To bear the weight of eternal life

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week we're taking a break from the past to write about the conference that just happened, October 2025.

General Conference! Wasn't it good? I felt like I needed it extra this year! It was so sad not to have a talk by President Nelson. I was hoping maybe he'd recorded one before he died, but no such luck! But I loved hearing from Elder Oaks and all the other apostles. The theme for me was Family and Personal Agency—specifically using our agency (in families and as individuals) to intentionally choose faith, choose testimony, choose kindness, and choose to strengthen relationships. I felt inspired and uplifted and determined to do better! Here, from my own probably inaccurate notes, are some of the things I liked best:

Sister Tracy Browning's talk on the importance of Primary Songs was so surprising and good. It's not a topic I would have thought to talk about, but as she spoke I could see the wisdom of it. So many truths that I know, so much gospel learning that is simply part of me, comes from primary songs I learned as a child! Even now I get inspiration in the form of those memorized songs and words. When I was Primary President we had the best music leader. She taught the children so many beautiful gospel principles with the songs, and I felt the spirit every Sunday as she taught. What a blessing for those primary children (and all the adults in the room too!). I need to play more primary songs in our home!

I think everyone I've talked to after conference has loved Elder Kevin R. Brown as much as I did. He came to our stake conference a couple years ago as a Utah Area Authority, and I didn't know he'd been called as a seventy since then! He is such a wonderful speaker. So intense and enthusiastic. I can still remember how good his Stake Conference talk was, and this General Conference talk was just as inspiring! I loved how he talked about his personal "sacred grove" and how we can each use our agency to take charge of our own testimonies and choose to believe. The intensity of his "It is urgent!" was electrifying!

 In a similar vein, I liked Elder Kelly R. Johnson's talk—he was the forensic accountant (I perked up at that because Abe is in the Accounting program at BYU and I've heard him talk about that branch of accounting) who talked about reconciliation and how it means to bring us back into alignment with God. Like Elder Brown, he emphasized how we have to choose to initiate the effort to come back into alignment. God will help us restore and be reconciled, but we must make the effort ourselves by seeking daily repentance.

I liked Elder Peter M. Johnson's story about when he was a missionary and learned about the prohibition on Blacks having the priesthood. His missionary companion just patiently said "I love you" to him every night while he struggled through his questions and doubts, and that simple act helped him through his hard time. I also loved "the Savior's job is to heal; ours is to love."

Elder Matthew Holland is so much like his dad! And his talk was like his dad's too (the highest compliment!). I have never noticed or thought about the phrase "forsake not your own mercy" but I love its implications about how we should reach for Jesus Christ in the midst of our flaws and bad choices. It's so natural to want to turn away in hurt or embarrassment, but that's exactly the wrong thing to do. Elder Holland reminded us to turn in those times to the temple, serve the Lord, and we will see God's special covenantal love for us.

Elder John D. Gamos had a great talk and a great accent (he was the guy from Louisiana). I liked his analogy about how "adding more Jesus" can compensate for imperfections in our "recipe for happy living," and his story about the missionary who was trying to have more charity for his difficult companion.

I loved Elder Eyring's talk so much. It may have been my favorite. I have been thinking about one phrase since Conference: "God is strengthening us to bear the weight of eternal life." Of course I know that trials are for our good, but that's such an interesting way to sum up their purpose. It scares me a little—to think that eternal life requires bearing such a great weight—but it makes sense too. The heaviness and depth of the suffering caused by sin is an inevitable and necessary component of allowing agency. Heavenly Father doesn't make mistakes Himself, but He has to watch us make plenty of them—to see us hurting ourselves and each other. Thank goodness for Jesus Christ who took that weight upon Himself that it might not crush our fragile mortal spirits as we learn and grow, but the weight still exists and someone has to bear it. Surely that must be some of "what a fulness means." And, if we want to be like God, we must learn how to bear that fulness too.

Or maybe Elder Kearon's talk was my favorite? It's true that anything he says in his beautiful voice would probably sound profound, but he is also such a good writer. "Jesus died to give us as many new beginnings as we need." I needed to hear his words that "we can have a fresh start even in our feelings of grumpiness, our bad habits, our things that have been wearing us down for years;" and to remember that Jesus "never tires of giving us" those new beginnings. So beautiful. (I'm excited to get the transcript of this one because my notes don't do it justice.)

Oh, and Elder Uchtdorf! So much good doctrine in his talk too! "Receiving God's gifts is not a casual endeavor, but a conscious choice, a practice of every day and every hour." Like Elder Brown and Elder Johnson, his emphasis was so much on our responsibility to choose to receive. I also thought it was interesting how Elder Uchtdorf implied that the growth we see in the world around us, in nature, is specifically crafted to teach us an important lesson: "God's expectations are high, but he doesn't expect superhuman leaps. In the world He created, growth happens slowly, but consistently and constantly. We choose to walk after the Savior, one step at a time." So good.

I loved Elder Stevenson's thoughts (expanding on President Nelson's counsel) about being peacemakers. It felt powerful to think that simply by beginning with peace in our own hearts, we can make such a difference in the world.

Elder Renlund's analogy of the doctor "being associated with President Nelson's name" was perfectly thought-out and articulated, as always. I love that he was able to teach such good principles about taking upon ourselves Christ's name, while at the same time paying tribute to the kind of exemplary person and disciple our prophet was.

Elder Gong gave a very Elder-Gongish talk. I liked it. He has such a deep understanding of the parable of the Good Samaritan. He has expanded my understanding of it in several different talks. This time I thought his point was interesting that we are all grouped together in God's church, the "inn," to help take care of each other and bind up each other's wounds. "We have all been hurt and have hurt others. Jesus brings us all to His inn, where we love and are loved, serve and are served, forgive and are forgiven." And then, as the parable teaches us, Christ will return and repay us for any service that has not yet been paid. I also loved "No one sits alone" (a theme of Elder Gong's) and even more specifically, "Each hello, each warm gesture, brings Zion closer." It sounds so attainable when you put it like that!

And then, of course, I absolutely loved the emphasis on the Family Proclamation during this Conference! Have I mentioned that I was in the tabernacle when President Hinckley first read it (thirty years ago; my goodness!)? I loved Elder Rasband's talk and especially Elder Oaks' bold words defending out "family church" and our family-centered doctrine. I loved his description of the absolute over-arching presence of the family in every part of Heavenly Father's plan: "The gospel plan was first taught in a premortal family setting, it is implemented in mortal families, and we will ultimately be exalted in eternal families." I loved his unashamed declaration that "as Latter-day Saints, we should not follow the trends of the world!" We must hold fast to our understanding of "the purpose of marriage and the value of children." It is one of my great worries that my children and their spouses will not be able to resist the pull of the world on this principle. As I know all too well, it takes a lot of faith and courage to keep welcoming children into your family! But it is so worth it! In spite of all the "fullness," the heaviness, and the depth and complexity of family life that I am only beginning to comprehend—I already can see that choosing family is worth the sacrifices. And someday, I assume, I will see even more clearly how "worth it" it is.

I also loved Elder Oaks' promise that "families flourish when they learn as a group." I want so much for family learning to be one of our family's characteristics! I want to, as he said, "pray together over [our] common concerns, worship together, share family stories and family traditions, and share sacred experiences." I want to find a way to keep doing that even as my family grows and changes. But it takes such patient and constant effort! The realization of this goal often feels very far away. Sometimes I'm so daunted by it. I have to trust God that He will help me, and again, it will be worth the sacrifice!