General Conference is coming up in 4 days! It will be held October 1-2, and will have morning and afternoon sessions on Saturday and Sunday, along with an evening session for everyone on Saturday. More information is available here.
In preparation, we are doing a daily countdown with posts from different people explaining how they feel about General Conference, how they prepare, tips for getting the most out of it, how to deal with associated social media posts, etc.
General Conference: Answers and Questions
by Edwin E. Gantt
As a Professor of Psychology at Brigham Young University, every day I am blessed with the privilege of interacting with and instructing some of the best young minds the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has to offer. It truly is a pleasure – and a very heavy responsibility – to be entrusted with teaching the youth of Zion. Although my students come from a stunning variety of backgrounds, ethnicities, family situations, races, and cultures – don’t ever let anyone tell you the BYU student body is some homogenous blob – among those things they do happen to share in common is a desire for answers. Indeed, most of my students have chosen psychology as their major area of study is because they assume that the discipline of psychology holds answers to their questions. After spending most of my adult life in the discipline I am not nearly as confident as they are that this is the case, but that is a story for another time. Regardless, it is one of the great joys of my life to be able to time each day with such vibrant, eager, and faithful young people who are so motivated to seek out answers and strive for greater, deeper understanding of themselves, the world, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. [Read more…] about FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 4 Days!
Lynne Hilton Wilson earned her Ph.D. in Theology and American Religious History from Marquette University. Her doctoral dissertation compared Joseph Smith’s understanding of the Spirit with his contemporaries. Her master’s degree focused on New Testament studies. She attended BYU as an undergraduate and studied nursing and music. She returned to BYU has as an adjunct professor of Religion, and to teach at Education Week. She is presents regularly at the Mormon History Association, Society of Biblical Literature, and the like. She has served in the Church Education System for the past 35 years. Currently she teaches Institute. Previous Publications include: Christ’s Emancipation of New Testament Women, Nativity Narratives, Learning the Language of the Lord: A Guidebook to Personal Revelation, To Witness Easter, and articles in BYU Studies, the Interpreter, Religious Educator, and the BYU Religious Studies Center. She is co-founder of BookofMormonCentral.org. She and her husband, Elder Dow R. Wilson live in Palo Alto, California. They have seven children (all with red hair), and eight grandchildren (blond, ginger, and brown).
Ammon Holyoak is serving as a full-time missionary in the Mesa Arizona Mission, currently assigned to proselyte in American Sign Language. He is from Cedar Hills, Utah.
Jennifer Roach earned a Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and a Master of Counseling from Argosy University. Before her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she was an ordained minister in the Anglican church. Her own experience of sexual abuse from a pastor during her teen years led her to care deeply about issues of abuse in faith communities.
