April 6, 2008
From MSNBC:
Faithful Mormons stood by the thousands with upraised hands Saturday, officially installing the newly appointed head of their first new leader in 13 years.
Thomas S. Monson took over The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February after the death of Gordon B. Hinckley, but the faith traditionally calls for a sustaining vote by members in a ceremony known as the solemn assembly.
Each church organization took its turn — from its top leaders down to youth groups — standing when called to cast votes in the packed conference center, which holds 21,000 people. The ceremony has been practiced since 1880, when John Taylor was named president of the church.
Posted in Mormon Church Hierarchy, Mormon Church in the News, Mormon General Conference 
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April 6, 2008
As seems to be the tradition, there was a press conference held between sessions of conference yesterday where Elder Christofferson and his wife spoke. Sister Christofferson didn’t have much to say other than that she fully supported her husband. Elder Christofferson didn’t have any opening remarks and immediately took questions. He was asked questions about how he was called, his family history, his legal background, and more. He spoke well and seemed comfortable. I don’t remember anything of him from previous talks he has given, so I didn’t have any previous opinion of him. I’m sure we’ll hear him today, but based on the press conference alone, I’m sure he will be a very effective teacher and inspire many members.
To watch the press conference, go to BYU.tv, pull up yesterday’s date, and click on the LDS World Report at 12:00pm. At about the 35 minute mark, the press conference starts. You can also read about the press conference on the Salt Lake Tribune web site.
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April 6, 2008
Whenever my father and I live in the same city, we have a tradition of going to the priesthood session of General Conference together. Afterwards we always go out for a snack of some kind. We’ve lived in the same city for the last 8 years or so, and we’ve attended almost every one together. Also for the last several years we’ve had a “sub-sational” for the YM where the YM and their fathers come to the Church and hour early and we have subs together. Since I’ve been the bishop I’ve brought my father. However this time he was in North Carolina for the baptism of one of his grand daughters, so I went alone to the “sub-sational” and the broadcast. Then afterwards, I stopped at McDonald’s on the way home for my snack.
The session was good. You could tell everyone was anxious to hear President Monson’s first address in conference as President of the church. He didn’t address any particular issues. It was more a “rally the troops” sort of talk, but it was still quite good.
- Elder Quentin L. Cook ** may use this as a lesson **
- periods of crisis and danger
- heed the words of the prophet
- prophetic priorities
- preventative inoculation
- Bishop H. David Burton
- highlighted humanitarian efforts
- The Church responded to 175 natural disaster events in 52 countries
- The Church’s efforts with wheelchairs, vision, training, etc helped 3.9 million people in 85 countries
- Brother Dean R. Burgess
- “Do you know who you are?”
- honour your family
- makes you strong, confident, have courage
- Do you know that you are a son of God?
- Do you know who you are in God’s plan?
- Do you know who you are as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
- Elder John M. Madsen
- Deacons bench
- need to see the divine potential in the YM
- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf ** may use this as a lesson **
- the difference between happiness and misery comes down to an error of only a few degrees
- become self-disciplined enough to make corrections
- don’t wait for the errors to correct themselves
- through repentance and the atonement we can be forgiven
- President Henry B. Eyring
- priesthood holders need to have confidence and rise to the blessings of the Oath and Covenant
- God know your power and capacity
- have confidence in your service
- God wants you to succeed
- President Bush called President Hinckley as he was flying over Utah in Air Force One to say thank you for our people helping after a hurricane
- President Thomas S. Monson
- we live in dangerous times
- if we are on the Lord’s errand we are entitled to the Lord’s help
- the face of sin wears the mask of tolerance
- no disguise can change the truth
- stand for right even if you stand alone
- no YM in the Church should be without the influence of good men in their lives
- honour the priesthood we bear through the service we render
Read the recaps from the other sessions of General Conference:
Posted in Mormon Church Doctrine and Teachings, Mormon Church Meetings, Mormon General Conference No Comments »
April 5, 2008
I’m sure there were a large number of people who watched/listened to the morning session because of the sustaining. I would guess that the afternoon session has significantly less people listening. We watched the morning session at the Church, but watched the afternoon session on BYU.tv.
- Audit report
- As always, everything is a-ok. I know back in the day they actually used to share numbers/values here. But for something like 30 years or more they have not shared any dollar values. I wonder what the purpose is now. If there were any problems, would they actually say so in the report?
- Statistical report
- 2,790 stakes
- 348 missions
- 618 districts
- 27,827 wards/branches
- 13,193,999 membership
- 93,698 child of record
- 279,218 converts
- 52,686 full time missionaries
- 124 operating temple
- Elder Dallin H. Oaks ** may use this as a lesson **
- testimony
- facts of eternal significance
- not a travel log, a sermon
- recognize child for their growing testimony, not just for schooling
- relationship between obedience and knowledge
- we can follow leaders, but for still know for ourselves
- Elder Robert D. Hales ** may use this as a lesson **
- solemn assembly was not a vote
- it was a commitment to uphold the commandments and a prophet of God
- knowing God and Jesus
- learned through Articles of Faith
- talk was all about Jesus
- Elder Gerald N. Lund
- opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit
- the Spirit will enter our heart only if we allow it
- Pride desensitizes our hearts
- Elder Carlos A. Amado ** may use this as a lesson **
- 3 purposes for the Saviour
- assignment to carry out infinite/eternal sacrifice
- teach the doctrine
- build the kingdom by serving others
- Elder William R. Walker
- organization of presidencies
- virtually all leaders serve in a presidency… a president with two counsellors
- you can’t be a one-man operation
- won’t use as lesson, but will probably discuss at Ward Council Meeting
- Elder Richard G. Scott
- speaking to those who suffer from or cause various causes of abuse
- tough topic; gave a lot of “disclaimers” at the start; I assume he was asked to give a talk on this topic
- healing can come through atonement
- won’t use as lesson, but will keep on hand as a reference if the need arises
- Elder L. Tom Perry
- gospel of Jesus is a recipe for eternal life
- enduring to the end is not a “do it yourself” project
Read the recaps from the other sessions of General Conference:
Posted in Mormon Church Doctrine and Teachings, Mormon Church Meetings, Mormon General Conference 2 Comments »
April 5, 2008
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, so I figured this was as good a topic as any to get going again. This morning we packed up the kids and got to the chapel just before noon so we could watch the first session of General Conference. I don’t take extensive notes, but since I need to come up with lessons for the 4th Sunday for the next 6 months, I do make a few notes. Here are my notes/observations from this session of conference:
- D. Todd Christofferson was called as the new apostle. I know nothing about him, but the Deseret News has a bit of information about him.
- There was no option for the General Authorities to oppose the sustaining. It wasn’t until they got to the Area Authorities and other Melchizedek priesthood holders that there was an option for opposition. Why is that? Do they sustain him in a different sort of solemn assembly beforehand (earlier on)?
- Two Area Seventies from the North America Northeast area were released, Elder Ross McEachran and Elder Anthony Temple. I only recognized one replacement… David Murray, president of the Brampton Stake was called as an Area Seventy.
- The YW General Presidency was changed
- Elder Russell M. Nelson
- developing faith
- the home is God’s laboratory of love & service
- give correction to children in private
- show forth increase of love quickly
- salvation is individual, exaltation is family
- Elder Ronald A. Rasband ** may use this as a lesson **
- experience for our good
- what experiences strengthen your testimony?
- building our house of faith
- Sister Cheryl C. Lant
- family traditions
- what patterns and traditions are we giving to our children?
- Elder Kenneth Johnson
- never accept less than your best in your family
- Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin ** may use this as a lesson **
- true disciples of Christ are concerned with the one
- need more compassion for those who are different than us
- we all make mistakes, but how do we respond?
- President Henry B. Eyring ** may use this as a lesson **
- the Church is both true and living
- the keys are held by mortals
- measure the depth of our gratitude for membership in the Church
- know by the Holy Ghost how we can do better in keeping the commandments
- the faith of the members have improved the Church
- we need to reach out and act
- God honours the priesthood keys he has given to the leaders
Read the recaps from the other sessions of General Conference:
Posted in Mormon Church Doctrine and Teachings, Mormon Church Meetings, Mormon General Conference 4 Comments »
March 10, 2008
Although the posting is dated from Friday, today an official picture of the new First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was released. I quite like it.
You can download a large version of the picture from the Newsroom.
Posted in Mormon Church Hierarchy, Mormon Church in the News No Comments »
March 9, 2008
My ward is in St. Catharines, Ontario, and we got hit big time by that huge snow storm yesterday. It started snowing Friday night, and snowed for about 24 hours straight. We always get snow each winter (remember, we are in Canada), but we almost never get this amount of snow. The Stake President had emailed us and told us to watch the weather in our area and then make a decision on whether or not to hold meetings on Sunday. Yesterday at about 4 pm, I decided to cancel Church.
It always feels weird to “cancel” Church. First of all, Church doesn’t really feel like something you can cancel. I’d go to Church every week, regardless of the weather. If we only had 10 people show up, I’m sure we would have had a wonderful meeting. I just felt that for the safety of the members, it was best to cancel the meetings. Unfortunately, there are people who feel obligated to go to Church. If the weather is bad, I’m sure they feel that God will protect them. I’m not so sure that is the case. If I thought that God would protect us all while driving, then I’d never need to cancel Church, but there are so many variables (weather, other people’s agency, etc). I just felt it was safer to have everyone stay at home.
We had a little Sacrament Meeting here at home. My 5-year-old picked “I love to see the temple” as our opening hymn. I administered the Sacrament. My wife gave a short thought, and then my 3-year-old picked “Follow the Prophet” (the Samuel verse) as our closing hymn. It was nice.
Incidentally, this was the second time this year I’ve canceled Church. In the previous 8 years I’ve been in the area, Church has been canceled a total of 2 times. Now in one year we’ve matched that total. We’ve certainly had some crazy weather!
Posted in Mormon Sacrament Meeting 2 Comments »
March 5, 2008
I Friday I received a phone call from the Research Information Division of the Church (part of the Correlation Department). This is the division that does the surveys (research) whenever the Church wants to know about things. In this case, they were calling Branch Presidents and Bishops to find out about issues that their members were struggling with. The person did not ask for any names. He asked generic questions asking if since I’ve been Bishop, have I had a member challenged by women issues, the Church and politics, gay rights, etc? How many people? In the last year have I had a member challenged by those issues? How many people?
I was on the phone with him for about 5 minutes, and then he thanked me for my time and said good by. He gave no indication what they would do with the information they gathered, or who it was for.
Posted in Mormon Church Bureaucracy 6 Comments »
March 1, 2008
Essentially every week I get a large envelope with various memos in it from Church headquarters. The packet I got this week had the first memo with signatures from all three members of the new First Presidency. The memo was dated February 6, 2008 and is called “Reissued Statement son Missionary Work”. If you’re into this sort of thing, here are the signatures:
I was impressed with how illegible President Uchtdorf’s signature is (compared to the other two). My own signature is pretty bad, and it’s nice to see someone else who has a signature that isn’t easily read 
Posted in Mormon Church Hierarchy No Comments »
February 29, 2008
It seems that the buzz in the Bloggernacle is about the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. I don’t really anything to add to the discussion which has already taken place, but here are a few links:
Posted in General Religion and Spirituality No Comments »
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