GC Oct. 2024 Favorite/Least Favorite Talks

[JVW]

Hey all, I figured a thread would have been started by now, but one has so I'm starting it.

What was y'all's favorite talk (or quote) of GC October 2024? Least favorite? Was there anything you felt was controversial or regressive? Anything positive? What did you think about President Nelson's talk? Any themes stand out to you?

My favorite talk was the first one on Sunday from Elder Andersen about hope. My mom is 61 and is dying from cancer, so this talk and the others where people talked about dealing with death were quite poignant for me.

My favorite quote was (paraphrased) "Your most sacred place is the place of your deepest pain and hurt, the kind that nobody else can truly understand. Jesus is so eager to meet you there that He already went there and is waiting for you." Talks aren't in print yet so I don't know who said it or what the exact quote is.

There was a Seventy on Saturday that gave a really dumb talk, he seemed somewhat full of himself and his message just didn't resonate with me.

I wasn't expecting President Nelson's talk to be about the 2nd Coming. It was a really exciting talk. It was odd to me that he focused so much on the "great" part of the great and terrible day. There wasn't really an overt call for repentance, but more like a desperate plea for people to come unto Christ (which is repentance, just a very gentle way to speak about it).

I'll comment with direct quotes or links once they are available, just wanted to share and hear first impressions.

[Senator]

42 minutes ago, JVW said:

 

There was a Seventy on Saturday that gave a really dumb talk, he seemed somewhat full of himself and his message just didn't resonate with me.

 

Might that have been Brad Wilcox?  That one got a resounding roll of the eyes by my wife.

[bluebell]

2 minutes ago, Senator said:

Might that have been Brad Wilcox?  That one got a resounding roll of the eyes by my wife.

He's not a 70, but that was the one that I struggled with the most.

I think it's interesting that a lot of people have been sharing on social media that it was also their favorite talk.  Just goes to show that we are all different and different things resonate with us I guess.

[MustardSeed]

I have a client for whom conference was life changing. I won’t share details but FWIW. 
 

Sat was great for me all around.  I felt a positivity and a hopefulness that has not been my experience in the past, and that felt good.  
 

I was not a fan of Wilcox’s dramatic delivery style.  To each his own.  
 

And those who believe the prophet is saying Christ is coming, yeah.  It’s literally in our name.  😜

[ZealouslyStriving]

The talk by Brother Wilcox was one of my favorites.

What was it about his talk that people here found displeasing?

[Duncan]

I think Elder David P. Homer's talk is something I have to revisit to see what he actually said, it was my least understood talk shall we say. I liked Elder Gong and Uchtdorf's talk

[Peacefully]

I was moved be Sister Yee’s talk and I really felt the spirit during President Nelson’s talk. 

[JVW]

2 hours ago, Senator said:

Might that have been Brad Wilcox?  That one got a resounding roll of the eyes by my wife.

It wasn't, I was neutral on his, I don't think he had my full attention so I don't remember what he spoke about, but I remember thinking it sounded like his "His Grace Is Sufficient" talk that i read like 12 years ago. I'm not a huge Brad Wilcox fan in general, though someone mentioning his dramatic delivery reminded me of Elder Holland and he sounded like it may have been his last address, his voice was really gravelly. I saw Elder Holland at a local event around the 4th of July. His son gave a speech at BYU. Elder Holland looked like his body was going out on him, his hands were shaky and everything.

18 minutes ago, Peacefully said:

I was moved be Sister Yee’s talk and I really felt the spirit during President Nelson’s talk. 

If she was the one that talked about painting, I liked her talk as well. When the first image popped up on the screen I thought that it was a nice painting, then when it was told that it was incomplete after the accident and the full image flashed on the screen my mind was kind of blown. Anyone else giving that talk I probably would have felt like they were trying to sell prints of their painting, but from her it sounded very intimate and personal.

2 hours ago, MustardSeed said:

I have a client for whom conference was life changing. I won’t share details but FWIW. 
 

Sat was great for me all around.  I felt a positivity and a hopefulness that has not been my experience in the past, and that felt good.  
 

I was not a fan of Wilcox’s dramatic delivery style.  To each his own.  
 

And those who believe the prophet is saying Christ is coming, yeah.  It’s literally in our name.  😜

To me, it sounded like President Nelson had seen the 2nd Coming in vision or something. He was very, very clear and bold about the immediacy of the event. I don't know if I've ever heard such clear language about the 2nd coming. And he looks so excited about it.

In general, the theme of the conference felt like this: the 2nd coming is right around the corner, lets not focus on the negative events that will lead up to it. Be positive and optimistic while you deal with everyone around you dying. And come unto Christ.

[JVW]

I found the name of the Seventy that gave the talk I didn't like. It was Saturday afternoon session David L. Buckner, it waws the talk about friendship or something like that. I found a list of GC talk summaries here, which is really nice.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/october-2024-general-conference-talks-news-announcements

[The Nehor]

I think my least favorite was due to bias. I recognized the voice (I was listening to conference while cleaning) and it sounded familiar. Picked up tablet and my uncharitable thought was: “They made YOU a seventy???? What???” Some history there. I don’t even remember what the talk was about.

I found the “temporary commandment” thing weird. I mean, it has always been the case that some commandments are temporary but why not use something that was rescinded as an example instead of a specific direction to go to a specific place which is obviously not permanent. Not sure I understood the point.

President Oaks calling for civility in speech seemed a little too ironic for me. I also didn’t think suggesting that Jesus was always civil works. I mean, Jesus was bashing on the religious and political factions of the day with language many would consider to be unkind. Are you sure you want everyone to follow the example of Jesus in that area?

I felt bad for President Nelson. His calls for reverence when announcing temples never works. More Second Coming talk. I admit I have come to find the idea of the Second Coming depressing. Many of the people I love most in the world will die on that day. On the bright side I expect I will die too.

Also, a pet peeve. Can we please just stop with speakers insinuating that analogies function as proof of something? Analogies are explanatory. They don’t prove anything. Twice it seemed like analogies were presented as a kind of proof.

[Rain]

28 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

I think my least favorite was due to bias. I recognized the voice (I was listening to conference while cleaning) and it sounded familiar. Picked up tablet and my uncharitable thought was: “They made YOU a seventy???? What???” Some history there. I don’t even remember what the talk was about.

I found the “temporary commandment” thing weird. I mean, it has always been the case that some commandments are temporary but why not use something that was rescinded as an example instead of a specific direction to go to a specific place which is obviously not permanent. Not sure I understood the point.

President Oaks calling for civility in speech seemed a little too ironic for me. I also didn’t think suggesting that Jesus was always civil works. I mean, Jesus was bashing on the religious and political factions of the day with language many would consider to be unkind. Are you sure you want everyone to follow the example of Jesus in that area?

I felt bad for President Nelson. His calls for reverence when announcing temples never works.

Depends on how you define reverence.  According to the song they may, or may not, have been reverent.

28 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

More Second Coming talk. I admit I have come to find the idea of the Second Coming depressing. Many of the people I love most in the world will die on that day. On the bright side I expect I will die too.

Also, a pet peeve. Can we please just stop with speakers insinuating that analogies function as proof of something? Analogies are explanatory. They don’t prove anything. Twice it seemed like analogies were presented as a kind of proof.

 

[Calm]

3 hours ago, JVW said:

I found the name of the Seventy that gave the talk I didn't like. It was Saturday afternoon session David L. Buckner, it waws the talk about friendship or something like that. I found a list of GC talk summaries here, which is really nice.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/october-2024-general-conference-talks-news-announcements

You could have checked Social. Our own Ken does summaries of the talks each conference for the rep points. Just kidding, Ken.

So go give him some points so you remember he’s there next time you are struggling to remember a conference talk.  

[Dario_M]

I looked a bit into the conference and i do liked the talk from Russel M Nelson. 

[bluebell]

14 hours ago, ZealouslyStriving said:

The talk by Brother Wilcox was one of my favorites.

What was it about his talk that people here found displeasing?

It wasn't that I found it displeasing.  I found it odd and it didn't make any sense to me, and his delivery of it was emphatic and over the top enough to detract from the message (for me).  I think he's just really sincere and invested because he really does love the youth, but that comes through in a grating way (again, for me)

And I didn't get the cruise ship analogy at all.  It was like the cruise ship is basically the great and spacious building, but then having the members be the 'crew' of the building is weird. 

And if nonmembers are just cruisers and members are crew, then how does that make sense when the owner of the cruise ship is actively proselytizing the cruisers and trying to get them to become crew?

And finally, dividing all of the children of God up into 'cruisers' and 'crew' creates a weird us vs. them situation that I think was meant to soften the idea of God having a chosen people by making them the servers of everyone else , but instead (for me) just makes that doctrine confusing and cartoonish.  

[Frank11]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

And if nonmembers are just cruisers and members are crew, then how does that make sense when the owner of the cruise ship is actively proselytizing the cruisers and trying to get them to become crew?

You're right, but I wouldn't take such a critical view of it. The speakers are certainly not only given a topic, but also told what the aim of the speech should be. And the aim was certainly not missionary work, but to make the members aware of the special role and responsibility they have. In this respect, the cruise ship example works. 
I could be wrong, but I have the feeling that 20 years ago missionary work was talked about more often and in recent years the focus has been more and more on retaining members.

 

 

[JVW]

20 minutes ago, Frank11 said:

You're right, but I wouldn't take such a critical view of it. The speakers are certainly not only given a topic, but also told what the aim of the speech should be. And the aim was certainly not missionary work, but to make the members aware of the special role and responsibility they have. In this respect, the cruise ship example works. 
I could be wrong, but I have the feeling that 20 years ago missionary work was talked about more often and in recent years the focus has been more and more on retaining members.

 

 

I'm pretty sure nobody gets assigned topics for general conference. My wife was in a meeting with an apostle and a seventy (a couple months ago) and the apostle was asked what it's like to prepare a talk for conference. He deferred to the seventy for the answer who replied (not a direct quote), "I wasn't given a topic, I could talk about whatever I wanted to. I wrote 5 different talks before settling on the one that I gave in General Conference." Take this with a grain of salt, I'm just a stranger on the internet, but I heard it from my wife and I trust her, so that's what I believe.

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, Frank11 said:

You're right, but I wouldn't take such a critical view of it. The speakers are certainly not only given a topic, but also told what the aim of the speech should be. And the aim was certainly not missionary work, but to make the members aware of the special role and responsibility they have. In this respect, the cruise ship example works. 
I could be wrong, but I have the feeling that 20 years ago missionary work was talked about more often and in recent years the focus has been more and more on retaining members.

 

 

I don't think any of the bold is certain.

You are right though in that from a certain perspective, the analogy works (otherwise it wouldn't be such a popular talk for so many).  It just didn't work for me or my perspective.  

[Frank11]

35 minutes ago, JVW said:

I'm pretty sure nobody gets assigned topics for general conference. My wife was in a meeting with an apostle and a seventy (a couple months ago) and the apostle was asked what it's like to prepare a talk for conference. He deferred to the seventy for the answer who replied (not a direct quote), "I wasn't given a topic, I could talk about whatever I wanted to. I wrote 5 different talks before settling on the one that I gave in General Conference." Take this with a grain of salt, I'm just a stranger on the internet, but I heard it from my wife and I trust her, so that's what I believe.

You're right, I got it from another source.

Thought the captain of the cruise ship was giving his officers a few pointers.

[Peacefully]

42 minutes ago, JVW said:

I'm pretty sure nobody gets assigned topics for general conference. My wife was in a meeting with an apostle and a seventy (a couple months ago) and the apostle was asked what it's like to prepare a talk for conference. He deferred to the seventy for the answer who replied (not a direct quote), "I wasn't given a topic, I could talk about whatever I wanted to. I wrote 5 different talks before settling on the one that I gave in General Conference." Take this with a grain of salt, I'm just a stranger on the internet, but I heard it from my wife and I trust her, so that's what I believe.

This is the way I’ve always understood it. No assigned talks. 

[The Nehor]

35 minutes ago, Peacefully said:

This is the way I’ve always understood it. No assigned talks. 

This is generally true though on occasion I know of a few incidents where an apostle offered to give a talk on something the quorum thought was important to have someone speak on. In general it seems that talks are unassigned but I have no idea how much the apostles talk about what they are going to say with each other in advance.

[Calm]

4 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

This is generally true though on occasion I know of a few incidents where an apostle offered to give a talk on something the quorum thought was important to have someone speak on. In general it seems that talks are unassigned but I have no idea how much the apostles talk about what they are going to say with each other in advance.

Source?

[The Nehor]

5 minutes ago, Calm said:

Source?

Personal knowledge. One case was a guy I know who gave a presentation to some of the Twelve on terminology as used in various Christian faiths in preparation for an event in Utah. While there they briefly talked and one of the apostles volunteered to give a talk on it.

Another came from my grandfather when I was young from when he was a stake president in the 60s and they used to have apostles stay in their home and one talked about a speaking assignment.

For all I know they might not do it anymore or they might but I have no idea how common or rare it is.

[ZealouslyStriving]

46 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

This is generally true though on occasion I know of a few incidents where an apostle offered to give a talk on something the quorum thought was important to have someone speak on. In general it seems that talks are unassigned but I have no idea how much the apostles talk about what they are going to say with each other in advance.

Elder Cook has been assigned a topic a couple of times I believe. I think to introduce a new program or initiative.

[Maestrophil]

17 hours ago, The Nehor said:

I think my least favorite was due to bias. 

Who? 🙂

 

[LoudmouthMormon]

I can't call it a favorite, but the whole "y'ever think that if you look for Christ hard enough, you'll find Him at the place of your greatest point of personal pain" notion makes me sweat through my eyes every time I think about it.  It's certainly been my experience. 

Edited October 8, 2024 by LoudmouthMormon