LDS General Conference 2025 What Say Ye ?

[Calm]

7 hours ago, Amulek said:

seem to recall her saying something about the straight and narrow path going uphill (like on a hike). I have always envisioned the iron rod as going alongside an uphill climb - glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks that way.

I can’t remember when I first thought of it that way.  Pretty sure a teacher described it that way in my youth…iron rod as a guardrail where there were cliffs on the other side of it plunging down to to river, tree of life at the top.  Looking at ‘iron rod as a guardrail’ images, there are a couple that have it going up a mountain, so not too uncommon of an idea.

Was looking for examples of the rod being called a guardrail and just came across this.

Quote

Rods also served as supports or walking sticks. Although Lehi’s rod appears to have been horizontal and, therefore, had the semblance of a railing, the nuance of the rod’s connotations should not be overlooked. Rods were extended to those in need so that they could grasp the end and be assisted out of danger. Hugh Nibley mentioned an iron rod leading up to the temple at Jerusalem.[9] Lehi’s rod was placed between the river bank and the path and thus acted as a guard rail. In this way, its physical presence aided those on the path. Rather than a handrail, it may have been a universal aid that each traveler could grasp and use.

https://rsc.byu.edu/vol-10-no-3-2009/rod-iron-lehis-dream#:~:text=Rods were extended to those,acted as a guard rail.

I am imagining the rod being extended to those slipping or even fallen and them gripping it and being pulled out, back up on to the path.

no written talks yet, probably tonight sometime iirc from last conference.

Edited April 8 by Calm

[Calm]

3 hours ago, The Nehor said:

I just listened to Conference so missed this. I find with Conference that seeing the speaker makes it harder for me to focus. Plus I try to do some of the mindless chores through sessions of conference so I don’t doze off or start reading something or whatever.

This is me.  I have discovered if I look at people I pay too much attention to body language and start missing some of what they are saying.

[Calm]

2 hours ago, bluebell said:

that keep me focused on conference without my mind wandering

Speeding it up to 1.25 or even 1.5 times normal speed really helps me too.

[Calm]

2 hours ago, let’s roll said:

Lima, Peru gets its third temple. 🙂

Over 11 million….

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lima

AI says (no clue of accuracy)

Quote

Lima, Peru, is home to nearly 700,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with 48 stakes located within the city. 

 

It also says there are over 630,000 Saints in all of Peru so my guess is nearly 700,000 is significantly off.

https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2024/1/13/24036940/lima-1st-city-outside-of-utah-to-have-2-dedicated-temples/#:~:text=When the first house of,people according to most estimates.

Chorrillos is in the metro area of Lima, so not the first city to get three.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/april-2025-general-conference-new-temples#Chorrillos

Edited April 8 by Calm

[Chum]

20 hours ago, The Nehor said:

Elder Anderson annoyed me a little by at least implying if not outright saying that the position of the gospel has never shifted on abortion. I don’t see that as true at all. Especially if you go beyond this dispensation. Also I found his story about the wife offering to raise her husband’s affair partner’s baby to be a good story in isolation but if it is aspirational I worry that others less well equipped may try to imitate it with regrettable results. That might be the cynic in me though.

We weren't due yet for our regular abortion refresher.  That gave it a "Huzzah. Another abortion talk." feel.  Past that it felt out of place, like the topic wasn't optional. I think Elder Anderson pulled the best rabbit he could out of that hat.

Edited April 9 by Chum

[Calm]

Text is online

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2025/04?lang=eng

Edited April 9 by Calm

[Robert F. Smith]

Pastor Jeff of "Hello Saints" attended for the second time, and here is his reaction:

 

 

[Okrahomer]

I enjoyed hearing some of the new hymns.  Here is the backstory to one I quite liked:  Welcome Home

Edit to give a shoutout to Rain, who also allows herself to connect with her children through learning — something at which my own Mother excelled.

Edited April 9 by Okrahomer

[Ginger Snaps]

Speaking of hymns, did anyone else think it was weird that choir in the Saturday Evening session sang "Were You There" and left the last verse off? I literally thought they were pausing for a big dramatic finish. . . but then a speaker got up and the song was just over.  They sang 2 or 3 of the sad verses and completely left the joyful ending out. 

[Calm]

4 minutes ago, Ginger Snaps said:

Speaking of hymns, did anyone else think it was weird that choir in the Saturday Evening session sang "Were You There" and left the last verse off? I literally thought they were pausing for a big dramatic finish. . . but then a speaker got up and the song was just over.  They sang 2 or 3 of the sad verses and completely left the joyful ending out. 

Maybe a speaker or two went over their time and they had to cut the song short to adapt

[Amulek]

On 4/8/2025 at 11:33 AM, The Nehor said:

I wasn’t sure how to take that. A hike to me suggests a mostly pleasant and not high exhaustion excursion. I couldn’t figure out if she meant it would be really hard or pleasantly challenging or something else.

I took her to mean an 'up a mountain' sort of hike; not the 'moving walkway through the Denver airport' variety.   

 

[bluebell]

18 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Pastor Jeff of "Hello Saints" attended for the second time, and here is his reaction:

 

 

Was it different than his normal take?  I like his stuff, but the last one where he commented on conference mostly seemed like him finding stuff to disagree with and trying to interpret our beliefs using his own evangelical understanding of stuff.

[cujo22]

On 4/7/2025 at 10:28 PM, The Nehor said:

Also I found his story about the wife offering to raise her husband’s affair partner’s baby to be a good story in isolation but if it is aspirational I worry that others less well equipped may try to imitate it with regrettable results. That might be the cynic in me though.

 

This reminded me, I just learned that Emma Smith did something like this. I just finished a short biography and it said that her 2nd husband (Bidemon) had an affair and a child was produced and Emma ended up raising the kid and I think with the 2nd woman in the same home or nearby at some point. The author pointed out that it was a strange twist considering her frustrations with polygamy and ended up in a somewhat similar situation. I just googled it and found a Deseret News article that says:
When the child was 4, she accepted him and her husband's mistress into her home, where she helped care for the boy until her death 11 years later, in 1879.

 

[ZealouslyStriving]

51 minutes ago, bluebell said:

Was it different than his normal take?  I like his stuff, but the last one where he commented on conference mostly seemed like him finding stuff to disagree with and trying to interpret our beliefs using his own evangelical understanding of stuff.

David Alexander has done a fantastic job at exposing "Pastor Jeff".

[bluebell]

7 minutes ago, ZealouslyStriving said:

David Alexander has done a fantastic job at exposing "Pastor Jeff".

I don't know who David Alexander is, and my initial reaction is that Pastor Jeff doesn't need to be exposed for anything.  He seems to be doing what he says he's doing, and he is clearly not on a conversion journey.  He's strongly evangelical and I'm guessing he's moved to Utah after starting this Hello Saints journey at least partly because he believes he's been called to save us.

I think he is curious about us and that he is trying to understand us.  My issue is that his curiosity seems based on wanting to understand exactly why we are wrong rather than just understand.  There's always an element of judgment to his curiosity.  There is nothing wrong with that, I just find it annoying because biased curiosity isn't a good way to find answers.  

But like I said, I don't think he's necessarily looking for answers.  He seems to be looking for reasons to confirm his beliefs about us.  He acknowledges the things that we agree with but (and maybe it's changed because I haven't listened to him in probably over a year) his bread and butter are the places we disagree.  

I don't think he's being insincere or disingenuous, but I would also not be surprised if his hope is to use his platform to expose members to his beliefs, rather than to expose himself to ours.  If that's true the irony is that now that he's in Utah, he's put his kids into the same position he's trying to put saints into.   

[ZealouslyStriving]

53 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I don't know who David Alexander is, and my initial reaction is that Pastor Jeff doesn't need to be exposed for anything.  He seems to be doing what he says he's doing, and he is clearly not on a conversion journey.  He's strongly evangelical and I'm guessing he's moved to Utah after starting this Hello Saints journey at least partly because he believes he's been called to save us.

I think he is curious about us and that he is trying to understand us.  My issue is that his curiosity seems based on wanting to understand exactly why we are wrong rather than just understand.  There's always an element of judgment to his curiosity.  There is nothing wrong with that, I just find it annoying because biased curiosity isn't a good way to find answers.  

But like I said, I don't think he's necessarily looking for answers.  He seems to be looking for reasons to confirm his beliefs about us.  He acknowledges the things that we agree with but (and maybe it's changed because I haven't listened to him in probably over a year) his bread and butter are the places we disagree.  

I don't think he's being insincere or disingenuous, but I would also not be surprised if his hope is to use his platform to expose members to his beliefs, rather than to expose himself to ours.  If that's true the irony is that now that he's in Utah, he's put his kids into the same position he's trying to put saints into.   

 

Your bull hooky detector seems to be working just fine.

Edited April 10 by ZealouslyStriving

[Robert F. Smith]

On 4/10/2025 at 8:44 AM, bluebell said:

Was it different than his normal take?  I like his stuff, but the last one where he commented on conference mostly seemed like him finding stuff to disagree with and trying to interpret our beliefs using his own evangelical understanding of stuff.

I did see his first Conference response, but cannot recall what he said.  Been too long.  In this case, he was very positive and was there with a knowledgeable LDS friend.  I'd put it in the LDS faith-promoting category.

[bluebell]

28 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said:

I did see his first Conference response, but cannot recall what he said.  Been too long.  In this case, he was very positive and was there with a knowledgeable LDS friend.  I'd put it in the LDS faith-promoting category.

I was finally able to watch most of it.  Some of the answers that his latter-day saint friend gave weren't the best in my view, but he was answering off the cuff so I don't see myself as having done any better under the same circumstances.  I specifically felt like he left a long on the table when he was sharing his thoughts on being the body of Christ and Christ's church from the LDS perspective.  And I really wanted him to ask Pastor Jeff if he say us as being a part of the body of Christ (which I'm guessing would have been a 'no'), just to illustrate that we are not any more exclusive in our faith claims than he is.

This one was better than the last one I saw, which was with his wife.  Being with someone who agreed with him theologically opened up his ability to gloss right over anything he might have agreed with and really sit and spend time with all the things that both he and his wife didn't agree with.  He was definitely hedging his answers more this time around.

[Robert F. Smith]

53 minutes ago, bluebell said:

............................... I specifically felt like he left a long on the table when he was sharing his thoughts on being the body of Christ and Christ's church from the LDS perspective.  And I really wanted him to ask Pastor Jeff if he say us as being a part of the body of Christ (which I'm guessing would have been a 'no'), just to illustrate that we are not any more exclusive in our faith claims than he is......................

I often leave comments on his "Hello Saints" videos.  This time I specifically commented on this 'body of Christ" issue (which he specifically addressed because it came up in that Conference session).  I made two points:  1.  Joseph Smith thought other churches had a lot of truth, but 2. did not have priesthood authority to act on God's behalf.  I pointed out that this is the same problem Protestants have with Roman Catholic claims to that same authority (the Pope holding the keys of the kingdom and being a prophet).  Since all of us are born with the light of Christ, any believer is part of the Body of Christ, even if not a formal part of the Latter-day Saint tradition.  We are all simply on different places on the path to glory.  All Christians need to be kind and generous to each other.

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, Robert F. Smith said:

I often leave comments on his "Hello Saints" videos.  This time I specifically commented on this 'body of Christ" issue (which he specifically addressed because it came up in that Conference session).  I made two points:  1.  Joseph Smith thought other churches had a lot of truth, but 2. did not have priesthood authority to act on God's behalf.  I pointed out that this is the same problem Protestants have with Roman Catholic claims to that same authority (the Pope holding the keys of the kingdom and being a prophet).  Since all of us are born with the light of Christ, any believer is part of the Body of Christ, even if not a formal part of the Latter-day Saint tradition.  We are all simply on different places on the path to glory.  All Christians need to be kind and generous to each other.

Does he ever respond to your comments?

[Robert F. Smith]

13 hours ago, bluebell said:

Does he ever respond to your comments?

No.

[bluebell]

9 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

No.

Just wondering. I’m sure he gets a lot of them. 

[Robert F. Smith]

3 hours ago, bluebell said:

Just wondering. I’m sure he gets a lot of them. 

I have the impression that he and his wife are trying to learn as much as they can.   Maybe a book or article will come out of it.  Maybe he will lecture at a symposium.  Less likely is him and his wife converting to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- that would require a major spiritual experience for both of them.

[The Nehor]

On 4/8/2025 at 11:57 AM, The Nehor said:

I might be being pedantic but the reason for the governmental collapse was given as massive inequalities in wealth and access to education within the society leading to the formation of a more strict system of ranks followed by government officials extrajudicially killing people (prophets who were probably pointing out all the corruption) and covering it up. Then when the conspiracy was starting to be unveiled they murdered the Chief Judge to shut down the prosecution with the intent to put a king in charge but the plot failed on the last bit and the ‘federal’ government collapsed and older tribal hierarchies took over.

This got weirdly relevant in the last *checks notes* week????

It has only been a week? Ugh, time is weird.

[The Nehor]

In any case can we have that Second Coming some of them were talking about? I would like to get off this ride now please.