Friday Favorites: My Favorite April 2016 General Conference Talks

I am still listening to the talks from the April 2016 General Conference. So far, these are my favorite talks.

What Shall We Do? by Neill F. Marriott
I loved what Sister Marriott said about being a mother. This talk made me ponder on how I could improve the way I nurture others.

"Mothers literally make room in their bodies to nurture an unborn baby—and hopefully a place in their hearts as they raise them—but nurturing is not limited to bearing children. Eve was called a “mother” before she had children.4 I believe that “to mother” means “to give life.” Think of the many ways you give life. It could mean giving emotional life to the hopeless or spiritual life to the doubter. With the help of the Holy Ghost, we can create an emotionally healing place for the discriminated against, the rejected, and the stranger. In these tender yet powerful ways, we build the kingdom of God. Sisters, all of us came to earth with these life-giving, nurturing, maternal gifts because that is God’s plan."

Refuge from the Storm by Elder Patrick Kearon
I have been so concerned about the massive refugee crisis that afflicts 60 million people around the world. Elder Kearon's remarks about the refugees and our responsibilities toward them really touched my heart. I'm working on ways to become more actively involved in my community.

"Being a refugee may be a defining moment in the lives of those who are refugees, but being a refugee does not define them. Like countless thousands before them, this will be a period—we hope a short period—in their lives. Some of them will go on to be Nobel laureates, public servants, physicians, scientists, musicians, artists, religious leaders, and contributors in other fields. Indeed, many of them were these things before they lost everything. This moment does not define them, but our response will help define us."

The Price of Priesthood Power by Elder Russell M. Nelson
Elder Nelson's stunning story about the girls he operated on who died and how he reached out to their family is one that will stay with me forever. I was really touched by his humility and desire to help this family who had lost so much.

"To bear means to support the weight of that which is held. It is a sacred trust to bear the priesthood, which is the mighty power and authority of God. Think of this: the priesthood conferred upon us isthe very same power and authority through which God created this and numberless worlds, governs the heavens and the earth, and exalts His obedient children."

What were your favorite talks from General Conference?

© 2007-2016 TIFFANY WACASER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

Spiritual Sunday: General Conference Memes

General Conference was quite the spiritual feast. Here are a few memes with wonderful quotes from the conference.

I hope you felt just as inspired as I did. If you missed it, you can check out the entire archive of the conference here.

© 2007-2016 TIFFANY WACASER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Friday Favorites: General Conference Prep, The General Women's Session, and Self-Objectification

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is having their annual General Conference this weekend. I've been seeing some great ideas of activities, notebooks and things to do to bring the whole family together for this event. Here are a few of my favorite ideas.

Montserrat over at Cranial Hiccups has a simple idea for creating General Conference notebooks.

General Conference Packets for Senior Primary Children.

Coloring pages, puzzles, and activity sheets for younger children.

A collection of General Conference Activity ideas.

The General Women's Session of General Conference was held last Saturday evening. The talks, songs, and videos blew me away. The choir was made up for girls and women from 50 different countries. You can watch it here.

One of the ladies over at Beauty Redefined recently shared the transcript of a podcast interview she was featured on. In the interview, Empowerment, Body Positivity Interview she discusses the concept of Self-objectification and the way that plays out in our culture.

This quote really made sense to me, "So who determines your power? If that “empowerment” is coming from the outside, it’s probably not real. It might feel like it is, and it’s hard to dismiss that because a lot of people are seeking it, but I think real empowerment feels a little bit more like what comes from within you; what you believe you can contribute to the world when you can stop yourself from being held back by the voice in your head that says, “You’re not worthwhile, you’re not valuable, until you fit this certain ideal or until you do this certain thing.” And that empowerment is absolutely possible. And it does take getting past and through body shame, through resilience in order to accomplish it. But by sharing photos of women’s bodies and viewing them online, we’re not going to get there. Even if you end up really liking what your body looks like, you could still be obsessed with what your body looks like.

That’s the problem, here, is that so many women are fighting for more women’s bodies to be viewed as valuable no matter what they look like. But even if they end up feeling good about their bodies, they are still very often stuck in a complete rut of self-objectifying all day long; being preoccupied about what they look like as they go about their lives. And that is not empowerment. That is something that is debilitating for women and studies back that up."

© 2007-2016 TIFFANY WACASER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED