What was your favorite talk and why?

I've attended countless denominations, had many different experiences, and explored my faith in many ways. But honestly, it was only in the LDS Church that I felt like I was actually seeing the scriptures come to life, God speaking again in our day, prophets and apostles, miracles, angelic manifestations, and so much more. What amazes me is that members of the LDS faith are still waiting for more. It's almost as if heaven isn't closed anymore. In other denominations, and I say this with complete respect, my experience sometimes felt more like a Bible study or a Bible club, reading the scriptures, discussing them, and then going home. In the LDS Church, I found something that felt much more alive and ongoing.

Jeff, I appreciate you sharing this. My wife and I are evangelical Christian’s. We love the conversation and how you share the truth in love. This is exactly what we desire and pray for. We actually sat down with our local sister missionary and had a wonderful talk as we watched general conference session 2 with them. We love asking questions and the sister missionaries asking us questions on what we believe and why. We had some beautiful talks. Thanks for sharing!🙏

Priesthood ordinances are not the destination and they are not check boxes, they are gifts to us from Christ to allow us to enter into a covenental relationship, a relationship that He desires for us to enter into.

You did a great job of being extremely fair in your analysis of General Conference.  Your focus on finding common ground was awesome.

For me, the best way to listen to conference is to take your heaviest problems, Pray for guidance, and let the spirit bring you answers and comfort.

Pastor Jeff, I have been LDS my whole life and raised in the Gospel and now find myself in my 80s ! Jeff I want you to know I am so so proud of you and I have watched everything you do to bring thoughts and ideas of what we believe and what you believe and the way we are alike and also The different. The adversary for so many years has kept many from the work you do now, you are a brave servant of God doing what many dare not to do, I have loved the way you  handle yourself and present yourself while learning and teaching. I love Jesus Christ and my Father in heaven.
My prayer is that someday and some way we can all be one in Jesus. Much love to you and your sweet family🩷🩷🩷🩷🫶

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Taking your time to watch 8 hours of Conference is EXTREMELY generous and wonderful example of seeking to understand rather than criticize.  Certainly you hold to different beliefs, but your willingness to focus on common ground and celebrate with us in Jesus (although different) is bridge building.  It is nice to hear a recognition that so many outside critics are misrepresenting our faith.  I also love “Come thou Fount”…take my heart and seal it.

Was raised in the restored gospel, and I’m active again.

I can see the knee jerk reaction to the the idea that God’s love would be limited by involvement with priesthood ordinances and that the love is only fully understood that way, but I thought it funny in Jeff’s words when expressing his feelings that it was in some way interpreted to mean that the ONLY way to God’s love is through those means.

Maybe I need to read the talk again, maybe it was spelled out in those terms, but that is not the impression I got.

The church does have a stance that we have the fullness of the gospel, the fullness of the covenant, and the most complete understanding with priesthood included to begin the stairway to exaltation, at the present while still in the mortal experience.

That’s what is meant by the concept to fully understand and receive God’s love in His mission to bring immortality and eternal life to man.

The full expression of God’s love is to partake in the fullness of what he is offering his children.

I imagine how outside Christians view this is to say: what about us and our devotion to God, do you really believe God doesn’t love us as much or that he excludes people from exaltation because they are not Mormon. Jesus declared that the gift is free for everyone who follows him.

I just don’t think that take accounts for the full view of what we believe is happening.

There’s a lot that we don’t understand yet about our spiritual being after death and what is organized there on the other side. What we understand about the 1000 year period where Christ reigns personally on the Earth and how things will be organized around preparing people for exaltation after that point.

The point is that our view is that the LDS Church is the Church of Jesus Christ, and has his priesthood within it.

But we don’t believe that only people from this time that have been members of the Church during their lifetime will be exalted.

The D&C mentioning the Church of the First Born hints at this. My understanding is that this is different than the Church organized on the Earth. The people who are truthful followers in more than just name. I don’t think being a Mormon while in life is necessary.

The Church on the Earth today is there for the benefit of the world, to be a force inviting all to come unto Christ and to prepare for the Lord’s second coming.

A part of what it provides is a head start towards exaltation.

I doubt the speaker of the talk believed we are ready to receive the fullness of God’s love presently, but that is something we can only start towards.

The ordinances are meant to teach a better understanding of our relationship with our Heavenly Father, and that there are deep mysteries that they give a glimpse of.

Of course we believe the ordinances give us a more complete understanding of God’s love.

That doesn’t mean we believe God doesn’t love everyone the same. It’s not about being rewarded with more love, it’s about our ability to understand and appreciate that love more.

Everyone is an individual and we all must strive at our own pace. We as members aren’t believed to be the most ahead, we just believe we are getting a head start to work with on our personal paths. We hope to see everyone who desires to follow Christ at the finish line one day.

I get the criticism of a process that is progression based, which feels like works. I can see how it looks that way. Please remember that probably the biggest believe we have in Jesus is that he asks us to endure to the end regardless of how long it takes us. It is a journey. It is a process to become one even as Jesus and our Heavenly Father are one.

Wow I’m so impressed that you watched all 4 sessions in a day! 👏

General conference talks are usually loaded with scripture and cross-referenced when they are published later. It may sound like they are just inspirational but most principles and doctrines are firmly referenced from scripture just not mentioned as they speak. The annotations often include further notes or impressions the speaker had to cut out of their final talk. It is for sure a different way to give a sermon though.

I'm both shocked and kinda curious how you don't hear about sanctification more. I mean we literally have a prayer I hear every week about it.

Mack Wilbergs “Come Thou Fount” arrangement is truly brilliant. You should hear it with the choir and full orchestra. Stunning 😭

Thanks for doing this Jeff. Latter-Day Saints are generally pretty curious about how the things we feel so deeply come across to other Christians. The problem is that in most places we just hear screaming and so we never hear thoughtful analysis. You did this well. You also represented your beliefs and helped me understand where you had a harder time with our doctrine. In any case, appreciate your willingness to be honest about all of it.

Time to just convert my brother. You know God hasn’t stopped communicating to us personally through revelation, and a living mouthpiece- His Prophet!

I really enjoyed your summary of General Conference. Just to let you know, every conference has A World Report for October 2026 General Conference that tells what is happening humanitarian wise, temples being dedicated and what is happening in the church world wide. I look forward to this part of conference! Let’s keep listening to each other!❤

I love the idea of looking honestly at each other’s beliefs. Having wonderful Evangelical family members and working at genuinely understanding one another it  is refreshing to see  this episode.

I appreciate your observations and things that touched you. I am a little surprised that you still don’t get some things right about what we believe and the meaning of the covenants we make in the temple. I understood perfectly what was being said and it had nothing to do with how you took it. I’ve been in and out of the LDS church. Have explored many other faiths including Evangelical. Now at age 76, I am waiting for the Lord to return and I understand many things differently than I did even 15 years ago. I am more active in the LDS faith than I have ever been, and I love it so much. The hymns at conference always make me cry! They are truly beautiful! The Lord lives and loves us until the end and forever ❤

I think you should listen to the talk about gods love again. I think you didn’t understand it. We also believe that we will always have God’s love.

Love you and your wife! Love your heart and your sincerity. I really appreciate how much we do have in common. Ultimately, we’re all striving to connect with Jesus and he will lead us in our life through all the experiences and trials we have. One day I hope to run into you when I’m in Utah and give you a hardy handshake and a brotherly hug!