General Conference time is a family tradition in our home. Not only a tradition, but our favorite time. Family gathers. Grown children fly in to spend the weekend and we even have our special conference rolls! The next month, the Ensign arrives with the conference notes. I feel like a child in a toy store when I open the mailbox and see it!
We’ve been told that General Conference should be studied like our scriptures. Ezra Taft Benson stated:
“I hope you will get your copy of the [Ensign or Liahona] and underline the pertinent thoughts and keep it with you for continual reference. No text or volume outside the standard works of the Church should have such a prominent place on your personal library shelves—not for their rhetorical excellence or eloquence of delivery, but for the concepts which point the way to eternal life” (In the World but Not of It, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [May 14, 1968], 2–3).
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I take this very seriously because a prophet of God said it!
As soon as my Ensign arrives, I open it to the very center and remove the staples. With my paper cutter, I then slice it in half (I can hear the gulps and shock!) and use my three hole punch holes in them before sliding them into my three ring binder where I keep all of my copies of each General Conference Ensign.
I designed my own code for marking just as I did for my scriptures:
- Yellow highlighter -questions
- Orange highlighter – testimony, faith, conversion
- Green highlighter – pertaining to family
- Blue highlighter – blessings
- Pink highlighter -names and characteristics of the Godhead
- Squared in pen – prayer and gratitude
This is my first time through it. Later, I use a different colored ball point pen (green) to write my notes in the margins. I like using another color simply so that I can see what stood out to me the first time around.
My other trick? I like to find what I have read later. At the beginning of each article, I have written: ‘Summary.’ This is simply for me to note what stood out to me. If there was a particular story, doctrine, impression, etc. I also will write personal impressions in my gospel journal.
I do read an article daily from the General Conference Issues. That’s the goal! Do I always reach my goal? Not always, but by having it on my planner and in my mind, it brings me back to what is most important -studying the words of the prophets.
My General Conference binder which current holds three years worth of Ensigns.
Source:
Benson, E. T. (1968). Studying General Conference Addresses. Retrieved from https://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-of-the-living-prophets-student-manual/chapter-7-studying-general-conference-addresses?lang=eng
By Tracy Atkinson
Tracy Atkinson, mother of six, lives in the Midwest with her husband. She is a teacher, having taught elementary school to higher education, holding degrees in elementary education and a master’s in higher education. Her passion is researching, studying and investigating the attributes related to self-directed learners. She has published several titles, including Calais: The Annals of the Hidden, Lemosa: The Annals of the Hidden, Book Two, Rachel’s 8 and Securing Your Tent. She is currently working on a non-fiction text exploring the attributes of self-directed learners: The Five Characteristics of Self-directed Learners.
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