Grand Slam

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey.  The talks this week are from the last session, the Sunday Afternoon Session of the October 1971 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  There are some heavy hitters in this session, and I highly recommend a perusal of the talks, or at least a glance at some of the highlights:

“If Ye Be Willing and Obedient” Gordon B. Hinckley

Highlights: 

• President Hinckley's missionary experience at the office of a London newspaper publisher.

The Living Christ Joseph Anderson

Highlights: 

• "Our late president, President David O. McKay, in an interview with a leading journalist sometime ago, was asked: “If you had the power to grant unto America one great wish, what would it be?” His answer was: “I would wish that America had a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and would obey his principles; that would bring peace on earth. I believe that is the greatest blessing that can be given.”

• Do we need Jesus today? Do we need his teachings? If we are to survive, if our civilization is to persist, we must accept him and his inspiration and guidance. Someone has said that “the world needs a bath in Christ’s pure religion. Only a dedication to Christ can wash the dirt out of our society.”"

How to Worship Bruce R. McConkie

Highlights:

• "God grant that we may write in our souls with a pen of fire the command of the Lord Jesus: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Luke 4:8); and may we in fact and with living reality worship the Father in spirit and in truth, thereby gaining peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come."

• Wow.  Read this talk.

With Hand and Heart Thomas S. Monson

• Highlights: "Often we live side by side but do not communicate heart to heart. There are those within the sphere of our own influence who, with outstretched hands, cry out: “Is there no balm in Gilead … ?” (Jer. 8:22.) Each of us must answer."

• "Some point the accusing finger at the sinner or the unfortunate and in derision say, “He has brought his condition upon himself.” Others exclaim, “Oh, he will never change. He has always been a bad one.” A few see beyond the outward appearance and recognize the true worth of a human soul. When they do, miracles occur. The downtrodden, the discouraged, the helpless become “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” (Eph. 2:19.) True love can alter human lives and change human nature."

• A quotation from a scene in My Fair Lady, a passage from Goethe, and the story of the white ribbons.

This Same Jesus Hugh B. Brown

Highlights:

• "I thought as I stood there and remembered those words, how wonderful it would be for all of us if we had the courage and the insight and the fortitude, whatever might happen to us, to say, “Not my will, but thine be done.” That attitude makes any burden lighter. It makes any task less difficult."

• Elder Brown, in the company his doctor and Truman G. Madsen, studies the life of Christ by way of a tour of the Holy Land.  

Let the Spirit of Oneness Prevail Joseph Fielding Smith

Highlights:

• A simple testimony of Christ, of unity, and of the prophet Joseph Smith.

• "I have sought all my days to keep the commandments and do those things which will please the Lord, and I desire to bear testimony of his goodness to me and likewise his goodness to all his children who have made covenant to keep his commandments."

Hinckley, Anderson, McConkie, Monson, Brown, Smith... What a great way to conclude this general conference.  Grand slam.

Here are the links to more Odyssey blogs:

• On the Inevitability of Worship by Nathaniel G.
• If Ye Be Willing and Obedient by Chastity W.
• Worshiping the True and Living God by Daniel O.
• “Go, Do, Become” by Michelle L.
• On Worship, Practical, Contemplative, and Aesthetic-Humanitarian by Ralph H.
• Emulating the Great Exemplar by Walker W.
• Living by Power—A Woman of God by SilverRain
• “The World Needs a Bath in Christ’s Pure Religion” by Jan T.