Learning through General Conference

I want to share some thoughts on how to receive personal revelation through our experience in General Conference. We should approach General Conference seeking to learn the things the Lord would have us understand and do. We should ponder questions, the answers to which will bless us, our families, and those we seek to serve. The Lord may choose to give us impressions through His Spirit as we watch General Conference--especially as we participate in faith and with a desire to learn His will for us.

I invite us to all to prayerfully listen, carefully write down impressions that come and diligently take action on the impressions received. This is a pattern the Lord uses to bless our lives and through us the lives of those around us.

Below are steps our stake presidency has asked us to take in connection with General Conference. I will be following these steps. I commend them to you. As we follow them, we will be blessed.

• Prayerfully ponder questions you need to have answered and write them down prior to conference.
• Listen carefully during the conferences for the answers to your questions.
• Record the answers you receive.
• Write down what you . . . will do with the answers you received.

Quotes to Ponder and Apply

47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom  he is like:

 48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock (Luke 6:47 - 48).

These conferences are always under the direction of the Lord, guided by His Spirit (see D&C 46:2). We are not assigned specific topics. Over weeks and months, often through sleepless nights, we wait upon the Lord. Through fasting, praying, studying, and pondering, we learn the message that He wants us to give.

Some might ask, “Why doesn’t the inspiration come more easily and quickly?” The Lord taught Oliver Cowdery, “You must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right” (D&C 9:8). Conference messages come to us after prayerful preparation, through the Holy Ghost.

This principle is true for all members of the Church as we prepare to participate in ward, stake, and general conferences. We study out in our minds what we need and desire from Heavenly Father, and we pray to understand and apply that which we are taught. As the time for conference arrives, we sacrifice other activities, “lay[ing] aside the things of this world, [to] seek for the things of a better” (D&C 25:10). Then we gather our families to hear the word of the Lord, as King Benjamin’s people did (see Mosiah 2:5)...

When I take notes at conference, I do not always write down exactly what the speaker is saying. I note the personalized direction the Spirit is giving me. 

What is said is not as important as what we hear and what we feel. That is why we make an effort to experience conference in a setting where the still, small voice of the Spirit can be clearly heard, felt, and understood…

Oh, how we need general conference! Through conferences our faith is fortified and our testimonies deepened. And when we are converted, we strengthen each other to stand strong amid the fiery darts of these last days (see Luke 22:31-32). (Robert D. Hales, “General Conference: Strengthening Faith and Testimony,” October 2013 General Conference.)

He that asketh in the Spirit shall receive in Spirit (D&C 46:28).

When the Spirit is invited into a meeting, truth is communicated beyond what is said aloud (Elder Henry B. Eyring, "A Life Founded in Light and Truth," Ensign, July 2001, 13).