I also appreciated Elder David A. Bednar’s “Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins”. While the talk was dryly delivered, I found it a juicy examination of the mighty triad of ordinances: baptism, confirmation and the sacrament.

Many of us in the Segullah community are lovers of words. Here are two especially lush and uplifting passages from the recent conference:
From Elder Gerrit W. Gong:

“When trust is betrayed, dreams shattered, hearts broken and broken again, when we want justice and need mercy, when our fists clench and our tears flow, when we need to know what to hold onto and what to let go of, we can always remember Him. Life is not as cruel as it can sometimes seem. His infinite compassion can help us find our way, truth, and life.”

From Elder Paul V. Johnson:

“The reality of the Resurrection of the Savior overwhelms our heartbreak with hope because with it comes the assurance that all the other promises of the gospel are just as real—promises that are no less miraculous than the Resurrection. We know that He has the power to cleanse us from all our sins. We know that He has taken upon Himself all our infirmities, pains, and the injustices we have suffered. We know that He has ‘rise[n] from the dead, with healing in his wings.’ We know that He can make us whole no matter what is broken in us.”

And how’s this for vivid metaphors? Elder Uchtdorf says, “We may pound the metaphorical hammer of obedience against the iron anvil of the commandments in an effort to shape those we love, through constant heating and repeated battering, into holier, heavenly matter.” Then he suggests a better way to look at things, and certainly more satisfying: “Maybe obedience is not so much the process of bending, twisting, and pounding our souls into something we are not. Instead, it is the process by which we discover what we truly are made of.”

There’s something about acknowledging our brokenness and our hope-filled dependence on the Lord’s Atonement that consistently grabs me.

I sometimes stumble on jarring phrasing during General Conference. For example, after hearing a startling turn of phrase by one non-native English speaker, I did a google search on lds.org for “Gospel of”.
The results showed that the predominant follow up to those words is “Jesus Christ.”
Whew.
The phrase also appears before the names of the 4 Gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Other options were:
Salvation
Love
His Son
Repentance
The Kingdom
The Messiah
God
Christ
Our Savior
Eternal Families
Love and Service
Work
The Resurrected Lord

At least one of those things is not like the others.

I’m uncomfortable with current “vocabulary creep” giving “The Family” a halo. (And “work”? Sounds like the Works Progress Administration to me.) I try to develop charity and contextual allowance to speakers while at the same time extending extra compassion to my loved ones who don’t fit the prescribed model. Elder Neal L. Andersen and I appear to be in sync on that score. In his talk “Whoso Receiveth Them, Receiveth Me,” he said:

“[W]ith millions of members and the diversity we have in the children of the Church, we need to be even more thoughtful and sensitive. Our Church culture and vernacular are at times quite unique. The Primary children are not going to stop singing ‘Families Can Be Together Forever,’ but when they sing, ‘I’m so glad when daddy comes home’ or ‘with father and mother leading the way,’ not all children will be singing about their own family.”

A constant spiritual tightrope walk for me is negotiating my personal conversion and relationship with Christ with my commitment as a member of “institutions.” Do my roles in the institution of “family” as wife/sister/daughter/mother/grandmother require something of me beyond my devotion to Christ’s guidance in my life and His expectation that I build my life on love? I think I have my bases covered.

As church members, do we sacrifice our take on things if our personal perspectives have an accent different from the institutional voice of “The Church”? It may not be “opposition,” but in fact “contribution.” As Elder Uchtdorf said in Conference in October, 2013, “Brothers and sisters, dear friends, we need your unique talents and perspectives. The diversity of persons and peoples all around the globe is a strength of this Church.”

For some Conference listeners, this description of our purpose in life may be just what they needed to hear: “The purpose of mortal life for the children of God is to provide the experiences needed ‘to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.'” This was from Elder Dallin H. Oaks’ talk “Opposition in All Things.” He is a lawyer by (past) profession. Lawyers generally are analytic and logical. This distillation fits that bill. Each of us has to use the gifts we’ve been given.

I’m an artist and a writer and tend to prefer more color and nuance from public speakers (even of the apostolic variety) and in life in general. Perhaps his having been a pilot fostered Elder Uchtdorf’s love of soaring language:

“The joyous news of the gospel is this: because of the eternal plan of happiness provided by our loving Heavenly Father and through the infinite sacrifice of Jesus the Christ, we can not only be redeemed from our fallen state and restored to purity, but we can also transcend mortal imagination and become heirs of eternal life and partakers of God’s indescribable glory.”

Bingo. That, for me, is the good news of the Gospel.

Whenever I hear messages that resonate with my convictions about Jesus my Redeemer, I know again that I have found the Perfect Word.