PREPARING FOR CONFERENCE

Two hundred years ago this spring, a young boy struggled with a troubling question: with all of the churches using the same Bible, but interpreting it so differently, how was he to know which church to join.  One day, he was reading a passage in the Book of James that said if one lacked wisdom on a subject, he could go directly to God and that the Lord would not upbraid him for doing so.

He went to a grove of trees on his father's farm, a place where it would be private and quiet, and there he uttered his first spoken out loud prayer, asking which church to join.  Two things happened immediately.  The first was that he was almost overpowered by a very dark and very real spirit that he feared was going to take him.  At this moment of anguish, he suddenly saw a light directly above his head.  The dark spirit was immediately gone.  The light was as bright as the sun at noonday, but he was able to realize that within the light were two personages.  One of them said, pointing to the other, This is my beloved Son. Hear Him.

He received counsel from his Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  He learned that they were real and tangible, resurrected and perfected human beings.  He noted that they were separate in substance and not some three-in-one formless deity as he had supposed.  He learned that these God's had a work for him.  That work would unfold over the next few years as he was visited by and tutored by an angel.

This year at General Conference, we will be celebrating the bicentennial of Joseph  Smith's First Vision. Please visit Church Website Link for it is full of wonderful resources about the First Vision. We can appreciate the Conference if we prepare ahead.