Seven Ways To Enhance Your General Conference Experience.

General Conference is right around the corner and I wanted to share with you seven things that I have found that enhance my General Conference experience that anyone can do!

1st. Write down the questions of your soul.

Write down a few questions of your soul, these are things that matter to you that you are seeking personal revelation on. Examples could be “Is the Book of Mormon true?” or “Should I serve a mission?” or “Is President Nelson truly the Lord’s prophet on the earth today?”

But these questions don’t need to be limited to the spiritual aspects of life, writing down questions like, “what can I do to strengthen my marriage?” or “What can I do to increase my dating prospects?”

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf has invited us to come with questions, he said, “As you prepare for General Conference, I invite you to ponder questions you need to have answered. … There are messages in each General Conference given as a gift and a blessing from heaven specifically for our personal life situations.”

So write down any questions you have, and have faith that the Lord will answer them. But make sure you have real intent! President Russel M. Nelson explained real intent as the following: “‘Real intent’ means that one really intends to follow the divine direction given.”

2nd. Pray and ask for God to open your heart to His Spirit. 

Before General Conference starts, kneel down in prayer and ask God for personal revelation. Ask Him to answer the questions of your soul that you’ve written down, and to also give you any other guidance that you might stand in need of.

3rd. Attend the Temple.

Worshiping in the temple is one of the fastest ways to reset your spiritual compass. The weeks leading up to General Conference can be extremely busy, but finding time to attend the temple before General Conference starts will help ‘prime the pump’ to receiving personal revelation. President Ezra Taft Benson taught that the “temples really are the gateways to heaven.” so use them!

4th. Take notes.

Taking notes during General Conference is one of the most powerful gateways to personal revelation. I learned a long time ago that my notes never matched the speaker’s talk, so I stopped trying to record their words verbatim, but rather I sought to record my impressions and feelings on the topic, sometimes writing down 500+ words from a single sentence!

This trick is also super useful for sacrament meeting talks that are less engaging, simply ponder on the topic and write down your thoughts. As you write down your thoughts, feelings, and impressions you will find that they flow more freely! Former Sunday School General President Tad R. Callister (the man who was the brainchild behind Come follow Me, and who wrote The Infinite Atonement ) taught: “One of the ways we can enhance our personal revelation is to write down and record spiritual insights and impressions when they come. When we do so, we show the Lord we value His counsel and are ready for more.”

5th. Invite a friend to join you in watching Conference in your home.

General Conference is a golden missionary opportunity. Invite your friends or family to come over for a meal and General Conference. And you will be shocked by how many people are willing to watch with you. Also, invite the missionaries to come and bring investigators to watch it with you also.

Of special value is the invite to watch Priesthood or general women’s session of General Conference. This past April I invited one of my friends who was less active to watch Priesthood with my dad and brothers. Most of session he was playing on his phone, but when the Prophet spoke he put it down and paid attention. Afterward, we invited him to go get ice cream with us, and he melded in with my brothers even calling my dad “dad” as we talked about our favorite talks.

6th. Use social media wisely.

If you like a talk, share it on Facebook or Twitter, or a quote on Instagram/Snapchat. But please, pay attention while Apostles are instructing us! I was talking with the owner of a very large Latter-day Saint website and he said that conference weekends were his busiest weekends of the year. He then said that he has thousands of people who will be actively on his website during General Conference but that he can tell when Elder Holland starts speaking because his traffic suddenly drops to 0 for the duration of his talk.

Whereas it is great that we pay attention to Elder Holland I find it very sad that so many members disregard other speakers. I invite you to use social media wisely to share the gospel but avoid the trap of scrolling during a talk. If in doubt, turn your phone on Uchtdorf mode (aka Airplane) mode until the talk is done!

7th. Review conference!

Conference talks are amazing, and like a good cheese, they get better with age! One of my favorite things to do to prepare for General Conference is to listen, read, and study prior conference talks.

Over the past two years and a half, I have listened, read, or watched over 2800 conference talks. By studying these talks in various degrees and settings it has set a tone of conference year-round. I have clung to every sentence of Elder Maxell, I have listened to the voice of President Romney urge the saints to become self-sufficient and serve others, I found myself crying to a story of President Monson. I felt the Spirit testify that President Nelson was called for a reason as I listened to apostles and prophets testify when he was called to be an apostle.

All of this was possible because I listened, read, and watched conference talks. Just as promised by Elder Holland, they have become personal prophetic epistles!

Whether this is your 50th General Conference, your 10th, or maybe you have never watched a session or a talk before I invite you to consider the above tips and come listen to Living Prophets! Watch General Conference at www.ChurchofJesusChrist.Org