Teachings of Church Leaders 6

This lesson has two parts. The first part will teach you two skills that can help you have a more meaningful experience studying general conference messages.

In the second part of this lesson, you will use the skills you learned to study the general conference talk assigned by your teacher. If a message wasn’t assigned, choose one from the most recent general conference.

One way to increase your desire to act is to find inspired guidance and promised blessings. For example, in his talk “The Power of Spiritual Momentum,” President Russell M. Nelson called on members to do the following five things:

Get on the covenant path and stay there. …

Discover the joy of daily repentance. …

Learn about God and how He works. …

Seek and expect miracles. …

End conflict in your personal life.

He then made the following promise:

As you act on these pursuits, I promise you the ability to move forward on the covenant path with increased momentum, despite whatever obstacles you face. And I promise you greater strength to resist temptation, more peace of mind, freedom from fear, and greater unity in your families. (Liahona, May 2022, 98–100)

strength, peace

Marking inspired guidance and promised blessings takes time, but recognizing the blessings of obedience can strengthen your desire to act in faith.

As you study a general conference talk today, mark the inspired guidance you find and the promised blessings that come from following it.

As you study general conference messages, you will find many invitations to act. You can easily keep track of these invitations by tagging them as “invitations to act” and adding a tag that summarizes the invitation. For example, Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles made the following invitation:

At the start of my journey of faith, joy in Jesus Christ was my first great discovery, and it changed my world. If you have yet to discover this joy, embark on its quest. This is an invitation to receive the Saviour’s gift of peace, light, and joy—to revel in it, to wonder at it, and to rejoice in it every Sabbath. (“Welcome to the Church of Joy,” Liahona, Nov. 2024, 38)

You could tag this statement as “invitations to act” and “joy.”

Likewise, Sister Bonnie Cordon, former Young Women General President, counseled:

Find your patriarchal blessing, blow off the dust if you must, but study it often. If you don’t have one, get one—soon. Don’t delay finding out what the Lord wants to tell you now about who you are. (“Come unto Christ and Don’t Come Alone,” Liahona, Nov. 2021, 10)

You could tag this as “invitations to act” and “patriarchal blessings.”

As you study a general conference talk today, look for invitations to act. Tag what you find as “invitations to act,” and add another tag summarizing the focus of the invitation. As you add to the tag in the future, take time to look back on the invitations that have been extended, and consider how well you have received them.