Our strength comes of obedience to the commandments of God. He has declared, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” ( Ps. But God our Eternal Father will watch over this nation and all of the civilized world who look to Him. We may even be called on to suffer in one way or another. Now, brothers and sisters, we must do our duty, whatever that duty might be. These closing paragraphs in particular still brings tears to me 21 years later remembering how relieved I felt when he delivered them: And for the first time in a month, I did. He didn’t try to minimize that, but he did tell us we could feel peace anyway. Most of all, in that moment, for me, it was supremely comforting to hear someone I believed was a prophet of God and trusted with all of my heart specifically address the attacks, the pending military conflict, the economic and other uncertainty we were facing (recall it was also the dot.com bust). But there were also some really beautiful things–including a call to reach out to our Muslim neighbors and not to blame or mistreat them. The American exceptionalism the prosperity gospel the idea that we earn blessings by obedience. I recognize, now, problems with that talk. When President Hinckley opened his talk by announcing that he had just been handed a note stating that a United States missile attack in response to 9/11 was underway, we realized this explained the flurry of overhead activity (military jets) that had been building in the airspace over Virginia and D.C. I was anxious in a way I’d never been anxious before and eager to hear some comfort during General Conference–which I was watching, incidentally, in a friend’s apartment across the street from the Pentagon where we could see the wreckage of the attacks. locations (we stopped getting mail for a while as a result). To top it off, there was also a set of anthrax attacks via mail to several D.C. I lived right under a flight path into Ronald Reagan National Airport and, while flights were grounded for a time after 9/11, once they resumed it was unsettling to hear the air traffic above and wonder if we were safe. turned into a tense and unsettling place in the wake of the attacks, with military vehicles filling the quaint streets of Georgetown and armed military and law enforcement at every corner–it was pretty surreal to pass navigate through that kind of military presence just trying to walk into J. I couldn’t reach my family for most of the day because phone lines were jammed, and I had friends who had to walk for miles to get back to campus because public transportation shut down (and, in the meantime, I couldn’t reach them either). I had classmates who lost family members in the attacks and I watched them scream and cry on campus as we watched smoke pouring out of the Pentagon. This was, needless to say, a stressful time to be living in D.C. This was weeks after 9/11, and I was living in Washington, D.C. Here they are.īest: President Hinckley delivering his talk The Times in Which We Live in October 2001. But it’s easy for me to remember my best and worst experiences. It would be hard for me to pick a favorite talk (I have plenty) and it would also be hard to pick a worst (I have plenty). Rather, I mean the way I experienced that talk in the moment. Note I said “experiences” because I don’t really mean favorite / least favorite talk. With General Conference hitting this weekend, I’ve been thinking about my best and worst General Conferences experiences.
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