Saturday Morning in a Nutshell

President Eyring conducted the Saturday morning session, which featured brief remarks from President Monson and talks from Elder Scott, Sister Matsumori, Elder Clayton, Brother Osguthorpe, Elder Bednar, and President Uchtdorf. Direct quotations (based on my notes) are given in quotes; phrases without quotes are my summary of the remarks.

President Thomas S. Monson:

  • Announced five new temples: Brigham City, Utah; Concepcion, Chile; somewhere in Brazil; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Sapporo, Japan.

Elder Richard G. Scott of the Twelve, on being guided by the Spirit:

  • A humble but struggling priesthood leader in Mexico teaching a lesson moved Elder Scott to inspiration regarding his assignment there, while a well-educated Sunday School teacher in the States, using obscure examples, struck Elder Scott as one trying to impress rather than edify or inspire his class.

Sister Vicki F. Matsumori, Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency, on feeling the Spirit:

  • Being touched by the Spirit is like being wrapped in a blanket.

Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy, on bearing burdens:

  • “People struggle everyday under burdens that tax their souls.”

Russell T. Osguthorpe, General President of the Sunday School, on teaching:

  • “We are all teaching future leaders of the Church.”
  • “Learning and teaching are not optional activities in the Kingdom of God.”

Elder David A. Bednar of the Twelve, on being more diligent and concerned at home:

  • “Express love, and show it.”
  • “Bear testimony, and live it.”
  • “Be consistent.”

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, on showing love as a disciple of Christ and the unconditional love of God for us:

  • We become disciples of Jesus Christ by showing love: If ye love me, keep my commandments.
  • “Love should be our walk and our talk.”
  • “Love is the way of the disciple.”

What other highlights caught your attention in these talks?

16 comments for “Saturday Morning in a Nutshell

  1. Elder Uctdorf:

    Love should be the center of our life in:
    1. family
    2. callings
    3. livelihood

    Interesting. Family and callings are obvious. Livelihood? Not so much. It’s easy in some nurturing professions (teaching, nursing, etc.), but what about others? Especially professions that thrive on conflict, my attorney friends?

  2. As I listened to President Uchtdorf, I was impressed with the importance to become more of a true disciple of Christ: more dedicated, more consecrated, more willing to give my heart completely to Him. I’ve been guilty of constantly holding back a part. Thankfully, Pres. U. is so encouraging–especially with regard to starting where you are and remembering that discipleship is a lifelong journey.

  3. Looks like someone else is already shilling for us on this thread. Feel free to delete one of us.

  4. Uctdorf’s talk was a grand slam! If we all focused on just that what he said about being a true Christian, we would have much more joy and peace in this world.

  5. President Uchtdorf is really on a roll. Every talk he’s given in conference ends up being my favorite for the next six months.

  6. I was impressed how well Sister Matsumori’s talk correlated with and built upon Elder Scott’s. Very powerful.

  7. You left out Elder Scott’s tangent on pornography! It was like the channel changed, huh, one minute he was talking about one thing and then BAM! I thought it was interesting – even though pornography is a very common topic at conferences lately, it still seemed really pertinent.

    Also sad that all there was to take away from Sister Matsumori’s talk was “the spirit is like a blanket.” I found myself feeling impatient for her time to be over, and wishing she would pronounce the G in “recognize.”

  8. A couple of things I noticed about the morning session. First, two auxiliary leaders were given prominent speaking assignments (when was the last time you heard from the General President of the Sunday School?). Second, I noticed that President Monson stood and delivered his short remarks before the Choir delivered its post-prayer song. Previously, I think the choir almost always performed a second number before the first speaker.

  9. I was excited about the announcement of a temple in Sapporo. I worked the first six months and last six months of my mission in the Sapporo area (1969-1971). At the time there was one nice meetinghouse in Sapporo. Midway through my mission, the Japan East Mission was created, with HQ in Sapporo. During my last months there, a new branch was started across town, and a new meetinghouse was being built for the established branch in Otaru, Sapporo’s ocean port.

    Anyone heard where the site for the temple is located? Maybe you permabloggers could start a thread or threads for discussion of the new temples.

  10. Kylie,

    Attorneys love their clients, not opposing counsel. In fact, an attorney comes nearest of all professions I can think of to epitomizing God’s love, because the attorneys advocate for their clients despite the things they know their clients have done wrong, just as the Savior advocates for us.

  11. If we are having a serious discussion versus engaging in the sport of taking potshots at attorneys, the starting point for us as members of the Church is to recognize that being an attorney has not prevented many people from receiving high and holy callings in the Church, such as President Hunter and President Faust, not to mention Oaks, Cook and Christofferson. There are ways to practice law that involve integrity and obedience to law and love for God, the client, and our neighbors.

    I practice environmental law. Most of what I do is helping to guide my company to comply with the law and protect the environment and public health in the process. Indeed, we are in the business of cleaning up after the Federal government, which created messes with chemical and radioactive waste in an era before we were as conscious as we are now of the long term harm such things can do, and of how far groundwater can transport them over the course of years into our rivers and drinking water. I don’t have any trouble reconciling my work with the commandment to love our neighbors.

    When it comes to litigation, generally each side believes it is on the side of the angels. Hopefully an attorney in such a controversy would maintain her integrity and not do anything that is deceptive or misleading.

    There are opportunities in many of the kinds of work an attorney does to take advantage of the other side, or of one’s own clients, through dishonest dealings. But that is also true of doctors, politicians, businessmen, and college professors. In my personal experience, the legal profession is one of the few where one’s peers take an active role in enforcing the integrity of the profession. Sadly, doctors seem to be very reluctant to take down a colleague who has made a habit of carelessness. Businessmen rarely get involved in integrity issues with a peer that they don’t deal with directly. Whether a politician ever gets to suffer for his sins depends on the political advantages or disadvantages to other politicians, who are ready to crucify one politician but exonerate another for the same conduct.

    There is plenty of litigation and need for legal services without attorneys stirring it up with artificial disputes. Those few attorneys who abuse the judicial system in order to harm the innocent are enemies of the honest lawyers who try to protect their clients. And far and away the majority of legal disputes get resolved by negotiation, a place where there is plenty of room for integrity and love.

  12. No doubt there are some loving attorneys, previous commenters being among them. And, while I picked on attorneys, Raymond’s point about doctors, politicians, businesspeople, and college professors is well taken. I’m sure a loving, kind person could find a way to be loving and kind in the most difficult of situations–and, conversely, that a deceptive, critical, harsh person could find a way to damage others even while put in the most celestial of situations. I guess it was the situation–not necessarily the particular person–that I was thinking about. Some professions seem to be based more on adversarial, combative relationships than others. I think it would be more difficult to “center” one’s livelihood on “love” in those situations. Much more difficult. But you who are there know best, so perhaps I am mistaken.

Comments are closed.