What the Lord Wants Us to Do According to

September 1999's General Conference

Annette Nay, MS

A Better You

• Trust in the Lord!
• Do not murmur. It is a symptom of a failing to understanding the dealings of the Lord with his children which all aspects of our lives.
• Use your agency to think, choose and act wisely for yourself. Acting correctly brings us freedom, blessings and growth. To help make wise decisions and strengthen you use prayer, the Holy Ghost, sacred covenants, the scriptures and the ultimate gift of the Atonement. .
• Follow the gospel to know what to do in a sinful world.
• Do not use pornography. It is evil, addictive and destructive. Its traveling companions are drinking, smoking and drugs.
• Choose friends wisely.
• Do not feel oppressed by obedience to the Lord laws because it allows us the greatest amount of freedom, blessings, and joy. Not following them brings loss of freedom and bondage.
• Have prayer, family home evening, and read the scriptures.
• Prepare to go to the temple.
• Listen to the prophet.
• Follow Christ's teachings to become your best self.
• Make your home a sanctuary filled with the Lord's spirit where the world stops at the door and love and peace dwells inside.
• It is paramount to have a testimony of the gospel.
• Give of yourself. Give service and share the gospel.
• Take control of your mind, your thoughts! If you have friends who are not a good influence, make changes, even if you face loneliness and rejection. The Lord will become your friend.
• Control your thoughts. Our thoughts form our beliefs and ultimately who we become.
• Put away impure thoughts out of your mind and rid your lives of everything that may prevent the presence of the Holy Ghost.
• Use music to replace thoughts of temptation, anger, disappointment or fear.
• Some music is spiritually destructive, bad, dangerous. Leave it alone!
• Use the scriptures to replace evil thoughts. Evil will take control if left unchecked.
• Repentance quickly, as needed.
• Take upon you the name of Christ in your thoughts and actions.
• Do whatever the Lord requires of you.
• Revere, love, and serve the Lord. Keep His commandments and put away worldly Gods.
• Establish the Kingdom of God on Earth, and by the way you act towards your neighbors."
• Do not indulge in anger, alcohol and abuse, lust and licentiousness, promiscuity and pornography, drugs, pride, greed, violence, envy, lies, and other sinful acts.
• When you are converted, strengthen your family and others.
• Read the Book of Mormon to learn about Christ. It will bring you closer to the Lord and his loving power. It is the only book that the Lord himself has testified to be true.
• Improve the quality of teaching by following six principles:
  1. Teachers should love God the Father and Jesus Christ and love their students.
  2. Concentrate on those being taught. Teachers should not focus on themselves.
  3. Teach from prescribed course material.
  4. A gospel teacher will prepare diligently.
  5. Teach by the spirit.
• Seek to help change the course of society's trend toward lewd and demeaning behavior.
• Avoid irreverent and demeaning language and trifling with sacred things. Use words and actions that edify, not defile.
• Invite the light and be a light. Sanctify yourself and edify others.
• Members' words should be calculated to invite the powers of heaven into your life. Words and external expressions reflect who people are and who they are becoming.
• Treat sacred things with reverence.
• Eliminate from your conversations the immodest and the lewd, the violent and the threatening, the demeaning and the false.
• Choose the right and be sustained in your actions by the principles of righteousness in the which there is power from heaven.
• Live righteously so you will always know what to do. Sometimes the discovery of that may require significant effort and trust on your part as these answers are not bases on the present, but of a larger plan.
• Cling to your faith, hold on to the gospel, pray always, and be believing.

Eternal Family Relationships

• Preserve your family's heritage. Preserved for your children the great stories of how the gospel was brought to and accepted by those early members of our families.
• Support family, members, and neighbors. You cannot make it alone through the bad times to come.
• Family can be together forever, through Heavenly father's plan.

Spreading the Gospel

• More temples means increased family history work and temple attendance to provide the ultimate in blessings for us and our families future and past because of an increase in gospel faith and obedience.
• Feed my sheep! Strengthen those who have grown cold in their faith and return them to church activity. Most inactive members still believe in God, Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith. Feelings of unworthiness and personal or family problems are common reasons for less activity.

Remember. . .

• God shows us His profound love through warnings through His prophets, learning through difficult things, and salvation through His son Jesus Christ.
• Subtle small unwise choices lead to destruction of our souls.
• The Lord will not leave you comfortless, He will come to you through the Spirit which is felt not heard.
• Everyone has challenges and difficulties. That is part of our mortal test. Prosperity nor poverty indicate a Christ-like life. Physical suffering is not evidence of wickedness nor is it punishment for sin. The gospel will strengthen you so you can grow from adversity.
• You cannot serve God and the world at the same time!
• Today is always a better day to repent than tomorrow. Sin is debilitating and can weaken the faith you need to repent. Your sins can spread to loved ones. Accept personal responsibility and repent now.
• Some blessings come soon, some come late, some don't come until heaven, but when you live the gospel of Jesus Christ they come.
• You can endure all things when you have your eyes unfailingly fixed on the future.
• Gain hope from your personal prayers and direct personal revelation. Gain comfort from the scriptures.
• Beware of false prophets teachers even in the Church. Faithful members of the Church will fall victim to their deception. False prophets always oppose true prophets.
• The exact time of the second coming is known, but there are scriptural signs leading to that day are being fulfilled today.
• Being prideful, pursuing the vain things of the world, being unchaste, misunderstanding gender roles, being greedy, and disregarding the sacredness of human life will hinder or prevent you from returning back to your Heavenly Father.
• Free agency allows you to choose what you will do, but there will always be consequences for your choices. Choose wisely through the Spirit!
• The Holy Ghost clarifies concepts of truth and teaches you right from wrong, when there is obedience to laws which govern the Spirit's use. You never have to guess what is right!
• Each individual who prayerfully studies the Book of Mormon can also receive a testimony of its divinity.
• Don't complain about challenges. God has promised to help lift your burdens.
• To make it back to our Heavenly Father's presents it takes desire, obedience, dedication and endurance, then the Lord will do the rest.

Reference

October 1999 Ensign

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