Thousands gathered at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City for the Saturday afternoon session of the 194th Semiannual General Conference.
General authorities and officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke on following Jesus Christ’s example. They emphasized the importance of relying on him for spiritual rescue, welcoming everyone and building relationships.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson said members of the Church should do all they can to metaphorically bury their weapons of rebellion.
“We might ask ourselves what we could do to follow this pattern, to ‘lay down their weapons of [our] rebellion’ whatever they may be and become so ‘converted to the Lord’ that the stain of sin and desire for sin are taken from our hearts, and we will never fall away,” Elder Christofferson said.
It would be a form of rebellion to deface or defile our bodies, or to be caught up in vanity, he said.
“In the end, burying our weapons of rebellion against God simply means yielding to the enticing of the Holy Spirit, putting off the natural man and becoming a saint through the Atonement of Christ the Lord.”
Elder José A. Teixeira of the Presidency of the Seventy asked members to serve others and be a positive influence.
“Just like the marnotos put forth great effort to ensure they harvest the highest quality of salt, so should we, as the Lord’s covenant people, always do our best so that our love and example are, as much as possible, a pure reflection of our savior, Jesus Christ,” he said.
Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve spoke about the idea of joyous reverence. He gave guidance on how to worship joyfully on the sabbath and welcome everyone during Church services.
“Ultimately, we can ask ourselves how the Savior would want our sacrament hour to be. How would he want each one of his children to be welcomed, cared for, nourished and loved? How would he want us to feel when we come to be renewed through remembering and worshiping him?” he said.
Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve concluded the conference. Members should let the Lord be their most powerful influence, he said.
“My dear friends, when we choose to let God be the most powerful influence in our life over our self-serving pursuits, we can make progress in our discipleship and increase our capacity to unite our mind and heart with the Savior,” he said.
BYU students Martha Perez and Emma Robinson attended the Saturday afternoon session together. They felt the spirit strongly when listening to the new hymns sung by the children’s choir.
"I loved it,” Robinson said. “I almost cried during the song. ‘Gethsemane,’ it’s one of my favorite songs but I just love the way that it talks about our Savior and how much he loves us and suffered for us so we can have joy in this life.”
General conference will continue with the Sunday morning and afternoon sessions on Oct. 6.