Unfortunately I missed part of this weekend’s LDS General Conference, which is held semi-annually.  I did listen to all of Sunday’s talks though.  One thing I noticed is that there were some very good quotes, which I will highlight.

Best Quotes from April 2012 LDS General Conference

  1. President Deiter Uchtdorf gave a talk on not judging other people.  The quote I liked was off a bumper sticker he had read which reads “Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you!”
  2. Russel Nelson, an apostle, discussed in part the absurdity of the Big Bang Theory and made a great comparison.  He said “Could an explosion in a book factory create a dictionary?”
  3. Elder Rasband of the Seventy talked about how God’s works are often made manifest through other people.  He discussed how we sometimes need to jump in and help others rather than sitting back and merely asking “can I help?”  The quote I liked in his comparison was “would you ask someone who was drowning ‘let me know how I can help you’ or would you jump in and save them?”
  4. Todd Christofferson, and apostle said something that I’ve said a few times on this site that we’ve had discussions on regarding when a prophet is speaking as a prophet vs. as a man.  He discussed an example of how Brigham Young one morning said a lot of opinionated things to a group of LDS Saints and later in a church meeting he got up and said “this morning you heard what Brigham Young had to say…now you will hear what the Lord has to say”.  The quote I liked from Christofferson was “Not necessarily every statement by a prophet is revelation.”
  5. President Thomas Monson discussed how most of the things we worry about in life are of little importance compared to the big questions we ask during trials in our lives.  He also discussed making the most of our lives and not aimlessly going through life.  The quote I like from him was something to this effect: “we enter mortality not to drift through the waters of life.  We have the power to reason, think and achieve…”
  6. L Tom Perry gave a talk on the Book of Mormon.  The quote I thought was great was this “Are you a Mormon?  If not, you should be!”
  7. M Russell Ballard gave a very excellent talk on using the scriptures to havigate through life and also had some very good statistics on how people who live the gospel principles tend to (statistically) have more education and prosperity than those who don’t live the gospel.  The quote I liked from him was “when I first saw a GPS I felt like Lehi looking at the Liahona for the first time…it was a ball of curious workmanship!”
  8. Larry Wilson talked about not using force as parents or teachers to our children and spouses.  Rather, teaching principles without controlling agency.  The quote I liked was this: “wise parents raise their children to get along without them…ultimately children need to depend upon the Lord, not their parents.”
  9. Neil Anderson, an apostle, shared a very moving story about a father whose 3 small children had been buried in their home during the earthquakes in Haiti a couple years back.  The father prayed to God that at least one of his kids would be saved.  They searched and searched and after hours of looking, they heard something (and this is the quote I like) “a midst the rubble of the earthquake Ganchi (the man’s 5 year old son) was heard singing his favorite song ‘I am a Child of God”

I realize there was a lot said and a good portion of conference I missed.  Feel free to vote on the quotes I shared below and if you have a quote you liked better from conference, select “other” and then share the quote in the comment section.