Share your thoughts on the Saturday Afternoon session here. The session will begin at 2:00 pm Mountain Daylight Time.

Viewing times and options: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/general-conference/live-viewing-times-and-options?lang=eng

As a reminder, it helps to directly reference the speaker so that people know who you are talking about in your comment.

If you have children or teenagers, consider checking out the church's resources for younger members found here: https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/general-conference-activities-for-children-and-youth

I want to begin be saying I love my daughter and nothing will ever change that. I will always pray for her and hope for her.

We have always been strong active members of the church, taught our daughters to love the Savior and serve others. They are amazing young women and I am so proud of them both. But my oldest, who is 22, has always been very stubborn and rebellious. She does things she knows we won't like or agree with just to get a reaction out of us. We learned this early and stopped giving her the reactions she wanted. She only comes with us to church because I ask her to be there with us when she is home. If she makes plans with her boyfriend though, she will always choose him and stay out all weekend. She has multiple piercings and only wears black. She looks very dark and unapproachable, but she is so compassionate and caring. She loves people and is so sweet to anyone she comes in contact with. Not the persona she gives off at all.

She is someone who changes herself to please her boyfriends, which really bothers me because I worry she doesn't know who she truly is herself. Well, this morning she came to us very excited as we were watching conference but let us finish before telling us her boyfriend found a tattoo artist and paid the down payment for her to get her first tattoo. I am not sure what reaction she was hoping to get from me, but I am sure it is not what I gave her. I basically just told her it was her body but she knew how I felt and to not expect me to be excited with her. (Actually, I probably gave her exactly the reaction she wanted this time).

I know she is walking her own road and has to stumble and learn for herself, but it is so hard to let go of the future I wanted for her. I have nothing against people who have tattoos, I just didn't want that for my children. I worry that the more she allows her boyfriend to influence her and the more she alters her body, the further she will fall away. I know it could be so much worse, she could be on drugs or other things, and I am grateful she hasn't gone that far. I know she is an adult and I can't do anything but love her. I think that's the hardest part though, letting go of my child and accepting that she's an adult. LOL I'm not really looking for advice. I guess I just wanted to talk with people who might understand where I'm coming from and understand my heartache. Thank you for reading.

https://ksltv.com/689871/be-peacemakers-in-polarizing-political-times-latter-day-saint-leader-urges/

“We need to love and do good to all,” said President Oaks. “We need to avoid contention and be peacemakers in all our communications. This does not mean to compromise our principles and priorities, but to cease harshly attacking others for theirs.”

“Just as dynamite without nitroglycerin is unremarkable, the Savior’s Church is special only if it is built on His gospel. Without the Savior’s gospel and the authority to administer the ordinances thereof, the Church isn’t exceptional.”

I’m loving the humility of this idea, that we need to be careful to make sure we are reflecting the true gospel of Jesus Christ, else we aren’t anything special.

Translation: it’s not ‘the church’ that makes the church special; it’s the gospel that makes the church special.

The church just released messages from the 2024 October conference leadership session. These are incredible messages from several of the leaders of the church directed towards helping us to focus for the next six months on important principles that will also be emphasized during general conference.

President Nelson shared a special message with a reference to psalms section 136. Though a very brief poem, it helps to underline the entirety of the message of Scriptures and a reminder that everything that happens is because of the love of God for us and specifically for his covenant people as we make promises with him and become as he wants us to become.

I love this church and I know that President Nelson is called of God. I know that this message is inspired and something that we all need to make a much bigger part of our vocabulary and knowledge as we testify of the goodness and Hesed of divinity

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/leadership-instruction-october-2024/01-nelson?lang=eng

Share your thoughts on the Saturday morning session here. The session will begin at 10:00 am Mountain Daylight Time.

Viewing times and options: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/general-conference/live-viewing-times-and-options?lang=eng

As a reminder, it helps to directly reference the speaker so that people know who you are talking about in your comment.

If you have children or teenagers, consider checking out the church's resources for younger members found here: https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/general-conference-activities-for-children-and-youth

TW: Big Mental Health Issues

Hey, I just wanted to reach out to this sub about different materials (conference talks, scriptures, gospel books, texts not published directly by the church, other posts from this subreddit, literally anything) about overcoming despair and continuing to grow faith.

To add context, Ive been a member since birth. My mission didnt end quite as I expected and I served half as a service missionary. I struggled with depression, suicidal thoughts, and self harm. And I continue to struggle with pornography use and gender identity. I generally have a bleak outlook on life. I try to study the scriptures and pray but it doesn’t feel like enough.

Im trying to continue with faith and continue going to church but its hard to see God’s hand in my life and at times its hard to just believe there is a loving God. Im mainly just spiritually taxed from said struggles and am trying to find what is the truth.

Any suggested materials to read and study would be great. (Advice is also appreciated but Im more focused on materials to study) Thanks

My friend is a Latter Day Saint and i was wondering if Joseph Smith is a saint?

I’ve already discussed this topic many many times here about repentance, I already know everything about it at this point, but there is just one thing that I cannot get over with repenting and telling my sin to the bishop, which is procrastinating, I literary always tell myself that I will repent after something happens, but then something shows up, and so on… and idk I just feel more and more unworthy as the time goes by (which is fair) and i fear the consequences, like having my whole family think bad about me or the bishop just not seeing me as the same anymore, not to mention that my participation while serving and being present during Sunday classes will be very apparent that I’ve done crap. Like I know I gotta face the consequences, but nothing that I tell myself will get me out of this procrastination feeling, I once went 3 months without watching porn and masturbating, but I didn’t tell the bishop because I was scared, and I’ve been procrastinating since then and probably will be. I wanted to hear from some people that have already gone through it so that I can stop being such a coward in front of the savior and the lord.

A quick background about me I am 25M and my divorce was finalized a year ago, we had no kids. My ex and I have been together since we were 20 so needless to say we were young and I still am. We were both equally at fault and as much as I wanted to get help and save our marriage she wanted out, however at the end of the day there was no abuse or infidelity of any kind on both sides. I wish her the best and hope she can also find a great partner one day. It took me a while to accept that I was divorced but within that year I went to lots of counseling and fully recognized my faults and have been working on them ever since.

I am from Las Vegas and am currently staying with my parents while I deal with all of this. I have a job opportunity in Utah (West Jordan) and I know it's time to get back out there and start living my life again. People always say dating in Utah is horrible. I don't expect to meet my wife on the first date or get married in less than a year. I also fully realize some women might have issues with me being divorced which is totally fine. I know what I want in a relationship and more specifically a woman, but I also don't plan on dating with the intention of getting married(even though I want to). I have grown up a lot this past year and am past the phase of causal relationships. I want a serious relationship where we are both equally committed. I guess what am asking is dating in Utah, especially as a divorced person that bad? Is it a plus I am still young? Also, does anyone have any advice about dating again, I am nervous as heck?

Hi, I found this sub after searching others relationated with the church(subs controlled by critics and those who have left). I wanted to leave the church (2 times) by the critics and missiformation that runs in internet. After researching (I'm still doing), praying and been helped by my family (specially my father), church local leaders and helpful resources, I am on my way to back with a stronger faith.

Hello Friends! My kids were brainstorming how to make personalized general conference packets (like bingo) for each apostle. They came up with the idea of doing a "word cloud" to see what words each apostle is most likely to say, based on their last 3 conference talks. My 15yo son put these all together in a Google slide show that I thought you might enjoy. Happy General Conference!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zmZz7zEBo6cr1DjajpeTwBH5yKhmvbYiyg7jBBcno64/edit?usp=sharing

Does anyone know if the Saturday evening Conference session is shorter than 2 hours? I think I remember it being closer to 1.5 hours, but Church newsroom describes Conference as "five two-hour sessions". I'm trying to plan my Saturday evening and this would be helpful to know.

My best friend confided in me that she feels that people don’t like her, but that they love me.

I’m struggling with what to tell her because I feel like as I searched my soul… maybe the reason why I’m “loved” is because I am a massive people pleaser and I always want people to happy with me.

I’ll listen to people’s political opinions, and just nod & act like I agree even if I don’t. Like at all. I’ll pretend to appreciate the loads of unsolicited advice rained on me all the time. If I’m with the youth, I’ll smile and act like I enjoy their music when it’s annoying, I’ll listen to kids talk about bugs for as long as they want as long as their parents seem to like it and then I’ll banter with the parents about their pyramid scheme or something else I have absolutely zero interest. As I was pondering this, I felt so much guilt. All the time I thought I had friends because I was kind, but really it’s because I’ve been a disingenuous pushover. lol. And even more insidious is this pride or making myself feeling good by being nice. Idk. I make a huge effort to text people for their birthdays, but maybe it’s not for any other reason than to feel relevant… or to have them know I’m a nice person that remembered them…and I realized that’s about ME feeling good. Sounds just like the pharisees making it about being seen of men to be friendly or kind…

The Savior was literally perfect, but loads of people didn’t like Him. Being liked by everyone isn’t actually a good goal then.

Does anyone have any advice on how to overcome people pleasing and instead only worry about pleasing God?

My husband officially decided about two years ago that he wanted nothing more to do with the church. He learned some things about church history and some current issues that bothered him and went down an antimormon rabbit hole. It was devastating for me then, and we fought a lot for several months. We finally got to a point where I felt we were respecting each other's beliefs and decisions and that we were going to be okay.

Recently, some things have come out that have made me realize that we are at more of an impasse than an understanding. Our oldest child is about to turn 6, so we have a couple of years before we need to decide what to do about baptism. I thought my husband had agreed to let him be baptized at 8, but apparently he just felt it wasn't worth fighting over when it's so far off. We have had a couple of arguments recently where I I've realized he is still very angry and bitter about the church. He is still constantly listening to church critical podcasts and spends a lot of time on reddit looking at anti content. He has expressed that he feels frustrated that we can't talk about spiritual matters without fighting, but any time we have those discussions, he just wants to attack the church and gets angry and defensive about his decision to leave. For a while, I was holding out hope that he would someday come back, but it's hard to hope for that when his heart seems so hard.

I am feeling some resentment again. I feel like I trusted him with the most important thing to me: eternal life with my husband and children, and he's stolen it. I'm terrified for my childrens' spiritual future. I don't necessarily blame my husband for wanting different things for them than I do. He genuinely sees the church as harmful. But I do feel that I chose to marry him with the understanding that we would be spiritual partners, especially in raising children, and that it's a betrayal for him to fight me on their spiritual upbringing.

I don't know exactly what I'm looking for by posting. Maybe just to vent in a safe place. I really don't like to criticize my husband to people we know, but I'm feeling so alone and broken and lost. I feel like a shell trying to keep on top my responsibilities. I love my husband, and I want desperately for us to work. I just don't know how to make that happen without compromising what's most important to me. We've started couples therapy so hopefully that's a good start, but it's hard to approach that from a spiritual perspective. I don't know. I guess any advice or personal experiences would be appreciated.

I heard a member mention recently that there is a power point available by Elder Oaks in the leader and clerk resources section that suggests that there haven't been enough membership councils in recent years and that local leaders need to step up in holding more membership councils and to be more restrictive in their disciplinary actions than they have been in the recent past. There is a video by RFM that goes over the alleged PowerPoint. I'm not about to just blindly trust that some PowerPoint online is authentic, but I also am not a bishop or clerk so I'm wondering if any local leaders can verify whether this information is accurate?

Edit: thanks for the responses, it looks like I have my answer

My son is serving an LDS mission, he is barely into the field, but getting him there has been not so easy. Due to visa problems (twice), he was transferred to a stateside mission until next transfer (correct Visa, came 2 days after he left)

He is struggling and is wanting to come home, there were things he cleared up with bishop and stake president, but his guilt is clouding him and his judgement.

His mom and I have told him to pray; to lean into it, to give it one more day, but each time he says “I just want to come home to talk to the Stake President. He’s super stubborn in everything he does :)

Has anyone had a similar experience? As a family member, as a missionary?

The old “tell him to buck up and go to work” isn’t really what we’re looking for, we’ve already told him that part

I am in the stake Relief Society presidency in my Stake. And I was wondering if anyone has ever built a website with all of the available community resources in the area? We have heard of someone making a booklet. But I’m just wondering what else is out there. Thanks

So I love my church and will forever stay with it. But I sometimes watch animes such as black clover, naruto, etc. Should I continue to watch it? Because my friends are also fellow lds members, and I always hide the fact that I watch it from them. I want to fine people I can relate to. I also read webtoon from time to time

I’m curious your thoughts on the nature of Jesus’ suffering as part of the Atonement, in order to meet the demands of justice.

Who’s demanding it, exactly? Who is it exactly that is requiring this justice, this payment? Explanations I’ve heard include:

1. GOD REQUIRES IT

In this explanation, God is angry with His children when they sin. It is His anger toward us that must be satisfied. Our sin is an offense to God’s honor, and this makes Him angry, wrathful, and vengeful. He demands that somebody pay for these offenses against Him and His honor.

This is the typical Christian (especially Evangelical) view, though not very loving at all. See Jonathan Edwards’ famous 18th century preaching “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

It’s almost as if He essentially kills innocent Jesus in order to satisfy His own anger toward us. I don’t like where this leads at all. It feels like familial abuse from Dad, and gratitude is mixed with guilt and shame towards the sibling that “took our licking for us.”

2. 'THE UNIVERSE' REQUIRES IT

Here, God basically says, I wish I didn’t have to do this, but my hands are tied! On account of Alma 42 this feels to be more our church’s view. Verses 13 and 25 state:

Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God. What, do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God.

Does this mean ‘the law of justice’ is some ethereal concept that even God Himself is subject to? If He violated this law, and ceased to be God, would the paradox violate the entire time-space continuum and suddenly everything collapses and there is no universe or mass or creation or anything?

This idea is less revolting to my sensibilities yet it still feels somehow kind of limiting, as though God cannot be only be merciful to the “truly penitent.”

SO IS IT 'THE UNIVERSE' THAT MUST BE SATISFIED? OR GOD? OR SOMEONE/SOMETHING ELSE?

We often talk about sin as incurring a debt. In a now famous 1977 conference address (“The Mediator”) Elder Packer uses a parable of a debt incurred that a foolish young man was later unable to repay his creditor.

”Then,” said the creditor, “we will exercise the contract, take your possessions, and you shall go to prison.. You signed the contract, and now it must be enforced.”

The creditor replied, “Mercy is always so one-sided. It would serve only you. If I show mercy to you, it will leave me unpaid. It is justice I demand.”

To me it seems Packer is saying it’s God that demands payment for sin as justice.

HOW WE HUMANS HANDLE OUR DEBTS WITH ONE ANOTHER

As society has evolved, we no longer throw people in prison for unpaid debts. When a lender voluntarily agrees to a less-than-full payment with a debtor, the debtor forebears and the creditor is forgiven. (Here I’m not talking about bankruptcy law which forces terms in the creditor; but situations of voluntary debt forgiveness such as loan workouts, short sales, debt renegotiation, etc.)

In all voluntary debt forgiveness in modern society NOBODY makes up the difference. The creditor just forgives it, and receives no payment from any mediator.

According to Elder Packer and Alma 42 (and a whole corpus of church teachings) justice for the creditor did not happen. If Alma saw this he would be horrified and claim that mercy robs justice—inconceivable! It’s just 100% mercy and 0% justice.

But the creditor is okay with it. Should not God be at least as generous as modern day lenders in a capitalist economy?

WHAT DOES "FORGIVE" REALLY MEAN, ANYWAY?

Critical to understand here is the original meanings of the word fore-give. The prefix fore- or for- means to refrain. When combined with -bear (verb, from Old English beran, meaning "to bring forth, sustain, endure") the word forbear means "to refrain from bringing forth" or to refrain for executing the weight of justice, for now at least.

"Give" means to grant to another, or to release a claim on (“give in marriage”). Therefore we can understand "forgive" to mean to refrain from/release one’s rightful claim on another. In other words, in forgiveness there is no justice. Nobody pays the debt. That's literally what forgive means (as when we forgive one another).

I’m reminded of the line in the Lord’s Prayer:

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

MY OWN THOUGHTS

I’ve been thinking about this deeply for several months now and feel like I’ve found an answer that satisfies me. It’s neither of these two options, but here’s an intimation:

I think the secret to this understanding is found in Jesus’ parable as found in the NT including Matthew 20.

Jesus tells of a householder whose kind dealings with some less fortunate laborers bothers others. It doesn’t match with their sense of justice, which they claim is being violated. Those who worked longer but got the same pay complain:

These last have wrought but one hour and though hastily made them equal to us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.

But he answered them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong.. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?

One of my all time favorite talks is Elder Holland’s April 2012 address “The Laborers in the Vineyard.” He describes it like this:

”Surely I am free to do what I like with my own money.” Then this piercing question to anyone then or now who needs to hear it: ”Why should you be jealous because I choose to be kind?”

It seems to me that God is kind. The ones wrapped up in concepts of justice is us, His children. So I return to the original question: precisely whose ‘justice’ must be satisfied?

Edit: grammar

Wanted to share my testimony regarding what happened during one of the lessons that I sat on with the missionaries. They had a lesson with a younger man and invited me to be there as a recent convert. We were all taking turns talking to him and reading from the Book of Mormon. We were reading the very last chapter of Moroni. All of a sudden, I felt that something was overcoming me as if someone else was present in the room. I got this feeling of total fulfillment, love and peace. At first, I thought maybe I was just being emotional but then the other missionaries commented: can you feel that? And we were all looking at one another. I realized that the Holy Ghost was present. It was one of the best feelings in the world. I had such a great day after our meeting. I came back home and wanted to make something for the Church so I could share with my friends. So I made this using a photo I took at the beach last summer. Thought I’d share my experience and the picture I created too.

I can confidently say I'm not worried about my standing before God. It's not like wanting the mountains to cover me when Christ comes kind of thing. But since I was a kid, whenever I really think about eternity and the idea of just living and existing forever and ever and ever and onward, I just feel intense fear/discomfort/anxiety about the idea. Thankfully it's not like this is frequently a subject that comes to mind. But it's hard to ignore when reading scriptures about the Second Coming, Millennium, and beyond, and knowing that time is just getting closer and soon it will be here. I trust that day will be more joyful than I can comprehend. I'm excited. But it's just way too big for my tiny mortal brain I guess? Any suggestions on how I can overcome this?

How do you prepare to make General conference a great experience for your toddler? What traditions did you start with your kids when they were little?

I'm coming here as a Christian and right now I'm just exploring the different branches/denominations and what each of them believe. I grew up Baptist, went to VBS (vacation bible school, was a little summer program) but stopped going to church for years up until a few months ago. It was a non-denominational church and had nice people, but I don't think it strengthened my relationship with God like I was hoping for. So that's what made me start looking into other churches, and LDS is one of them.

I've been researching and reading through this sub, other Christian subs, watching Youtube, etc things like that. Baptists, Catholics and well.. literally every denomination that exists all state LDS isn't Christian. A main reason being: You don't believe in the Trinity. I sincerely want to hear more about your church and your beliefs.

When you say you don't believe in the Trinity, and say instead there's 3 separate beings can you elaborate? So the Trinity is Jesus and only Jesus in 3 different forms, but in one main entity. LDS believes in the Godhead right? Does that mean you believe in the same God just in 3 separate entities as opposed to one main entity or three distinct Gods and Jesus is only one of the three you worship?

I hope that doesn't sound confusing, and I'm sorry if it's a stupid question.

I was struck, while reading Helaman 4:2 and thinking back to other instances, that much if not all of the Nephites who invariably ended up leaving or being thrown out and then went on stirring up the Lamanites were those who could not leave others alone, and wanted to control them in one form or another.

Sure, assuming you didn't want to believe and you were sick of the 'God bothering' of the Nephites, and chief judges popping in for a period of months long conferences, there was no law saying or forcing belief or obedience to the Gospel... Only, what seems to be, fair laws.

Where it constantly falls apart seems to be those who believe they know better or want power for that end alone. I.E - they just can't seem to leave others alone to live according to their own way of life.

Is there any apostate Nephites who don't fit that mold?

Please share your testimony of the church… I wanna hear your story, I’m specifically asking for converts testimonies, I keep getting doubts, then faith and it just keeps going like a cycle, I pray but I don’t think I’m getting answers… please share your testimony!

We're going to do proxy initiatories and an endowment session at the St. George temple next week while on vacation and I was curious if patrons are allowed to walk around the temple once inside and in white clothing? I would love to see the baptistry since my grandmother's proxy baptism was done at this temple, but I feel kind of silly asking. I don't want to be in the way or cause more work for people!

We have been in our local temple so many times at this point that we never actively want to "look around" because we've seen it all, but I would love to be able to see a little bit more of the temple since we will be there.

When I was young my mother lefft our church and joined another christian church. She became convinced that we are in a cult and that we wernt "saved" and tried to do everything in her power to get us away from the religon we had grown up in.

They made us go to church with them, I broght my book of mormon, she would plan water park trips and amusement park trips that for some reason could be done no other time then sunday, I chose to go to church every time.

When I turned 16 they wouldnt take me to seminary, I get that it was early at 5:30 am. But also wouldnt let anyone pick me up at first. So I got up even earlier and rode my bike the five miles.

Finally I was sent to live with Dad exclusively, because they thought I was responsible for keeping my brothers in the church. I understood why, it was a sacrafice the one to save the many. I forgive her for that, she was trying her best with the knowledge she had. Honestly there isnt a mother out there that loves her children more. you wont see that from the short bit Ive shared here, but its really true. Which kind of made it all that much more painful. And it turned out that the sacrafice of the one did not save the many, my younger brothers remained active and served missions and married in the temple anyway.

This is the kind of thing that can happen when fear gets in the way of faith, when we dont trust god enough to be big enough or merciful enough to understand to save the children who dont see him the same we we see him, that dont think the ways we think, that dont do things the way we do them.

And yet we say that man looketh on the outward appears but the lord looketh on the heart. And if he looks on the heart then he sees oh you had this experience and that experience and so you think x and say y and do z and I understand that and I love you.

We say that Jesus did the opposite of sacraficing the one to safe the many, he taught us to leave the many and go after the one. Thats right, I can feel that it is right.

This experience in my life has impacted me quite profoundly. I was reflecting on it earlier after I heard of the recent excomunication of a fellow Latter-day Saint for the given reason of opposition to church leaders. While I generally think excomuncation is much more harmful then helpful I think the purpose of excomunication is diffrent when done for sin vs opposition. When done for sin, it could be claimed that the purpose is to get people to repent (I still dont think its good) but in the case of opposition to church leaders it seems that the true reason is more along the line of sacraficing the one to safe the many. One reason I think this is that its fine to believe things contrary to church leaders, saying them privately or publically wont get you X'd its only the high profile ones that get punished.

To me it feels just the same as my experience with my mother, sacraficing the one to save the many. I dont think works I think it just inflicts pain on the entire community like my experience inflicted pain on my entire family. I thinks its a practice born out of fear and not faith..

Jesus said to go after the one, not to disfellowship them.

Paul said that even with our differences we are all necessary members of the body of Christ.

Joseph Smith said that it didnt prove that a man was bad to err doctrine and that he wanted the liberty of believing as he pleased.

I pray that as we move forward in the restoration of the gospel and church that there will come a day when such practices are done away, and we learn a better holier way. Until then I will offer to God my broken heart, and mourn with those that mourn.

This is mainly about expenses and saving. Does embalming really help out to dress the deceased in their temple clothing or could we dress the deceased with out having to embalm? Trying to see if we could we pass on the embalming fee or not. (We’re thinking of either only having an immediate family private viewing or just doing closed casket)

Any opinions welcomed, thank you!