Three Ways I Prepare for General Conference

What is General Conference?

 LDS General Conference is a weekend-long event when we have the privilege of hearing from the Lord's servants for 10 hours! Of course, it is a sacrifice. Of course, it is exhausting. But we stand in lines for the same amount of time at Disneyland and we don't complain about that. Why don't we? Because we are rewarded at the end of the wait with a fun ride. General conference is the same way, in a spiritual sense. If we choose, we can cheerfully sit through a 30-minute talk with the assurance that we will hear/feel/experience something that will truly resonate with our spirits and fill us with joy and confidence. We then quickly write down any spiritual insights, hopeful that testing them out will bless our lives. It is an invigorating experience. I have a powerful testimony of the opportunity we all have to receive special revelations as we are instructed by our Church Leaders and directly tutored by the Great Teacher; the Holy Spirit of God. (John 14:26) But in order to reap the full benefits that this conference weekend has to offer, we must begin preparing now. 

The Lord maintains an invariable desire to comfort us in our times of need and to guide us to better keep His commandments, whereby we may find greater happiness in our lives. (Mosiah 2:41). This weekend is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of this open invitation to come unto Him. Personally, I have found that the more I align my will with God's, I am blessed with greater understanding surrounding the big question marks in my life. I am presented with clear solutions to my problems. I can easily recognize the divine confirmation or gentle dissuasion regarding questions I have previously struggled to receive answers to.

Earlier today, I set specific goals focusing on the frequency and intensity of my personal scripture study, prayer, as well as my temple attendance. 

Prayer

I'm calling it an Enos prayer. I plan to pray the entire week long. CAN THIS BE DONE?! you ask. Absolutely, you forget that I have no job nor school responsibilities. JK. The truth is, after re-reading Elder Bednar's October 2008 Conference talk entitled, Pray Always, I better understand the concept of maintaining a constant prayer in one's heart. Elder Bednar summarizes how it's done: "Thus our evening prayer builds upon and is a continuation of our morning prayer. And our evening prayer also is a preparation for meaningful morning prayer. Morning and evening prayers—and all of the prayers in between—are not unrelated, discrete events; rather, they are linked together each day and across days, weeks, months, and even years. This is in part how we fulfill the scriptural admonition to “pray always” (Luke 21:36; 3 Nephi 18:15, 18; D&C 31:12). Such meaningful prayers are instrumental in obtaining the highest blessings God holds in store for His faithful children." 

Scripture Study

Before hastily checking social media first thing in the morning, I've decided to start my day off with at least 30-minutes of concentrated scripture study. Here are six keys to meaningful scripture study that can also be applied to preparing for and participating in General Conference:

• Writing down a personal question before and throughout the conference. 
• Asking for guidance through prayer.
• Pondering the things that I am reading. [Author's perspective, historical significance/scriptural patterns/cross-references, author's meaning for the reader/other personal interpretations.]
• Searching the various scripture references available to me, including canonized scripture, words of the modern-day prophets, and scripture tools.
• Thanking the Lord for the answers which I have and will continue to receive.
• Sharing my finding with those I interact with throughout the day. (Please feel free to ask me what I have been studying recently; it motivates me to maintain the habit when I think someone is going to ask me about it.) 

As I apply these scripture study principles, I know that I will earn the Lord's trust and He will bless me by allowing me to come closer to Him and see His will for me. 

Temple Attendance

Even though I am technically "available" to attend the temple more than I do, I lack the desire to do "two-a-weeks." In my mind, I understand that there is no greater blessing than to be involved in the work of the Lord; to bring about the eternal life of man (Moses 1:39), but my heart is just not in it yet. I go for mostly selfish reasons. E.g., I was blessings. I want peace. I want answers. 

I appreciate that the Brethren never badger or issue time-specific requests regarding temple attendance. Sure, temple attendance is emphasized as the ultimate in LDS worship, and members are encouraged to attend "as frequently as our schedules will allow". However, this seems to be one of those higher law issues that we are blessed to the degree to which we live the law. One day, I hope to have the desire to basically live at the temple like this one lady that I see regularly when I go; apparently, she does 3 or 4 sessions per day, multiples days a week! For me, right now, the Lord and I have agreed, twice in a week is sacrifice enough. Why don't we make such sacrifices constantly in our lives? The simple answer is that man is spiritually lazy and rebellious by nature. (Mosiah 3:19) It is at special moments, like these conference weekends, with which we are blessed to commune with God and receive those divine course corrections that will eventually lead us home. I'd like to close my thoughts with the lyrics of one of my favorite hymns, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (Performed by The BYU Combined Choirs on their A Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns album):

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

---------------- Listening to: Brigham Young University - Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing