You are invited…

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is holding the 181st semi-annual general conference this weekend, and we would like you to attend! It’s an opportunity to hear from the Lord’s authorized spokesmen on the earth: his prophet and apostles.

There are four sessions of the conference over two days, each one unique and inspiring. Mormons all around the world watch these sessions; they listen to the sermons, take notes, and resolve to press forward on their paths of discipleship to the Lord.

The first session starts on Saturday (Oct. 1, 2011) at 10:00am MDT and lasts for two hours. You can watch the whole thing live online. The other sessions begin Saturday at 2:00pm and Sunday also at 10:00am and 2:00pm.

If you would like a little taste right now of what a Mormon general conference is like, here is a video from last April’s conference, featuring one of the Apostles, Jeffrey R. Holland. He was one of the final speakers and he gave a conference talk on the topic of conference talks (how meta is that?). Below are a few quotes I pulled from his sermon that illustrate what these conferences are all about.

… I ask you to reflect … on the unique phenomenon that general conference itself is—what we as Latter-day Saints believe such conferences to be and what we invite the world to hear and observe about them. We testify to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people that God not only lives but also that He speaks, that for our time and in our day the counsel you have heard is, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, “the will of the Lord, … the word of the Lord, … the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation” (D&C 68:4).

In the course of a general conference, we always stress the eternal verities of faith, hope, charity, and Christ crucified even as we speak forthrightly on very specific moral issues of the day.

… we are under a solemn charge to issue warning calls to those who are [guilty] —wherever they may be in the world. […] Every sermon given is always, by definition, both a testimony of love and a warning.

[The modern prophet, President Monson is] one of those angelic messengers called from before the foundation of the world to wave the ensign of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world. […] Of that gospel being declared, the salvation it provides, and He who provides it, I so testify in the grand and glorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Read it in full