LDS General Conference

The 172nd Semiannual General Conference of the Church will convene in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday and Sunday, 5–6 October 2002. The Saturday general sessions will be held at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Sunday sessions will be held at 9:30 a.m. (which includes Music and the Spoken Word) and 2:00 p.m. The general priesthood meeting will be held in the Conference Center on Saturday, 5 October, at 6:00 p.m.

The First Presidency has invited all members and friends to participate in general conference by attending, viewing, or listening via television, radio, satellite, or Internet transmission at www.lds.org.

Usual Sunday meetings on 6 October need not be held. In areas where only one Sunday session is broadcast, local leaders can either adjust meeting schedules or, where appropriate, rearrange the agenda of regularly scheduled meetings to permit members to listen to or watch conference proceedings.

Hinckley Wraps Up Conference With Vigorous Defense of Faith

BY PEGGY FLETCHER STACK
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Globe-trotting is exhausting for an old man, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley quipped Sunday, reporting on his recent trip to Russia, Ukraine, Iceland, Germany, France and the Netherlands -- the latter three in a single day.

But if the 92-year-old leader had his way, he would turn over his administrative duties to others and do nothing else but travel the world, meeting the church's 11 million members. "I would spend my time out among our people," Hinckley said on the closing day of the church's 172nd Semiannual General Conference. "Every member of the church is deserving of a visit."

The man considered a prophet, seer and revelator by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has some "physical limitations" that prohibit him from shaking hands with everyone, but Hinckley said he can "look them in the eye with gladness in my heart and express my love and leave a blessing."

Hinckley can also continue to provide a strong defense of the Mormon faith and its historic origins. And that is precisely what he did Sunday for the more than 20,000 Mormons gathered at the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City and millions watching via satellite in 68 countries across the globe.

LDS faithful believe it all began with when 14-year-old Joseph Smith, the church's founder, had a vision of God and Jesus Christ in a grove of trees in 1820. "Our whole strength rests on the validity of that vision," Hinckley declared. "It either occurred or it did not occur. If it did not, then this work is a fraud. If it did, then it is the most wonderful and important work under the heavens."

That "unique, singular and remarkable event is the pivotal substance of our faith," he said.

Hinckley said although he can understand why outsiders do not accept Smith's account -- "it is almost beyond comprehension" -- the vision story "is so reasonable" to him and church members.

He also wondered why other Christians do not accept the Book of Mormon, which the church holds to be of an ancient record of New World inhabitants who were visited by Jesus Christ.

"I would think they would be looking for anything and everything that would establish without question the reality and the divinity of the savior of the world," Hinckley said.

Criticism cannot undermine Mormon faith in Jesus Christ, he said, but that confidence should not make them boastful or arrogant. "We do not need to wear our religion on our sleeve," Hinckley said in his closing remarks Sunday afternoon. "Such becomes a negation of the spirit of the Christ whom we ought to emulate."

He admonished Latter-day Saints to lower their voices a few decibels, return good for evil, and "smile when anger might be so much easier."

Other speakers Sunday urged Mormons to be better fathers and mothers, to accept all church assignments willingly, to consecrate all their time and talents to the building of Zion, a religious utopia, and to walk in faith. "Our faith is the foundation upon which all our spiritual lives rest," said Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. "It should be the most important resource of our lives."

Faith is not something people believe, he said: "Faith is something we live."

Apostle Richard G. Scott spoke of the need to heal a wounded heart. Those who have chosen a "path of sin" often feel an "oppressive, crushing weight that's always there no matter how you seek to shake it," Scott said.

The only way to be free of that burden is to repent, he said. Seek a bishop's counsel and advice on how to repent and allow the bishop to offer support in the process. "Repentance is a process of cleansing," Scott said.

Those who have been scarred "by the ugly sin of abuse," often experience "fear, depression, guilt, self-hatred and a deepening lack of trust in others," he said. "Relief can begin with the counsel of parents, priesthood leaders, and, when needed, the help of competent professionals."

But complete healing can come only "through your faith in Jesus Christ and his power and capacity, through his atonement, to heal the scars of that which is unjust and undeserved," Scott said.

As the conference closed, Hinckley challenged his listeners to "rise to the divinity within you."

"If we live by the principles of the Gospel we must be good people, for we will be generous and kind, thoughtful and tolerant, helpful and outreaching to those in distress," Hinckley said.

"We can either subdue the divine nature and hide it so that it finds no expression in our lives, or we can bring it to the front and let it shine through all that we do."

The next General Conference will be in April 2003. Salt Lake Tribune.

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