Instant Post-Conference Thoughts: Priesthood (April ’16)

Note:  These are the instant, mildly-filtered things that ran through my brain and heart as I watched this session of General Conference. If you are looking for deep, spiritual analysis, this is not the place. Drive on. Please check back later for that, after I have had some time to process.

Hi. Sorry it is late. I had the pleasure of taking 3/4 of my sons out for Mexican food after the Priesthood session, and that is vastly more important than this.

 

Tonight’s Priesthood session was interesting. First, it was barely 90 minutes long. Strange, but after you hear about it, you will see that it was welcome. It was a spiritual Vegan’s worst nightmare, because it was all meat, meat and more meat.

President Monson was there and spoke to us. Interestingly, he looked more drawn and frail than at last Conference, but his voice seemed clearer and stronger. He only spoke for about 5 minutes, but it was the perfect note to finish things up tonite.

President Russell M. Nelson (Still getting used to that) started things off with a mind-blowing talk about “Our Divine Role as Fathers.” He explained that it was a follow-up to the talk that he gave to the sisters last October, “A Plea to My Sisters.” (link) In that talk, he spoke of a pair of girls that he operated on – at that time 58 yeas earlier – and how neither daughter survived. He spoke of his grief and how his wife called him out by saying, “Are you finished crying?” Yeah – you remember that story.

Tonight, President Nelson told us Part 2 of that same story. It was equally brutal.  He talked about how the parents of those two little girls harbored a grudge against Dr. Nelson, and the Church for 60 years, despite his efforts to meet with them.

Then the story gets amazing, and I’m going to make you wait to read, or watch it. Besides, my notes are terrible because I had tears in my eyes.

He then spoke of “priesthood power,” and explained how many men have the authority of the priesthood, but lack power because of sins like pride, immorality, preoccupation with things of the world, etc.

“Too many men have sadly surrendered their agency to the adversary.”

He quoted D&C 121 -the first of FOUR brethren to quote different passages from that same section tonight.

It was serious business, and my feeble attempts and sloppy notes do not do it justice.  Watch it.

 

Brother Stephen Owen, who is the Young Men General President, spoke about leadership, making the ironic observation that Jesus is the greatest leader because He is the greatest follower.

He highlighted the differences between traits of worldly leaders vs. Christ-like leaders, using, of course, D&C 121 for support.

He made the point that regardless of your calling, you are always a leader, and always a follower.

 

President Deiter Uchtdorf gave a big-time talk about marriage and relationships. It wa one of those talks where I realized that rather than taking notes, I was just taking dictation, because every line was important. So I’m not going try to paraphrase.

The key points, to me, were that he was praising men who put forth the effort to save their marriages and families. That praise felt a lot like being “called-out,” but that’s what Priesthood Session is usually about.

One of the best laugh lines, and best quo tables was this: “My beloved brethren…if there were a perfect woman, do you really think that she would be that interested in you?”

Here is a pretty good summary from Deseret News.

The part I liked best (since I am sitting is a pretty secure marriage) was his discussion of how dangerous pride is. He explained that “The great enemy of charity is pride. If charity is the pure love of Christ, then pride is the defining characteristic of Satan.”

“Pride may be a common human failing, but it is not part of our spiritual heritage, and it has no place among the holders of the priesthood of God.”

It was awesome.

One of my sons did lean over and whisper to me that President Uchtdorf is pretty ‘hip,’ talking about selfless and Star Wars.  Not sure if he was serious…

Another note: I think President Uchtdorf’s accent is getting stronger, and he mispronounces more words than he used to. Age? Fatigue? I don’t know, but he still can deliver a great talk.

 

President Henry Eyring focused on the idea that “Every priesthood effort and every priesthood ordinance is intended to help Heavenly Father’s children be changed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ to become members of perfected family units,”

He then provided an interesting walk-through of how even the youngest priesthood holder can serve his family. He then took it up through different offices in the priesthood and made the same case for each. He included Teachers, Elders, RM’s, Fahers, Husbands, High Priest Group Leaders.  It was very thorough, and widely applicable.

And yes, he did refer to D&C 121, and No, he did not cry. Much.

 

President Thomas Monson spoke but a few minutes, but it was good to see him. He also quoted from D&C 121:36 “The rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven.”

And this quote that will always bring a priesthood holder to attention: “May we, in whatever place we may find ourselves, always be worthy to call upon its power, for we never know when our need and our opportunity to do so may come.”

He told a remarkable story about an LDS WWII pilot that was shot down. I found it online already, and figured I would just copy it over for you.

“During World War II, a friend of mine was serving in the South Pacific when his plane was shot down over the ocean. He and the other crew members successfully parachuted from the burning plane, inflated their life rafts, and clung to those rafts for three days seeing no one. On the third day they spotted what they knew to be a rescue vessel. It passed them by. The next morning it passed them by again. They began to despair as they realized this was the last day the rescue vessel would be in the area. Then the Holy Spirit spoke to my friend: “You have the priesthood. Command the rescuers to pick you up.” He did as prompted: “In the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the priesthood, turn about and pick us up.” Within a few minutes the vessel was beside them, helping them on the deck. A faithful and worthy bearer of the priesthood, in his extremity, had exercised that priesthood, blessing his life and the lives of others.”

I wish I had more of that kind of faith and priesthood power. Priesthood power was kind of the subject d’jour.

 

• One more thing that I continue to marvel at is how many brethren still dress up and head out to the Stake Center to watch Priesthood Session. I figured that when it became available online, the numbers would dwindle. Nope. We still had a full chapel and chairs all the back to the stage. It makes me proud. Please don’t tell President Uchtorf.

 

Have a good sleep, and we’ll talk tomorrow!

 

Here

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