General Conference Preview Recap

General Conference is this weekend. For those who don't know, GC is 10 hours of sermons from the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (plus musical numbers) over two days that comes up twice a year. It's a lot of church, but at least now I can watch it via internet at home on the couch in my pajamas.

Before hearing the new messages, I wanted to reflect on some of my favorite nuggets from the last Conference in October, specifically messages about the Savior. Here are six.

--- "Jesus Christ is the resurrected Christ. We worship and recognize Him for the pain He suffered for us collectively and for the pain He endured for each of us individually, both in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. He bore with great humility and with an eternal understanding of His divine role and purpose...The mercy and grace of Jesus Christ are not limited to those who commit sins either of commission or omission, but they encompass the promise of everlasting peace to all who will accept and follow Him and His teachings. His mercy is the mighty healer, even to the wounded innocent." -- Boyd K. Packer

--- "In every way possible, [Jesus] was His Father's perfect disciple. He was so perfect in representing His Father that to know the Savior was also to know the Father. To see the Son was to see the Father. To hear the Son was to hear the Father. He had, in essence, become indistinguishable from His Father. His Father and He were one." --- Lynn G. Robbins

--- "The Lord invites us using various verbs: 'Come unto me,' 'Follow me,' 'Walk with me.' In each case it is not a passive invitation; it is an invitation to act... Make the decision today to act and say, 'Yes Lord, I will follow Thee!" -- Eduardo Gavarret

--- "Our wounded souls can be healed and renewed not only because the bread and water [the sacrament] remind us of the Savior's sacrifice of His flesh and blood but because the emblems also remind us that He will always be our bread of life and living water... Aaronic Priesthood holders represent the Savior when they prepare, bless, and pass the sacrament. As a priesthood holder extends his arm to offer us the sacred emblems, it is as if the Savior Himself were extending His arm of mercy, inviting each one of us to partake of the precious gifts of love made available through His atoning sacrifice--gifts of repentance, forgiveness, comfort, and hope." --- Cheryl A. Esplin

--- The most important event in time and eternity is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He who accomplished the Atonement has given us the ordinance of the sacrament to help us not only remember but also claim the blessings of this supreme act of grace. Regular and earnest participation in this sacred ordinance helps us continue to embrace and live the doctrine of Christ after baptism and thereby pursue and complete the process of sanctification. Indeed, the ordinance of the sacrament helps us faithfully endure to the end and receive the fulness of the Father in the same way Jesus did, grace for grace." -- James J. Hamula

--- "As we strive to place Christ at the center of our lives by learning His words, by following His teachings, and by walking in His path, He has promised to share with us the eternal life that he Died to gain. There is no higher end than this, that we should choose to accept His discipline and become His disciples and do His work throughout our lives. Nothing else, no other choice we make, can make of us what He can." -- Thomas S. Monson