Seven Plus One Tips For General Conference - Plus One Bad Reason Not to Go

The question of the day is How can we get the most out of General Conference, regular church meetings, and our personal scripture study? I was about to search LDS.org's various talks and articles to compile a list of oft-repeated tips, but by the looks of things, there's already an article with some good tips compiled for me. But before I get into their tips, I'd like to state the obvious, in case it isn't.

Tip 0: Take Notes

The human brain is, by technological standards, absolutely hopeless at remembering things. Thankfully, if all you were going to do is record the words of the talks for your memory's sake, you don't need to bother. The text of the General Conference talks will be available online sooner than you think, and there will be audio and video versions as well. For Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting, you're more on your own, but the lesson manuals and any talks or scriptures they quote will be found online, so you'll at least have access to the speakers' source materials. And for your personal study, I should think it's clear that you don't need a hand-written copy of materials you already have access to. You usually don't need to copy things down word-for-word.

You should, however, record your impressions. Promptings of the Spirit usually come only once or twice before they fall silent. Then, if we haven't recorded the promptings, their messages will be forgotten, and their value lost. In General Conference, Sacrament Meeting, and your own studies, make sure to write down anything that really stands out to you. Get it on paper before your brain forgets it, or save it to your computer before it's lost forever. You may only have one chance to record your impressions. Don't miss that chance.

And once you've recorded your spiritual impressions, you may find it beneficial to revisit them before too long. I plan on making several blog posts out of my notes from this Conference. Hopefully, that'll help me remember the key points and apply them, which brings me to the next point.

Tip 1: Look for Invitations and Encouragements

Messages from God are almost always calls to action. During this Conference, I'm sure that you'll hear, in your ears or at least your heart, some reference to what God wants you to do. Keep your ears open for such things, and write them down when you hear them. God knows what you can be and become, and He knows what you need to do to become it. Follow His guidance and you'll begin to achieve the potential He sees in you.

Tip 2: Watch for Cause-and-Effect Statements

Sometimes, it's difficult to interpret the exact meanings of prophesies. Other times, their readily spelled out for us. "If this happens, then this will happen," is about as plain as a prophesy ever gets, and when God hands us such a revelation on a silver platter, He expects us to take notice. The Savior taught in parables because He knew that not everyone would understand or accept what He was saying, and He didn't want to place the burden of knowing something on those who weren't going to act on what they would have understood had Jesus spoken plainly. God will speak plainly this General Conference. If you don't want to have the responsibility to act on what you know you're going to hear, don't go.

The prophesies we get this General Conference will likely include promised blessings for specific acts of righteousness, warnings of consequences of various sins, and perhaps even general facts about the near future, just as a "head's up." No matter what revelations we get, they'll be good to know, so long as we're prepared to act on that knowledge.

Tip 3: Prepare Questions

This really should be higher on the list, chronologically, but whatever.

It's astounding how often people don't see what's right in front of them when they don't know what they're looking for. By preparing questions before Conference and pondering them during Conference, we're far more likely to find the answers to our questions than if we walk into Conference unprepared, simply hoping for the best. Even when God is openly dispensing message after message out to all the world, He tends to expect us to put forth SOME effort to receive the blessings He has in store for us. By preparing questions and listening for the answers, we show God that we really want to learn, and it encourages Him to point out to us when His servants give the answers to our questions and help us remember them long enough to write them down.

Tip 4: Look for Lists

Speakers in General Conferences frequently use lists when they want to be sure that they've made their point. Help them make their point by listening for the lists and paying attention for them. They're usually full of valuable, if not vital, information.

Tip 5: Watch for Repeated Phrases and Overall Themes

Has it ever stood out to you how frequently multiple talks in one Conference seem to be on the same subject? That's not a coincidence. The speakers did not coordinate their messages. If they had, they might have gone for more breadth of topics rather than covering the same topic three or four times. God often uses repetition to help His messages sink in. He usually needs to, since our minds are, as noted, rather forgetful. By repeating the same phrases and thoughts multiple times, God hopes to engrave those thoughts on our memories. The General Authorities don't repeat things to fill time. They repeat things because they're important.

Tip 6: Study Particular Words, Scripture References, and Notes

Hearing a message once may teach you something. Hearing a message once, then returning to it and making it part of your personal scripture study can teach you a lot. The insights and information to be gained from General Conference cannot be absorbed in the space of only a few hours. It takes time and effort to gain deeper understanding and lasting remembrance. Like I said last Conference, the way to drink from a fire hose is to fill a swimming pool with it and drink from that. Sanitation aside, the only way to make sure you learn as much as you can from General Conference is to invest a significant amount of time into learning it.

Tip 7: Set Goals to Practice What You've Learned

Most information is useless unless you act on it, and that includes most revelations. God's advice isn't hypothetical and it isn't meant only for other people. We don't even have the doubt that I often fall back to, that God's words in the scriptures may only have applied to those to whom they were originally given. For example, we aren't all supposed to build arcs or offer burnt sacrifices. Some commandments were commandments for other people and simply don't apply to us. But that cannot be said about anything that will be said at General Conference! The messages from this General Conference have been specifically prepared for us. The commandments, warnings, and prophesies are all meant for us. They are modern revelations. They are very relevant and very applicable. If you turned on the news and heard about a natural disaster that's going to happen within hours, you wouldn't shrug it off, thinking that it must be an old report. These messages are for us! I don't know if they'll be warnings or once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, but whatever they'll be, they'll be specifically meant for us. Treat them as if God personally came down in a cloud and spoke them directly to you, and you won't be far off.

General Conference is a magnificent blessing, but with it comes a special responsibility to learn as much as we can from it and act on all that we learn. We can make the messages of this Conference a guiding influence in our lives, or we can ignore them at our own peril. Be it known that the things we'll be warned of will happen whether we listen to the warnings or not. Understand that if we don't seize the opportunities presented to us, they're going to pass us by. Remember that if you don't go to General Conference because you don't want to be responsible for knowing what you're going to hear, it's not going to go well for you. God is not so easily fooled into letting people off the hook for ignoring information that they know they're supposed to have. I have no right to call people to repentance for not acting on knowledge and wisdom they could or should have, but I can tell you that when God speaks and we don't listen, we'll be the ones to suffer for it, and we may not be the only ones.

Listen to General Conference. I can't tell you how awesome a blessing and responsibility it is.