May I share a story from my mission? I hope you don't mind...I served my mission in Hong Kong and while I was there I had the opportunity to serve in Macau which at the time was a Portugese territory located on a peninsula next to mainland China. My 'boyfriend' at the time (we're now married) would record General Conference onto cassettes for me. My companion and I loved to listen to them. We would get Conference in Hong Kong but we were about a month behind and would only get one session that was translated into Cantonese. The members would all gather together at the Stake House in Homantin to watch and the rest of Conference would have to be read later from the Liahona (international church magazine). One spring day I was assigned to provide the spiritual thought at the beginning of our District meeting. I decided to share portions from President Ezra Taft Benson's memorable talk on the importance of the Book of Mormon. At that time there were eight missionaries in our District and only three of us were English speaking, the rest being native Chinese. Before the talk was over all of the native missionaries were openly weeping. I was surprised! It's a great talk and while it is indeed a very moving one I had not yet translated it for them. They were only listening to his voice and therein was the key. Upon my inquiry I was told that this was the first time that they had ever heard the prophet's actual voice. Up to that point they had only ever heard an interpreter's voiceover. We are truly blessed in ways that we don't even realize...
A few years ago I noticed that for an additional US $10, I could order CD's of General Conference when I order my church magazines. It comes right to my mailbox about a week prior to them coming out at Deseret Book for purchase. Mason loved them and Matt will too. Rather than have my missionary carry the CD's around with them for the rest of their mission, I suggest that when they are transferred they leave them in their apartment for other missionaries to enjoy. This year I ordered two CD's so I can keep one at home as well.
You can order a copy of October 2013 General Conference by clicking here
or by visiting store.lds.org
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