Review for the Newcomers

One thing that immediately stuck out to me during the first session of Conference today was how much of it sounded like something you might hear in Gospel Essentials class. But as I think about it, that makes a lot of sense. General Conference attracts a good number of visitors (or so I hope), and it is one of the few regular meetings we literally broadcast out to all the world. Conference could easily be a person's first real exposure to our church, so it makes sense that we should spend the first few hours of Conference explaining some of our basic beliefs. I don't know how many non-members tuned in to Conference this morning, but those that did learned a lot more about the basic tenets of Mormonism than they may have heard elsewhere, and they heard it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. In fact, far from being bored / annoyed by the review, I wonder if it would make sense to start Conference with a recitation of the Articles of Faith, just in case anyone within earshot is hazy on the subject of what we believe. Reviewing the basics periodically is a good idea anyway, and twice a year is about as "periodically" as you can get. So, while I may have zoned out once or twice during the first few talks, I'm glad they included as much about the basics as they did. Not everybody knows this stuff yet, and it's so important that it wouldn't hurt for even lifelong members to here it again.