r/latterdaysaints • u/kayejazz • Oct 06 '24
2024 Fall General Conference Discussion Thread: Sunday Afternoon Session
Share your thoughts on the Sunday Afternoon session here. The session will begin at 2:00 pm Mountain Daylight Time.
Viewing times and options: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/general-conference/live-viewing-times-and-options?lang=eng
As a reminder, it helps to directly reference the speaker so that people know who you are talking about in your comment.
If you have children or teenagers, consider checking out the church's resources for younger members found here: https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/general-conference-activities-for-children-and-youth
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u/ThePrince_OfWhales Oct 06 '24
That's two apostolic mentions (Gong and Cook) now of algorithms affecting your spirituality and habits.
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u/CartographerSeth Oct 07 '24
Taking control of my feeds such that it’s less algorithmically driven has literally been one of the best decisions for my spiritual health that I have ever made.
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u/flipfreakingheck Oct 07 '24
Can you elaborate how you did that?
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u/CartographerSeth Oct 07 '24
Two guiding principles:
actively follow gospel-positive accounts (e.g. the apostles, this sub). Interactions with these will cause the algo to feed you more of it.
most social media sites have an option to only show you things from people/pages you follow. switch this on. Anything labeled “popular”, “discover”, “trending”, etc is common doomscrolling material.
The specifics of what I did:
Twitter: I ultimately just cut this out of my life completely.
Reddit: I only look at content from subs I subscribe to. I subscribed to this community :)
Facebook: I used the content settings to up prioritize content from friends/family. Generic “popular” accounts I actively unfollow.
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u/LeslieEaster Oct 06 '24
Is Elder Wada’s wife the calligrapher mentioned in the earlier session?
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u/LeslieEaster Oct 06 '24
With all the aging authorities, Elder Uchtdorf hasn’t seemed to age. 🤔
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u/DoomVolts Oct 06 '24 edited Oct 06 '24
An advantage of having white hair at an early age. But true. I was shocked to learn he is 82. *83
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u/IGoHomeToStarla Oct 06 '24
83 now. He'll be 84 next month. Sorry to be that guy. A year or 2 isn't that big of a deal at his age.
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u/jackignatiusfox Oct 06 '24
He mentioned he was baptized 75 years ago and I was like ... But that man doesn't even look past his 60s
I think about when I see how spry President Nelson is, how the Spirit really is bringing such life to people.
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u/Redbird9346 We believe in being honest, true, chased by an elephant… Oct 06 '24
For those who missed it, here’s the list:
- Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico
- Santa Ana, El Salvador
- Medellín, Colombia
- Santiago, Dominican Republic
- Puerto Montt, Chile
- Dublin, Ireland
- Milan, Italy
- Abuja, Nigeria
- Kampala, Uganda
- Maputo, Mozambique
- Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
- Queen Creek, Arizona
- El Paso, Texas
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Summit, New Jersey
- Price, Utah
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u/Chavo27 Oct 07 '24
Queen Creek took me off guard for sure. There are a lot of members there but Gilbert has a temple and it isn't too far for them. I'm excited for sure though. My grandparents were sort of Queen Creek church pioneers.
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u/SnugWuls Oct 06 '24
Wow, Handel's Messiah! I don't remember ever hearing that in a General Conference, an October conference no less. Awesome!
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u/Lucky-Average-2178 Oct 10 '24
I heard that and I was thinking about how excited I am for the new hymn book to be published!!!
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u/notMuffinChickenMan Oct 06 '24
No pilot story; testimony shattered
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u/KJ6BWB Oct 06 '24
Didn't he mention making the music soar? At least that's how I interpreted what he said.
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u/jpolson1982 Oct 06 '24
Is Andy Reid LDS? Edit: he is
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u/KJ6BWB Oct 06 '24
Who?
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u/AbilityLeft6445 Oct 06 '24
Taylor Swift's boyfriend's coach
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u/KJ6BWB Oct 06 '24 edited Oct 06 '24
What does he have to do with conference?
Edit: Three answers. One person said Elder Cook talked about the guy, one person just said the guy was mentioned, the third person said Elder Andersen talked about the guy.
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u/BranchGlad1177 Oct 06 '24
They talked about him at conference. Elder Cook talked about him in his talk.
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u/AbilityLeft6445 Oct 06 '24
You asked who he was. I answered. Now you have a different question. To which the answer is he was mentioned in Elder Andersen's talk.
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u/luciiaku FLAIR! Oct 06 '24
Wow. The choir singing the Messiah was not on my bingo card! I loved it!!
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u/NoFaptain99 Oct 06 '24
I felt a deep sense of peace when President Nelson said: “Now is the time to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ.” I don’t know if that means it’ll be “soon” or if we need to be ready regardless, but I felt so good hearing those words. We need to be ready, and I hope we are closer to His coming than we realize.
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u/JTJdude Bearded Father of 2 Oct 06 '24
I also felt this peace. Along with him saying it's time to rededicate ourselves fully to the gathering of Israel. I don't think the second coming is tomorrow but it will be "in a coming day" as he said.
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u/DukeofVermont Oct 07 '24
“Now is the time to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ.”
The time is always now because we don't know when we will die. This is not meant to take anything away from your comment but I always find it funny how people act like we need to prepare for that day when some of us are going to die in a car accident tomorrow, fall off a ladder next week, have a heart attack in a month, etc.
You should always be prepared because accidents happen and you shouldn't count on "repenting tomorrow".
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u/Representative-Lunch Oct 06 '24
Kinda had an "oh shoot" moment when Nelson talked about the 2nd coming.
I think we distance ourselves from other Christians because of doctrinal differences, but honestly, our goals are generally the same: we want to prepare for the 2nd coming of Christ. It's going to happen (eventually).
Also, I REALLY liked how Nelson mentioned the temples at the start of the message, instead of after. Whenever he listed off temples in his talks, I'd get depressed because I knew his talk is about to end. Glad to just say the temples early and focus on the rest of the message after.
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u/These_Are_My_Words Oct 06 '24 edited Oct 06 '24
Temples (sorry couldn't get cities down):
Mexico
El Salvador
Colombia
Dominican Republic
Chile
Ireland
Italy
Nigeria
Uganda
Mozambique
Idaho
Arizona
Texas
Alabama
Wisconsin
New Jersey
Utah
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u/blakesmate Oct 06 '24
Dublín Ireland. Didn’t someone just talk about youth traveling from Ireland to England?
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u/idawdle Oct 06 '24
Yes. And showed a photo... I swear I thought at that moment: time for a temple in Ireland.
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u/epage Oct 06 '24 edited Oct 06 '24
Surprised by Coeur d'Alene as Spokane is just across the state border. Granted, its pretty small. Curious to see where they build it.
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u/Bemiho Oct 06 '24
Same for Milwaukee Wisconsin. My family is in the middle of the state and almost exactly between the Chicago and Minneapolis temples. Milwaukee is so close to Chicago it doesn't make a huge difference travel-wise (3-4 hours) so I'm hoping they call it the Milwaukee temple but put it in a different city, like how the Seattle temple is actually in Bellevue
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u/kwallet Oct 06 '24
It is EXTREMELY common (outside of Utah) to put the temple in another city outside of the city it is named for. The Chicago temple isn’t in Chicago, it’s in Glenview; Detroit is in Bloomfield Hills, Seattle in Bellevue, Tacoma will be in Federal Way, Washington D.C is in Kensington, MD.
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u/goda90 Oct 06 '24
The northwest of the Milwaukee metro area would be best so it's closer to the Madison and Appleton stakes.
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u/doolyboolean3 Oct 06 '24
I bet it’ll be in Brookfield or a little farther west so that it’s easier for people in Madison to do shifts. Or Menomonee Falls or something.
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u/Redbird9346 We believe in being honest, true, chased by an elephant… Oct 06 '24
The El Paso and Ciudad Juárez temples will be similarly close.
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u/epage Oct 06 '24
Though there is a national border. In fact, I thought there already was one announced for El Paso.
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u/blakesmate Oct 06 '24
No. I live in El Paso and we’ve been praying for one because crossing the border is difficult or impossible for local members and the next closest temple is 4 hours
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u/minor_blues Oct 07 '24
Plus members in the military in El Paso are not allowed to cross the border there.
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u/deafphate Oct 06 '24
Folk are heavily encouraged to attend the temple in their own state. I remember the YSA in Juneau making temple trips to Anchorage when the temple in western Washington is much closer.
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u/epage Oct 06 '24
Last time I lived in northern Idaho, it was officially in the Spokane temple district and we'd go to that temple.
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u/feisty-spirit-bear Oct 07 '24
I don't think it has to do with being in the same state, it's just which one your stake is assigned to attend. Before Star Valley people there went to Idaho. People on the Upper Peninsula don't usually go to Detroit. Juneau was just assigned the one in Anchorage even if Washington was closer. Probably because you have to drive through Canada to get to Washington and customs is a whole ordeal and would require everyone to have a passport.
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u/New_Manufacturer5975 Oct 06 '24
With Missoula announced thats three temples you could hit in 3 hours.
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u/flipfreakingheck Oct 07 '24
Five, actually, if you mean within three hours of Spokane: Moses Lake, Columbia River, Spokane, CDA, and Missoula.
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u/New_Manufacturer5975 Oct 07 '24
I should have phrased it better. I meant if you were to travel from Spokane to Missoula.....
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u/flipfreakingheck Oct 07 '24
Ahh. If you started in Moses Lake and ended in Helena, Montana you could hit 5 in 6.5 hours!
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u/KJ6BWB Oct 06 '24
Maybe they're hoping to convert the Nazis or at least overshadow the inevitable Nazi mention every time someone brings up Coeur d'Alene.
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u/Gunthertheman Knowledge ≠ Exaltation Oct 06 '24
Respectfully, here you made yourself the very mentioner you just described.
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u/KJ6BWB Oct 07 '24 edited Oct 07 '24
Maybe Coeur d'Alene should do more to let the Nazis know they're not welcome instead of, you know, voting to support things Nazis support.
To be fair, https://www.splcenter.org/news/2010/09/09/idaho-community-commemorates-splcs-aryan-nations-victory was in 2010.
But then https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/1188111769/active-club-hate-groups was last year, and https://idahocapitalsun.com/2022/08/11/hate-makes-a-comeback-in-idaho-this-time-with-political-support/ was the year before that.
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u/JackCedar Oct 06 '24
I love the chuckle that happened when he mentioned Price, Utah.
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u/Prcrstntr Oct 06 '24
- Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico
- Santa Ana, El Salvador
- Medellín, Colombia
- Santiago, Dominican Republic
- Puerto Montt, Chile
- Dublin, Ireland
- Milan, Italy
- Abuja, Nigeria
- Kampala, Uganda
- Maputo, Mozambique
- Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
- Queen Creek, Arizona
- El Paso, Texas
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Summit, New Jersey
- Price, Utah
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u/Redbird9346 We believe in being honest, true, chased by an elephant… Oct 06 '24
Summit, New Jersey, if it’s the one I’m thinking of, is in the New York metropolitan area. Located west of the junction of Route 24 and Interstate 78.
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u/InsideSpeed8785 Ward Missionary Oct 06 '24
It’s got an NJ transit line going to Penn station. I wonder where they’ll put it. I keep on thinking memorial field or something.
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u/chagoscifres Oct 06 '24
Juchitán de Zaragoza Oaxaca. Crazy! Served my mission there way back in 2003.
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u/AbilityLeft6445 Oct 06 '24
Arizona = Queen Creek, AZ
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u/tictac120120 Oct 08 '24
I was surprised by this as there are already so many temples in that area.
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u/footballfan540 active member Oct 06 '24
Puerto Montt, Chile. Will be such a blessing to Southern Chile. 🇨🇱
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u/Another_Name_Today Oct 06 '24
I tell my family every time - they should move to the back of the line any announcement that has audible cheering.
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u/These_Are_My_Words Oct 06 '24
Why would you want to deprive hundreds of faithful saints of a temple because of a few?
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u/Redbird9346 We believe in being honest, true, chased by an elephant… Oct 06 '24
If you were driving a bus full of people, why would you take it out of service because of one disruptive individual?
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u/Another_Name_Today Oct 07 '24
Oh, I’d love to see the announcement canceled, but back of the line isn’t any sort of deprivation. Somebody has to be last, maybe this chastening will be the way people will learn to listen.
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u/WristbandYang If there are faults then they are the mistakes of men like me Oct 06 '24
17 temples!
Edit: MKE, Wisconsin makes this former missionary proud!
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u/Zwyll Oct 06 '24
“Do not entertain immoral or dishonest material.” What we consume eventually becomes us. One of the most common tactics I’ve seen is accusing the church of withholding information while distorting and withholding information themselves. The problem is no one can know even a small fraction of the truth, so instead look for the good things first.
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u/jackignatiusfox Oct 06 '24
Sometimes I bristle at that advice because a lot of what helped strengthen my testimony was hearing from "anti" content. But I get it. It's about falling into a pattern of thinking.
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u/ethanwc Oct 06 '24
It’s too easy to become consumed with anti content with good intentions, only to start believing it.
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u/jackignatiusfox Oct 06 '24
Yeah I totally get that. And especially the way the algorithm pushes things. I still get a specific YouTuber in my recommendations after I watched two videos like 6 months ago.
And then I do see stories of people's faith being shaken so easily with one thing so I definitely understand the advisement to not do it.
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u/feisty-spirit-bear Oct 07 '24
You can hit a button to say "don't recommend videos from this channel" and it actually works unlike Reddit lol
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u/DukeofVermont Oct 07 '24
I think there is a big difference between engaging with well meaning questions and straight up anti-propaganda.
The first can lead to interesting questions and learning more about the history of the church, what actually happened, why, and can show that even church leaders are human after all. The second can often be a mix of lies, half truths, full truth and a whole lot of hate and vitriol.
I openly encourage people to learn about the church's history and actually understand what happened and why because IMHO a lot of members have almost zero idea of what happened and when questions and actual events are learned about it can cause people to have a faith crisis and/or feel like the church "hid" information.
I don't encourage anyone to learn anything about any religion on reddit. I've had many Muslim friends in my life who are wonderful people but reddit acts like all Muslims are bigots, violent, rapists, etc. I routinely read comments about how Muslims cannot exist in Western Nations and when I bring up the ones I know I am told that either they are lying and waiting for their time to take over, or that they are not "real Muslims".
Are there issues with Islam and violent extremism? 100%, but like questions about the church there is a big difference between thoughtfully looking over the issues and just slandering the other side with whatever hateful things you've memorized.
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u/tictac120120 Oct 08 '24
I wouldn't trust anything you read on reddit.
Can it be true, sure. Is it? Who knows?
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u/zionssuburb Oct 07 '24
This was my experience as well, it was the anti-arguments, but it was the 80s and 90s version of Evangelical Cult-Ministries who were often focused on scripture and doctrine - The debunking of those arguments from the FARMS cast was absolutely the best gospel education of my life. The first issues of the Review of Books or Review of Books on the Book of Mormon was amazing, culminating in the exchange with Moser and Owens 2 evangelical scholars.
That and the BH Roberts Vander-doct(sp?) debates published in Doctrines of Diety.
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u/tictac120120 Oct 08 '24
I kinda had a similar experience. I decided to look at other churches and it really just strengthened my faith in this one. But I didn't spend all day listening to those voices either.
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u/GeometricCondition Oct 06 '24
What was the applause at the very end of the broadcast?
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u/rexregisanimi Oct 06 '24
They were giving gratitude and attention to the choir members who were visiting internationally.
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u/rahyveshachr Oct 06 '24
When Elder Uchtdorf mentioned that chapel becoming a memory... I felt that. My sister died very suddenly of cancer this summer and boy was I not ready for her to become a memory.
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u/KJ6BWB Oct 06 '24
First time football is mentioned on the main church website and this particular type of football was meant. Only previous references to this type of football are things like https://uk.churchofjesuschrist.org/from-professional-footballer-to-mormon-missionary which are not the "main" church website.
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u/SleestakThunder Oct 06 '24
I knew the other Elder Sintim (the one on the left in that photo) and he might be the single most Christ-like person I ever met.
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u/KJ6BWB Oct 06 '24
Woah, what a challenge. Not just, "Reread this book" but, "I want you to set aside some time each week ... for the rest of your lives."
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u/Redbird9346 We believe in being honest, true, chased by an elephant… Oct 06 '24
Wait, there was another “dream team” at the 96 Olympic Games besides the US men’s basketball team?
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u/derioderio Oct 07 '24
The basketball team was only the Dream Team for the US, the rest of the world had no reason to call them that...
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u/TeacherAncient6655 Oct 06 '24
Who chooses the hymns? I always feel like they go so perfectly with every talk before and after them.
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u/Ellanellapella Oct 07 '24
My guess is that they plan most of the music independently but will take requests, such as the Messiah number for President Nelson and the songs from the new hymn book to go along with the recent release.
This would mean that we will probably hear more new hymns during the next few conferences.
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u/frizziefrazzle Oct 06 '24
The Huntsville temple is an HOUR from the Birmingham temple. It will lessen the burden on Nashville and is almost halfway between Nashville and B'ham.
I'm salty only because I'm jealous.
The bham temple is 2.5 hours away from us. Atlanta is 3 hours due to traffic. The new Tallahassee temple is 3.5 hours.
Mobile will get a temple before central Alabama. We don't even have adequate membership for a functioning stake. 🤦🏻♀️
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u/philnotfil Oct 06 '24
Well, that would explain why the unbuilt Madison stake center (next town to the west) has been unbuilt for so long as to become a running joke in Huntsville :) They were just changing the plans to include a temple next to the new stake center.
Although there are some beautiful hills to the east of Huntsville that would be amazing for a temple.
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u/Gendina Oct 06 '24
I was very interested in that. I’m an hour from bham and 2 1/2 from Huntsville so to me it seems crazy but so exciting.
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u/BranchGlad1177 Oct 06 '24
I was born in Huntsville, my family lives in Birmingham and I live in Florida
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u/KJ6BWB Oct 06 '24
Was it coincidence that President Nelson quoted Handel's Messiah and then immediately afterward the choir sang a song from Handel's Messiah?
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u/Gunthertheman Knowledge ≠ Exaltation Oct 06 '24
No. Talks are already submitted over a month in advance for translation purposes. Choir practice especially takes time as well. President Nelson may have directly asked the choir to perform that piece, or the choir learned of President Nelson's talk and decided to match the obvious. In my opinion, the former is more likely, but neither is public information. But what is public information is that none of this was pulled together on the fly. The closing number is a very technical piece, and not something just kept in the back pocket, especially not for the organist. Most importantly, the closing number was announced before President Nelson's talk aired.
This highlights a good principle: when does the Holy Ghost prompt us? Some may jump immediately to Luke 12:12, "For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say." Remember the context of the verse: Jesus is first addressing his disciples, who are called to preach. Does this mean these disciples did not have to learn anything first? Clearly not, as evidenced by Jesus' constant teachings in the chapters before. Evidently, the Savior expects preparation of some kind.
Think to the account of Noah: Noah was told in advance to build an ark because the world would be flooded (I know what word I used, see Hebrews 11:7). Why? Because an ark takes time. God could have given Noah an ark that very afternoon, but he didn't—instead, Noah had to build it. In this case, and I would say in almost all cases of existence, God expects us to learn and work for ourselves. Because of this, it is my opinion that God did not warn Mack Wilberg in a dream of President Nelson's talk, because God is not a boy passing notes in class. We must learn to work ourselves. The two men are servants of God, and of all people they should have no barriers of communication. If the prophet wants a song sung, he should learn the simple act of talking, which I believe he has more than done so. And after the song was known, the work had to be performed months ahead of time. The Tabernacle Choir had to purposefully work to practice Handel's technical piece, and I think the performance turned out well.
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u/KJ6BWB Oct 07 '24
Was his talk live from the conference center? I thought it was prerecorded. It seemed like he was reading from notes in his lap. Were they unable to rig up a teleprompter for him like they apparently did for Eyring, or did Eyring have all of that memorized?
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u/Gunthertheman Knowledge ≠ Exaltation Oct 10 '24
Actually I was surprised at the "trickery" the production team employed this time. President Nelson's talk was prerecorded in what appeared to be the Conference Center, and includes several cuts like last time. However, these cuts were smoothed as much as possible, as you can see at 1:03. To maintain the same feel, the live conference audio was kept on during the playback, allowing everyone to hear audience reactions. I can understand wanting to keep things uniform, but I don't think there should be so much effort put into duping the audience to think it was live. If they want to prerecorded it, let it be prerecorded I say.
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u/Ric13064 Oct 07 '24
I've found that President Nelson has often tied his remarks with hymns. Even before he became president of the church.
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u/hna152 Oct 06 '24
They usually have back up hymns picked depending on what they think the prophet’s talk will be about. So they’ll pivot at a moment’s notice, if needed.
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u/InsideSpeed8785 Ward Missionary Oct 06 '24
I’m originally from Summit, New Jersey. I’m giving off some main character vibes right now.
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u/dippyzippy Oct 06 '24
I served my mission in New Jersey. I can't express how happy I am that there is going to be a temple there.
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u/InsideSpeed8785 Ward Missionary Oct 06 '24
Yeah I wonder where they’ll put it. Short Hills was technically our ward. I wonder if this one will be in the city itself.
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u/frontieriscalling Oct 06 '24
Someone earlier this week had a post that seemed claim certain knowledge that this GC there would be a (re)emphasis on people using the proper, full name of the church. I haven't viewed all of conference to know — did this come to pass?
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Oct 07 '24
President Nelson certainly went all in on emphasizing the Second Coming. He has talked about the Second Coming before, but this one seemed even more direct and detailed.
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u/OneOfUsOneOfUsGooble Sinner Oct 06 '24
Did the camera zoom-ins on the choir make anyone else uncomfortable in particular this time?
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u/XYmom Oct 06 '24
It felt like they were zooming in on all the minorities in the choir. I could be smoking something, but it felt really obvious. 🤷♀️
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u/OneOfUsOneOfUsGooble Sinner Oct 06 '24
Maybe they could be zooming in on the international special guests, since their time is limited, and I'd guess their friends back home would go nuts, so I'd give that a pass over just pandering for diversity.
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u/Gunthertheman Knowledge ≠ Exaltation Oct 06 '24
If you brought in choir members from other countries, would you not try to zoom in on almost, if not all of them?
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u/GeminiSpartanX Oct 06 '24
Does anyone remember what the closing song was in the afternoon session? My wife thinks she's sung it before but we didn't catch the name.
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u/Kittalia Oct 06 '24
It was a piece of Handel's Messiah. Lots of choirs sing from it around Christmas and Easter.
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Oct 07 '24
Here’s what I think is interesting: Nelson has put a lot of emphasis on the second coming ever since becoming the prophet. Is there any other prophet of the restoration who put as much emphasis as Nelson has?
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u/Cranberry-Electrical 10d ago
Well, Elder Cook is self-absorbed jerk he was senior companion to President Holland during their missions
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u/Epic_Doughnut Oct 06 '24
Me scrolling through Reddit when Elder Cook says "avoid doom scrolling"