All those years of the joy of having my own class were so exciting to me!! What a way to grow and learn about the Gospel. Study and share. When it ended several years ago I really sort of felt myself floundering and wasn't able to recapture the excitement and joy I'd previously felt. I tried all sorts of ways to study and none satisfied. A lot of times I sort of dreaded it as I wasn't excited to get into it but I was always feeling great by the time I'd read things. Sometimes I followed along in some sort of a past Seminary book or study guide or commentary.
Every thing changed though when I figured out how to use Conference talks to teach myself. I can generate the same feeling, the excitement of learning and understanding, experiencing the joy of learning, knowing the Holy Ghost has testified to me of some truth. I can understand doctrinal things by a study of the Conference Reports.
I LOVE IT!!
So simple. I take a Conference talk and, if I choose- I first relax and just listen to it on my computer. Then I take my magazine. just my plain old paper Ensign. nothing new and modern. I love paper and I love to mark pages and flip through pages and make notes in margins. Did I mention I love the feel of paper as I read? I do! Then I check and read all of the footnotes and pull up all of the references as far as other talks and read those also.
The footnote study is essential, as this shows me what the speaker has been led to study, in preparation of the remarks that are delivered. I've read all sorts of things by checking out the footnotes. For instance in the last April Conference, Elder Cook's address- In Tune with the Music of Faith, footnote 2 reads....
2. Jonathan Sacks, “Has Europe Lost Its
Soul?” (address delivered on Dec. 12, 2011, at the Pontifical Gregorian
University), chiefrabbi.org/ReadArtical.aspx?id=1843.
I can access this online and actually view the Rabbi who met with the Pope deliver this address. I would never have seen or heard about this except for that footnote.
From the footnotes I learn of books that are used in their research and several are common to many of the speakers. That leads me to read those books. If Lectures on Faith, or the like, is mentioned quite often then I feel to read it. There are Wall Street Journal articles and other type of data from the world, so to speak. I can access the full article online and see how all of this helps to make or clarify the Gospel point being made in the brief allotted conference talk time.
Footnotes, study of them, makes me feel that I'm being tutored by the speaker. I'm gaining access to the path he went in developing the inspired concept for that extremely condensed information. The footnotes expand the talk, make me think and ponder and enjoy immensely learning.
In some footnotes the speaker gives asides to what was said and it's very personal. Sort of like a ...oh, by the way, I..... Like Elder Cook's- In Tune with the Music of Faith- footnotes 8, 14, 16, 19, 21, 22, 25
21. I met Dr. Ebeid Sarofim in London when
the elders were teaching him. See also N. Eldon Tanner, in Conference
Report, Apr. 1962, 53. Many scholars of ancient Semitic and Egyptian
writings have noted the repetitive use of the conjunctive phrase “And it
came to pass” at the beginning of sentences; see Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah, 2nd ed. (1988), 150.
Elder Cook's talk....
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/in-tune-with-the-music-of-faith?lang=eng
Sometimes favorite quotes, that I have absorbed into my soul, are used in a talk and I feel comforted and on the right track.
Sometimes a personal incident is shared, of how they were inspired by something they had heard at a General Conference and how it impacted them and they give that reference. Maybe it's an incident that also impacted my life and I realize that we are all sharing our mortal journey here and are so much alike as children of God. Like footnote 14 in Elder Cook's talk. Two things come to me when that happens. One is the law of witnesses. It's a double whammy. when they bear testimony of what someone else has said then it intensifies the impact and importance for me. It becomes even more real to me.
Sometimes they footnote hymns and I like to sing them. sometimes on the interactive Church music site for my solo accompaniment!!
Sometimes there are no footnotes but just parenthetical things and I study those also.
Sometimes there are great Scripture chains in footnotes. A compilation of the most relevant scriptures relating to the speakers subject. For instance Elder Packers recent talk on children, at this last Conference, has great powerful footnote scriptures about their worth.
I cannot imagine preparing and sharing a talk and it goes to press and it can't be tweaked. And yet that is the rules of the game if you speak at General Conference. It's set in stone! Of interest to me is the fact that they do add greater insight or greater conviction by sometimes repeating a part of a previous talk and share a bit more information.
For instance....
In 1987 I heard Elder Packer speak at Oct. Conf... The Balm of Gilead. I was sort of caught off guard as he told a story that I knew I'd heard before and felt it was by Elder Monson. I wondered why he didn't credit him- for this very distinct story about forgiveness and letting go. Recently in my study and quest for greater spiritual growth I was led to Elder Packer's 1977 Oct. Conf. talk entitled Balm of Gilead. He mentions right in the 1987 talk that 10 years earlier he'd spoken on that same subject and I had forgotten that fact. Each talk had the same main story but the second talk built on the first talk. Check them out!
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/print/1977/10/the-balm-of-gilead?lang=eng&clang=eng
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1987/10/balm-of-gilead?lang=eng
Elder Cook mentions in footnote 14 about a favorite talk of mine. on the "approximate 1980" date he lists the talk, by Elder Oaks, was given when he was BYU President, I don't know about that particular one but I do know that Elder Oaks talked about Sins and Mistakes twice. In 1994 as an Apostle at BYU and then at General Conference in 1996. There is so much information in the combined talks!! Amazing!
http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7718&x=45&y=7
http://www.lds.org/ensign/1996/10/sins-and-mistakes?lang=eng
So now you know I figured out how to once again feel that I have My Own Class!!! Me!! And what a joy it is to have no imposed deadlines to do a lesson tomorrow or next week or next month but to just leisurely be totally self-indulgent at this wondrous stage of my life. When I finish studying this current CR then I'll go to one of my other old magazines and start selecting from the banquet table for my feasting. No rush, just steady studying and enjoying the journey!!
I 100% believe that Conference Report talks are true and they are Scripture. Not only because the Scriptures tell me so (D&C 1:38 and D&C 68:3-4) but I have my own conviction way down deep inside me. Soul deep.
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