Come, Listen to a Prophet's Voice!

The First Presidency: President Eyring, our Prophet Thomas S. Monson, and President Uchtdorf

It's that time of year again!  My favorite weekends are General Conference Weekends.  On those weekends, I get to attend church at home, in my jammies, usually curled up with my cat, Jack, with an afghan over me, and a large box of Kleenex next to me.

Starting Saturday, March 31st, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is holding General Conference in Salt Lake City.  Leaders of the church speak throughout four general sessions which are broadcast to the 14 million plus Latter-day Saints throughout the world

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will be performing during the Sunday morning broadcast (and perhaps other sessions as well).  In addition, other local choirs often sing for the Saturday sessions.  They are usually just as spectacular, musically speaking.

You can watch via BYU-TV, or on-line at LDS.org and a host of other ways, which you can easily look up on LDS.org..  The general sessions begin at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., MST Saturday and Sunday (that's 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Pacific Time).

There are no regular Sunday services in LDS meetinghouses during conference, which means that church organists and Sunday School teachers, like me, get a Sunday off!  (Insert my hearty wooo-hooo here!) It also means being really wonderfully spiritually fed for two days by excellent speakers - people I truly love and admire.

President Monson usually speaks in the opening session on Saturday, as well as the opening and closing sessions on Sunday (April 1st).  We sustain him as a prophet of God.  (Now, aren't you the least bit curious about that?  Come on, admit it!  Wouldn't you like to know what a Prophet sounds like?)

The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Like the apostles at the time of Christ, Mormon apostles are rarely called from among those with religious or theological training. One was a pilot, another a heart surgeon, and others were educators, businessmen and lawyers.

In a commentary on Patheos.com, James Faulconer, a professor of religious understanding at Brigham Young University, explains the role of an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their primary duty, which is outlined in the New Testament and other Latter-day Saint scripture.

“The most important part of what they do as apostles is the testimony that they bear of the reality that Jesus is Christ, the Messiah,” Faulconer says. “His resurrection was the first testimony to the world of his messiahship. The apostles' testimonies spread that first and fundamental testimony. Beyond whatever else the Church might need contemporary apostles to do, that witness to the Church and to the world is their first responsibility.”

“Theological training isn't needed for their primary responsibility: witnessing,” Faulconer adds. “Training for that comes from their life experiences: they have seen and felt the results of Christian life, both in their own lives and in the lives of those they've worked with in their callings as lay ministers in the Church.”

 These apostles will share their witness of Jesus Christ with the world, as well as speak on a variety of other spiritual topics, during next week’s general conference (held every April and October).

Anyway, I know where I will be this coming weekend.  Jack and I will be curled up together, enjoying watching and hearing General Conference together, and basking in the wonderful spirit that it brings to our home.

Read James Faulconer’s commentary at Patheos.com.

"Today is not different from ages past. The Lord does not love the people of our day any less than in past times. One of the glorious messages of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ is that God continues to speak to His children! He is not hidden in the heavens but speaks today as He did in ancient days."

—President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Why Do We Need Prophets?", Liahona, Mar. 2012