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LDS general conference thread, Apr 2019

I am no longer a member, having resigned a few years ago. I do not watch general conference, but it is impossible to avoid hearing about it as it dominates social media, the local news and family/friend conversations. While watching the news coverage, it seems that almost every clip they played was about getting those who have left to come back. Was that really the dominant theme?

And did someone actually say that you should ignore any "not interested list" a person may choose to be on because "people change?" I understand the impulse when you believe that you know what is right for every person on the planet, and that your "knowledge" trumps our "ignorance." But please do not take this advice too much to heart. Ignoring people's agency is never good advice. It's like telling someone that yes, perhaps the girl told you she isn't interested in dating you, but hey, you know you belong together so just ignore that because she will change her mind if you are persistent enough.

No one who resigns from the church does it without a lot of pain, anguish, thought. It affects nearly every relationship that you have, and you have to create an entirely new world for yourself. And to have to go through all the pain again with your family and friends every six months is cruel for everyone.

For the record, it is backfiring already. Many people in my acquaintance who were on the fence about resigning from the church decided that it is time after this string of messages.

If my understanding about these messages are incorrect, I'm open to hearing about it.

I like you even more now
 
I really don't remember this as being a theme of this conference or discussed much more than normal. My view of topics that go this direction (off the top of my head) are that people change, but more than that we should just love people. I seem to remember something said this past weekend about loving people, inviting people, and if they decline that is their choice but we continue to love and be friends. We are all children of God after all and our love should not be conditioned on whether someone accepts our views or not. I don't see a problem with loving and inviting. I do see a problem in pestering and annoying.

If I understand your issue, is you see the messages of loving and reaching out to people as the invitation to pester people who have clearly said no. I don't see it that way, but I'm sure there are some zealous people that may do just that. I would hope all are respectful of people's choices either way. If you love and know someone well enough, and they change their mind, the topic will come up naturally. I don't think the counsel is to ask people every six months. I think it's to find a middle ground of knowing people and not being afraid of an invite when appropriate. For one person maybe that is in 6 months, for someone else maybe it's in 60 years. Get to know that person as a friend, be a real neighbor... not just one looking to turn them into a member of the church, love them... truly love them and help them and serve them.

I'm friends with plenty of people that know that our friendship has nothing to do with them being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. If they have questions for me, they ask me. If they decide they want to know more or investigate or come back to the church they will ask me. If not, we will continue to be friends.

I think that is what the message is. It's not to pester or bother people until they give up.
/2cents

Fellowship doesn’t require proselytizing but, few, in my experience understand that. I’ve personally wavered both ways with my membership and have “grown apart” from those that push “activating”.

I have deep seeded hesitations with the church that I don’t talk about because it’s automatically deemed to be sourced from anti-Mormon literature(it’s not) and would likely alienate those close to me. It’s from me analyzing my past experiences and irreconcilable histories of the church.
 
not that I know what any of this is about, but it might be interesting to those who do!

General conference is a (generally) 2-day event with 5-6 two-hour sessions of talks by church leaders. The talks mostly have a range in topics that you'd expect of any Christian church, with a few more LDS-specific themes thrown in. You can find all of the past General Conference talks since 1971 on the church website: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/conferences?lang=eng, you can just browse through and check out the talk titles, for example. One thing worth noting in particular is that we view the church president as being a prophet and inspired/ordained of God, so we (should) take his talks and counsel particularly seriously.

And yeah, I tend to start these threads each time when I remember to do so. :)
 
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