Monday, March 11, 2013

Book of Mormon Forum: General Conference Link-up



As promised, today is our Book of Mormon Forum link-up.  If you have written a post recently bearing testimony of this sacred book of scripture, please link-up your post below or feel free to read and comment on what others have shared.  

Those of us in the Forum have decided to blog about references made to The Book of Mormon in the last General Conference.

I am so hungry for General Conference.  It's been a long five months, and I am ready to be spiritually fed anew.  

The picture above shows this new study method that I'm starting this time around.  Since a group of friends and I get together every week to study the words of the prophets at General Conference Book Club, I have for a long time wanted a way to keep track of what each Prophet and Apostle speaks about over time.

I have found the perfect way!  By using these General Conference Tabs (free printable here or here), I now have a journal where I can record my favorite bits of wisdom expounded by our leaders over multiple conference sessions.  I will most likely use this journal in my personal study, instead of during my original viewing of Conference. 

Four weeks until General Conference.  I am counting down the days!

Now here's my contribution to The Book of Mormon Forum:

For some reason, the story that stood out the most to me last General Conference was in Elder Larry Echo Hawk's talk "Come Unto Me, Oh Ye House of Israel."  It doesn't go into a ton of doctrine presented in The Book of Mormon.  Instead, it bears a poignant testimony of standing by our testimonies of this great book.

Elder Hawk said: I volunteered for service in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Soon after my arrival in Quantico, Virginia, for basic training, I found myself standing at attention in front of my barrack’s bunk along with 54 other Marine Corps recruits. I met my drill instructor, a battle-hardened veteran, when he kicked open the door to the barracks and entered while screaming words laced with profanity.
After this terrifying introduction, he started at one end of the barracks and confronted each recruit with questions. Without exception, the drill instructor methodically found something about each recruit to ridicule with loud, vulgar language. Down the row he came, with each marine shouting back his answer as commanded: “Yes” or “No, Sergeant Instructor.” I could not see exactly what he was doing, because we had been ordered to stand at attention with our eyes looking straight ahead. When it was my turn, I could tell he grabbed my duffel bag and emptied the contents onto my mattress behind me. He looked through my belongings, then walked back to face me. I braced myself for his attack. In his hand was my Book of Mormon. I expected that he would yell at me; instead, he moved close to me and whispered, “Are you a Mormon?”
As commanded, I yelled, “Yes, Sergeant Instructor.”
Again I expected the worst. Instead, he paused and raised his hand that held my Book of Mormon and in a very quiet voice said, “Do you believe in this book?”
Again I shouted, “Yes, Sergeant Instructor.”
At this point I was sure he would scream disparaging words about Mormons and the Book of Mormon, but he just stood there in silence. After a moment he walked back to my bunk and carefully laid down my Book of Mormon. He then proceeded to walk by me without stopping and went on to ridicule and disparage with profane language all remaining recruits.
I have often wondered why that tough Marine Corps sergeant spared me that day. But I am grateful I was able to say without hesitation, “Yes, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” and “Yes, I know the Book of Mormon is true.” This testimony is a precious gift given to me through the Holy Ghost with the help of two missionaries and a priests quorum adviser.
I also have a testimony of this beautiful, true testament of Jesus Christ.  And I hope to stand by it as years pass, that through our faithfulness, we can help bring to pass the promised blessings contained therein.

This blends nicely with my other favorite talk from the last General Conference, by Elder Christofferson "Trial of Your Faith."  In the context of his talk, this excerpt from The Book of Mormon took on a slightly different meaning for me:

 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that afaith is things which arebhoped for and cnot seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no dwitness until after the etrial of your faith.


17 comments:

  1. You found other printable tabs. I looked high and low for them last year and never found them. Your journals turned out great!

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    1. I did! Actually I think hers might have been the ones you originally saw...because it looked like she updated it with the file only after lots of people asked her for it. I would've used yours but didn't have a tool and i just liked the look of these. (No offense, you know I love ya!!! ) ha ha I should link to yours too...you saw the Sugardoodle has yours up there on her GC page? That's where I spotted both versions!

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    2. meant to say it was the ones that *I* originally saw!

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  2. You are as always, inspirational! I took a break from the bloggy world for a while but I missed it and YOU! Love the notebook. We just planned a General Conference enrichment night and we are making notebooks. I may just use your tabs!

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    1. ooh I would love to see what you do for the enrichment night...I love all things GC!! A break from blogging when necessary is a good thing...welcome back (and to me too I suppose!)

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  3. We can't wait for GC either! Nothing like two days of edification, then we excitedly wait for it again in another 6 months.

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  4. I like the idea of a Conference Notebook - I'd probably go too crazy though, wanting one for each person's talks and then another for talk subjects!

    The talk by Elder Larry Echo Hawk was inspiring, I hope I would have had the courage to stand up to that Drill Sargent. Sometimes though, I think it's hard to even speak up to my friends!

    Thanks again for hosting this forum! How exciting that Conference once again is just around the corner!

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    1. I thought about that too...for now I plan to not go overboard...but I find myself always wanting to know what the speaker talked about last time. It makes it more of a conversation....one that continues over multiple conferences.

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  5. I'm looking forward to conference, too, even more than usual.
    I always take notes, and this is a good idea!

    =)

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  6. An elder on my mission had a really big 3 ring binder all of Elder Maxwell's talks. He called it The Book of Maxwell! I've noticed that Elder Scott is most often talking about the temple.

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    1. I would love to get my hands on that binder! :) One of the best!

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    1. It was so unique and powerful and it made my kids laugh!

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  8. I love this idea of using the printable tabs! Sure beats my unorganized, scattered spiral notebooks. Thank you so much for sharing this! And there's plenty of time to get myself organized for conference.

    Cathy ♥

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  9. I think you must be one of the most organized young woman I know. Thanks you for your ideas on a notebook for conference. I too have anxious for conference.
    Blessings to you!

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  10. Thanks for all the wonderful and helpful ideas you post, your blog is like an awesome library! I hope you don't mind me borrowing ideas every now and then. Thanks again!

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    1. It is getting to be that way, isn't it? :) Love ya!

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