Did you know that you can listen to music from LDS General Conference back to 2008 by clicking on “Show Music” at the top of each page in the conference section on LDS.org (gc.lds.org)?

You can also access an index of general conference music at GCmusic.lds.org. You can search across multiple archives and conferences. The music can be streamed or downloaded. The collection includes hymns sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other choirs at general conference. The archive goes back over 10 years, and more music is being added all the time.

Today is the second of two days of BYU Women’s Conference, an annual event co-sponsored by Brigham Young University and the Relief Society (the women’s organization) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thousands of (mostly) women gather every year to hear speakers on various topics, join together in large-scale service projects, enjoy various displays at the Sharing Stations, enjoy uplifting music, and enjoy associating with one another.

If you are attending we invite you to use the hashtag #byuwomensconf in Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ updates.

See past years’ BYU Women’s Conference talk transcripts, session handouts, Virtual Sharing Stations (handouts from Sharing Stations), and information on broadcasts.

You can also watch many BYU Women’s Conference talks that are archived/broadcast on BYU-TV’s website.

Following are a couple of the favorite talks from the 2011 BYU Women’s Conference.

Julie B. Beck

Mary Ellen Edmunds on visiting teaching

Elder and Sister Bednar: “By Small and Simple Things are Great Things Brought to Pass”

It’s BYU Women’s Conference time again. While thousands of Mormon women gather at Brigham Young University to enjoy BYU Women’s Conference in person, many people are not able to attend. Many talks from past years are available online. A long list of BYU Women’s Conference transcripts from last year is available on the BYU Women’s Conference website:

2011 BYU Women’s Conference Transcripts

•  Julie B. Beck Opening Session
•  Lolly S. and Russell T. Osguthorpe ”I Did Frankly Forgive Them”
•  Virginia Pearce “Prayer: A Small and Simple Thing”
•  President Cecil O. Samuelson ”Our Goals and Our Weaknesses”
•  Susan K. Bednar ”By Small and Simple Things”
•  Ann M. Dibb ”The Legacy of a Woman of God”
•  Barbara Thompson ”Ideals Are Stars to Steer By; They are Not a Stick to Beat Ourselves With”
•  Bridgette Blackwelder Server ”Visiting Teaching: Making a Difference by Small and Simple Means”
•  Elaine Dalton ”Charity Never Faileth”
•  Elaine L. Jack, Bonnie D. Parkin, Mary Ellen Smooth, Barbara Winder, Sharon Eubank ”We Are Going to Do Something Extraordinary”
•  Elder David A. Bednar ”By Small and Simple Things Are Great Things Brought to Pass”
•  John S. Tanner ”In Praise of Eve’s Faithful Daughters: The Legacy of Relief Society through the Life of a Great Grandmother”
•  Kathy Clayton ”The Best Measure of True Greatness is How Christlike We Are”
•  Mary Ellen Edmunds ”Visiting Teaching: Making a Difference by Small and Simple Means Beyond Statistics”
•  Mary N. Cook ”Becoming Women of God”
•  Rosemary W. Wixom, Jean A. Stevens, Cheryl A. Esplin ”The Plan of Salvation: One of Heavenrsquo;s Best Gifts to Mankind;”
•  Silvia H. Allred ”Things Which Matter Most Must Never Be at the Mercy of Things Which Matter Least”
•  Susan W. Tanner ”Legacy of Relief Society”

In addition to expanding the online conference archives back 40 years, the Church is also enhancing the offerings by adding music archives and making past conference materials available through other channels.

Video and Audio

• By April 2012, you will be able to access video and audio of several conferences from the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s in English.
• By June 2012, video and audio of every conference from April 1971 in English and video back to 2008 in more than 70 languages.
• Previously, text-only versions of conferences dating back to 1971 were available on conference.lds.org. English video only dated back to 2002.

Conference Music

• Currently, you can listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir songs back to 2008 by clicking on “Show Music” at the top of each page in the conference section on LDS.org.
• The new general conference music archive (GCmusic.lds.org) lets you search across multiple archives and conferences. The music can be streamed or downloaded. The collection includes songs sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other choirs at general conference. Currently songs up to October 2008 have been published, but more will continue to be added.

Other Channels

Access archives both online and offline using the Church’s Gospel Library mobile app and the Mormon Channel on Roku, YouTube, etc.

Learn more in the article “Church Publishing 40 Years of Conference Audio and Video” in Church News and Events on LDS.org.

General Conference is always a highlight for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Twice a year, we hear from prophets and apostles and other general leaders and officers of the Church. As a former Church president, Harold B. Lee said, we as Mormons are encouraged to have the words from General Conference “be the guide to [our] walk and talk during the next six months. These are the important matters the Lord sees fit to reveal to this people in this day.”

Listening to this General Conference highlights can both give a good review of some of the key messages from General Conference for those who were able to listen. For those wondering about Mormonism, it gives a glimpse of what Mormon beliefs are, and about what Mormon life is like. We believe in Jesus Christ, in His and Heavenly Father’s love for all of us. Messages of hope are threaded throughout. Some of the reasons for the emphasis on family in Mormon doctrine are touched upon. Invitations for all of us to become better people are throughout the messages.

We are grateful to share and know that God speaks to prophets today, just as He did in ancient times. And we are grateful to know that God will speak to us individually to know how best to implement and follow their words.

If you watched General Conference, what messages stood out to you? If you didn’t, we invite you to watch this video and share your thoughts, questions, or insights.

For the last several conferences, I have shown wordles (word clouds) of the text from general conference, which show the  frequency of use of words (except words like it, the, and and). Frequency of use determines the word size.

Below is a wordle showing an analysis of text from all the talks from the April 2012 general conference. Other styles of this Wordle can be found here, courtesy of Connor Boyack.

See wordles from previous LDS general conferences.

A choir of missionaries from the Missionary Training Center sang at the Saturday March 31 session of LDS General Conference. Among the missionaries was David Archuleta, an internationally-known singer who recently began a full-time mission. Just a year ago, David Archuleta was the guest singer at the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert at the conference center and now he’s a full-time missionary who sang in a choir at conference.

Since I was blogging and posting pictures right after each conference session, I wanted to share his picture on social media. But I hesitated, knowing how humble David is and that he wouldn’t want to make a big deal about it. In David’s goodbye-for-two-years video, he expressed his feelings about leaving music for two years so he could dedicate himself to the work of the Lord.

However, I also thought it could be a great way to help some people connect with general conference. David is very popular. The David Archuleta Facebook page has 2.37 million Likes and there are 450,000 searches on his name on Google every month. If some of these people saw the picture or found a reference to him singing at an LDS General Conference, perhaps they would want to find out more about it, maybe listen to some talks, and learn more about the Gospel.

Within 30 minutes, it had been liked over 1,000 times. To date, it has been Liked by 9,125 people and shared 2,753 times. In addition, many of the people who shared the photo reposted it, so it has been shared many more times virally from those secondary postings.

Within a few hours of posting the picture, someone sent me this message: “I just wanted you to know that your picture of David, as you know is going viral, but that it has already begin to open doors. I have a young friend I worked with years ago who is a FB acquaintance…. She is not a member of the church but when she saw your picture and what I had posted she sent me a message….telling me she had admired David and knew a little bit about him being a Mormon…and that when she saw him in his suit with his name tag she decided right then she would like to met some missionaries from our area!! What a blessing all young men and women who go on a mission are to the church….As a member I loved how seeing David reminded me how we are all equal in the Lord’s site…..However, to a young mother of two in western Oregon….seeing him as a result of your picture….may change her life forever…. Thank you so much for taking and posting such a great example of what all missonary’s are about….”

This is what can happen when we take the initiative to use social media to share the gospel. Something as simple as a picture and a comment can have far-reaching effects. I invite you to share in the comments below your experiences in using social media for good.

Get some ideas on the Church’s page “Sharing the Gospel Online.”

Other styles of this Wordle can be found here, courtesy of Connor Boyack.

This is a day early and in record time!

Translated texts are also expected to be posted in record time to both web and mobile over the coming days and weeks. The segmented video and audio files are already available in scores of languages.

See the page “When Conference Materials Will Be Available” for more details.

These messages include short video clips from talks given during general conference and the Young Women’s general meeting.

Additional Resources:

Prophets speak today.

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