If you don’t get General Conference on you TV or can’t watch or listen on radio, don’t panic!

There still is a great way to listen or watch, which is via the Mormon Channel app, which can be downloaded for your Apple or Android phones/tablets, etc.

Here is some more information on how to listen to or watch General Conference.

Kathryn Skaggs, who runs the Mormon blog “A Well-Behaved Mormon Woman,” will be in Salt Lake City this weekend for General Conference. She will be providing posts for M* and her own blog.

We will also have some other General Conference-related threads.

So click on over to M* over the weekend.

We hope you have a wonderful General Conference weekend filled with the Spirit.

This is a guest post by Chris Z.

Note from Chris Z: It’s all true, although like I say in the parable I’ve got no idea about botany, proper pruning, etc. This is just something I’ve had in my mind for a few years and I wanted to put down. It was brought back to my mind again this year while pruning and pondering the unstated goals, contention and general lack of unity that seems to appear on the big Mormon blogs. But I think the lessons can especially apply to traditional conservatives who get too swept up in ideology divorced from Christ-like attributes.

The Parable of the Apple Orchard

Lee and his wife purchased an apple orchard nearly 30 years ago. Some of trees were planted by the first Mormon immigrants into this valley. When he purchased the orchard, it was well maintained, the trees were evenly spaced with room for the roots to grow underground and for the branches to stretch out and absorb the sun above. Careful forethought and persistent upkeep made harvesting of the fruit easier. It was a beautiful orchard, and the trees were some of the most reliable in the valley for producing wonderful fruit. Every fall, the the trees would produce thousands of apples, which made the best apple cider I’ve ever tasted and was freely shared with everyone in town. Some of the apples would be sold, but at best this was to pay for only a portion of the costs put into the orchard.

As Lee was getting older and nearing the end of his life, he and his wife weren’t able to maintain the trees as well as when they was younger. The orchard went several years without pruning. When I heard they needed help pruning, I volunteered.
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If there is one clear lesson from history, it is that cutting the size of government brings more prosperity. Unfortunately, this lesson is not understood by many people.

This series will show — examining three key periods of U.S. history — how cutting the size of government has increased prosperity.

Why is this important? The first reason is that our most recent period of massive government expansion — from 2000 to today — has brought widespread misery. Take a look at this chart:

There is a clear correlation between the massive increase in government spending — which took place throughout the Bush years but really took off in 2008 — and a decrease in median income.

Here is a chart showing government spending during those same years (and projections for the next few years):

First, some history.
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I stumbled upon the following quotation from President Hinckley from a 1984 talk:

He then went on to say to Emma, “Murmur not because of the things which thou hast not seen.” (D&C 25:4.) He was speaking of the plates which her husband was translating, she serving at the time as his scribe. Evidently she complained because Joseph would not show them to her. The Lord is saying to her, “Murmur not. Complain not. Accept what must be in my eternal wisdom, and do not find fault.” There are a few women in the Church who complain because they do not hold the priesthood. I think the Lord would say to you, “murmur not because of the things which are not given thee.”

This is his work. Joseph did not set the rule about not showing the plates to others. He was instructed concerning it. Nor have we set the rule concerning those who should receive the priesthood. That was established by him whose work this is, and he alone could change it.

Emma was called, in the words of this revelation, to be “a comfort unto my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun., thy husband, in his afflictions, with consoling words, in the spirit of meekness.” (D&C 25:5.) That is interesting language. She was his wife, his companion, his strength in his afflictions. She was to comfort with consoling words, given in a spirit of meekness.

I see in that the challenge to every woman who is a wife to set the tone of that which is spoken in the home. It was said of old that “a soft answer turneth away wrath.” (Prov. 15:1.) It is interesting to me that in this revelation the Lord spoke of consoling words in the spirit of meekness.

Here is the source:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/print/1984/10/if-thou-art-faithful?lang=eng&clang=eng