Last updated on April 5th, 2025 at 10:27 pm
General Conference Applied
S4 E35 – Tuesday, April 1, 2025 | Preparing for the April 2025 General Conference
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Podcast Episode Outline
Why Should I Prepare for the April 2025 General Conference?
- First Presidency Letter, April 2025 General Conference, March 6, 2025: “General conference provides an opportunity to receive personal revelation as general Church leaders give counsel and direction from the Lord. We encourage all to listen to, study, ponder, and APPLY the counsel given.”
How Should I Prepare for the April 2025 General Conference?
- Elder David A. Bednar, “Our General Conference ‘Walk and Talk’“, March 2024 Liahona: “Latter-day Saints can do many things to prepare for general conference. I will highlight just two.
“First, we need to prepare to act. As we are anxiously engaged in asking, seeking, and knocking, we exercise faith in the Savior and invite the Holy Ghost to be our teacher. The Spirit will bring thoughts to our minds and feelings to our hearts, and the Spirit will teach us individually and personally the things that are needful.
“Receiving what we need will be more difficult if our frame of mind is, ‘I am simply going to listen to the messages and hope something will help me.’ The revelatory process requires anxious engagement and not just passive participation.
“Preparation precedes effective acting, and one specific way to prepare for general conference is to have a question or questions in mind as we listen to general conference messages.
“The second element of preparation is to specifically invite the Holy Ghost to be our companion, which is one of the purposes of prayer. The ongoing companionship of the Holy Ghost is not automatic just because hands have been placed on our heads and we have been admonished to ‘receive the Holy Ghost.’ We must do our part to receive the gift.
“We invite the Holy Ghost when we pray sincerely and with real intent. We invite the Holy Ghost as we feast upon the words of Christ in the scriptures. We invite the Holy Ghost as we follow the counsel given by our Church leaders. Such expressions of faith in the Savior invite the Holy Ghost to be our companion. And I believe He comes more readily as we specifically invite Him. …
“Regardless of position or status, any member of this Church—so long as he or she is striving to be worthy and seeking the companionship of the Holy Ghost—can ask, seek, and knock (see Matthew 7:7; 3 Nephi 14:7) and receive answers and spiritual guidance.” - Church News Podcast Episode 233: Exploring themes from the Doctrine and Covenants with Rosalynde Welch of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute: “The Lord’s law is a kind of ladder that we can climb to enter His presence. His laws are not given to us to constrain us, to hold us back, to discourage us, or condemn us. Joseph Smith called them a ladder in the King Follett Discourse. Joseph Smith said, ‘We can climb the ladder of the Lord’s law to ascend into His presence.’
“General conference is an opportunity to receive more of the Lord’s law. He’s going to reveal to us a new section of the ladder that we can climb. As we climb this ladder, it’s not that we check off more boxes of things that we’ve done. What happens is that our character changes, our nature changes, and we become more like our Savior. We become more able to receive and abide by a celestial law. …
“Christ is our lawgiver. We look forward to the time when He will be in our midst and we will receive His law directly from His mouth. But for the time being, we receive His law through His authorized servants, the prophets. … General conference … is like a modern Doctrine and Covenants, where a new section of the ladder is given to us and we have another opportunity to listen, to obey, and to climb.
“I like to think of general conference as a time to receive. I love the word ‘receive’ because it combines both active and passive elements. To receive something, I have to be willing. I have to open myself to what is being given. On the other hand, there has to be somebody who gives it to me. So in the idea of receiving — whether it be the Lord’s grace, whether it be His law, whether it be the revelations that are pouring down to us, whether it be receiving one another in fellowship — there’s both an active openness to the Lord, and there is a humble surrender in receiving what the Lord wants us to say.
“So that’s my challenge to myself this year, whether it be this year, next year, as I approach general conference weekend: Am I in an attitude of receiving? If you want to have a lot of fun, go to Doctrine and Covenants Section 88 and search ‘receive,’ and look at all the times in section 88 that that word is used. I think that will be a great exercise to get us in the right mindset to approach general conference.”
How Should I Apply the April 2025 General Conference?
- Elder David A. Bednar, “Our General Conference ‘Walk and Talk’“, March 2024 Liahona: “President Harold B. Lee (1899–1973) urged members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to let general conference messages ‘be the guide to their walk and talk during the next six months.’ He taught, ‘These are the important matters the Lord sees fit to reveal to this people in this day.’
“Likewise, President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) emphasized the importance of listening to and studying general conference messages. He taught, ‘No text or volume outside the standard works of the Church should have such a prominent place on your personal library shelves.’
“At the conclusion of the October 1977 general conference, President Kimball said: ‘This has been a great conference and as each one of these wonderful sermons has been rendered I’ve listened with great attention, and I have made up my mind that I shall go home and be a greater man than I have ever been before. … I urge you to take much thought in your return home from this conference and think again of the things that have been brought to your attention.’
“Knowing that even Presidents of the Church learn from the messages shared in general conference greatly impressed me as a young man. As I began to follow their counsel, I discovered three things:
“1. Church leaders emphasize fundamental doctrine and principles in their messages.
“2. Almost always, their messages include invitations to act related to the doctrine or principles taught.
“3. In accordance with the invitation, Church leaders offer promised blessings.
“I established a pattern of drawing three columns on a sheet of paper. I then tried to identify and briefly summarize the doctrine, the invitations, and the promised blessings in general conference messages. That, in essence, became my walk and talk for the next six months.” - Jani Eitelgeorge, “How I Bring General Conference Insights into My Life Each Day“, September 2024 Liahona: “My process is not the only way to study conference. I offer it as a suggestion as you make your own plan to implement the teachings of general conference in your life. Here’s how it works for me:
“I listen to each talk and write the important insights that touch my heart, as well as thoughts I receive from the Spirit. At the end of each session, I listen to the Spirit as I highlight one or two things from each talk that I feel I need to work on or that will remind me how to become more Christlike.
“Then I choose 26 highlighted thoughts and assign one a week until the next general conference. I type the thoughts into a list and assign each a Sunday date. I place this list on my bathroom mirror as a reminder. I also assign these weekly thoughts on my phone calendar. Each Sunday I receive a reminder to start a new focus. This thought will be at the front of my mind as I pray each morning for help throughout the day. Each night, I review with Heavenly Father how I did that day. …
“As I’ve implemented this plan, I’ve felt closer to the Spirit. I am reminded of the thoughts that touched my heart during general conference. I apply them each day instead of closing my notebook after conference, never to look at my notes again. I still enjoy relistening to the conference talks. But now I also have a weekly focus from my personal notes.” - Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Doctrine and Covenants 2025, Conversion Is Our Goal: “The aim of all gospel learning and teaching is to deepen our conversion and help us become more like Jesus Christ. For this reason, when we study the gospel, we’re not just looking for new information; we want to become a ‘new creature’ (2 Corinthians 5:17). This means relying on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to help us change our hearts, our views, our actions, and our very natures.
“But the kind of gospel learning that strengthens our faith and leads to the miracle of conversion doesn’t happen all at once. It extends beyond a classroom into an individual’s heart and home. It requires consistent, daily efforts to understand and live the gospel. True conversion requires the influence of the Holy Ghost.”- Christlike Attribute Activity: Every six months during the week leading up to General Conference weekend, fill out the Christlike Attribute Activity from Preach My Gospel chapter six. Then compare your current results to your previous results. Did you become more like Jesus Christ over the past six months? As you identify General Conference invitations, determine how those invitations will help you to become more like Jesus Christ. For example, if the Christlike Attribute Activity reveals that you need to improve in the attribute of Charity and Love, then be sure to take action on General Conference invitations that will help you become more charitable and loving.
- Mitch includes a link to the Christlike Attribute Activity in Excel format in each of his What? Eye. Read. 💡 Newsletters. Subscribe to the newsletter here.
What will you do?
How will you prepare for the April 2025 General Conference?
Conclusion
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Thank you for joining us in this effort to become doers of the word and to take action on general conference invitations.
Additional Content
Next Podcast Episode (“Sons and Daughters of God” by Elder Rubén V. Alliaud)