NOM

Great to get NOM back! What did you all think about conference? I hope Oliver will do his analysis of conference talks again. They were very insightful last conference!
(Also, I wanted to be the first to post on the Doctrinal Discussion topic)

Oliver started posting his thoughts on reddit.com/r/NOMforum. I would be honored if he would copy them to NOM.

Best thing about this last conference - I managed to avoid almost all of it.

Oliver posted his write ups on the NOMforum reddit page.

Conference weekend was a non event for me. I pretty much ignored most of it only searching out the themes on reddit. I learned quickly that I didn't have to actually listen. I just had to know who spoke. This way when parents, in laws, etc asked what talk was my favorite I just had to answer with an apostles name.

I deferred to Uchtdorf and then sat back and listened to them tell me why they liked his talk. It's a fun thing to watch.

The other interesting thing I noticed is that most of my extended family didn't catch on to the theme of people leaving the church. It's all perspective I guess.

Red Ryder wrote:
The other interesting thing I noticed is that most of my extended family didn't catch on to the theme of people leaving the church. It's all perspective I guess.

Ballard's talk seemed to be the talk that everyone has been talking about. I've seen 3-4 TBM's do facebbook posts about it. They seem to love it. For some reason TBMs don't see conference talks the way NOM's and ex-mo's do. I know I look at conference in a whole new light now that I'm a NOM. Conference is much more interesting to me now, but I must admit that I've only watched Ballard's talk. Last conference I read some of the talks after Oliver's analysis of the talk peaked my interest.

I watched the whole thing and for the first time in years I just listened with very little emotion and practically no fist-clenching or teeth-grinding. I just felt like I was listening to a bunch of guys who were very pleased with themselves doing their damnedest to make a mountain out of a molehill.

The other thing that really jumped out at me was how obvious it was that when they talked about what the Lord wants you to do, and what you should do to serve/please God, they were telling what the church wants you to do, and what you should do to serve/please the church.

I attended the first session in our stakecenter.
Normally it's packed. Now we had 26 attending (I hate autocorrect)
8 missionaries, 8 familymembers of the SP.
The SP and his counselors. Leaving 7 normal people including yours truly.

Zion is growing and blooming

The conference itself, rather Meh

John G. wrote:Great to get NOM back! What did you all think about conference? I hope Oliver will do his analysis of conference talks again. They were very insightful last conference!
(Also, I wanted to be the first to post on the Doctrinal Discussion topic)

Hey John, your picture reminds me of a line from Ray Lamontagne's "Jolene". Give it a listen.

I'll add on about Ballard's talk. He seems to be the go-to guy for apostasy now, with his Good Ship Zion mentions, his CES fireside and his latest (and worst) "where will you go"? I'm not the first to draw the analogy to an abusive spouse, but "where will you go" is evidence that they are desperate to come up with a zinger that will keep people in. It's also evidence that we're not entirely in an echo chamber out here, that there really is an exodus happening.

My family walked away for good in June. We have had nice conversations with friends in the ward, but most of them are sprinkled with how sad they are that we are lost. The bits of GC that I did tune in for made me angry all over again. Maybe I'll be able to earn the first Kish Flame of NOM 2.0.

I don't listen to conference anymore..and I don't miss..."that voice"...the half whine, half primary and gentle pauses in between..sigh..don't miss those days. I think the biggest talk that upset everyone is the one "Where Would You Go?"...can't remember which apostle..but it makes it look like those of us on the outside are just lost..can't be found...and absolutely useless. Sigh...can't get "the voice" out of my head.

I actually missed most of it this year. Very nice. I did have to deal with a few days of pouty scowl treatment and a mention of covenants though.
Yeah, glad you were so filled spiritually, it really shows in your countenance.

We are in the middle of a move and stayed over night at the new house during conference and had no TV, and with NOM down, I felt terribly lost. It was weird. Real weird. I don't enjoy conference, never have, but it is a constant part of life. Like Christmas. You don't just not have Christmas some year and just never mention it and just go on like a normal day. My TBM hubby was fine, unloading boxes, and pretending it was a normal day. Or like the homesick feeling my son described on his mission with a Brizilian companion and no other Americans in sight for the Forth of July. I kept getting on Feminist Mormon Housewives because usually they do a running commentary. But it was dead and silent over there.

I guess I have not done a good job of getting the Mormon out of my system.

I read Redditts conference reviews and that was enough for me. Ballard's talk and "Where will you go" comments triggered a lot of buried emotions. Those who think his comments were so wonderful don't know the signs of psychological abuse. This years conference taught me my heart just cant take conference any more.

I listened to every hour of conference this year. As usual. I am quite the apostate you know.

But for me I can't really remember any of it.

The main themes seemed to be:

1) Don't leave the church.
2) ????

And can't recall much other than that.

hiding in plain sight wrote:I listened to every hour of conference this year. As usual. I am quite the apostate you know.

But for me I can't really remember any of it.

The main themes seemed to be:

1) Don't leave the church.
2) ????

And can't recall much other than that.

I have to admit, I watch conference now with much more eagerness than I ever have, simply to know what I will be dealing with from Sister M for the next six months. Let's say this conference wasn't pretty, and you had the main theme bang on. Except with the added bonus of hearing you don't really love Jesus if you leave the church. Not the best weekend I've spent.

I too listen more intently now than I ever did as a TBM. You could definitely hear the pleading theme of please don't leave.
My wife loathed the talk in which we learn the Saviors love for us is conditional. They have no idea what to do in order to slow the loss of the youth and many other of the best and brightest families.

I missed the whole thing for the first time because we were on a family vacation. Having way too much fun to even think about it. Ironically, we scheduled the vacation for that week because it wouldn't interfere with primary program practices, since my TBM DW is in the primary presidency.

Hagoth wrote:I watched the whole thing and for the first time in years I just listened with very little emotion and practically no fist-clenching or teeth-grinding.

Sometimes it is hard to hear above the crunching of popcorn and drinking Diet Coke. Sound like you heard both what was said and what it meant.

I does seem like they were a lot more focused on telling/pleading people not to leave, but maybe we are just listening for that more now? (I think I am) I don't really get a sense from my family members that people leaving the church is even a problem, and they don't seem to be hearing it in talks like I am. My ears did perk up when (I think it was Uchtdorf) told the story about the guy that fell away from the church, tried his best to tear down the church, even had his name removed, and then later came back to the fold.

he didn't really give much detail into why he came back, but I would like to hear what fellow NOM's think of this story, was it a real story? was it based on a true story, with important details left out that wouldn't be quite so faith promoting?

If it is a real story, I would like to hear his reconversion story.

Usually I like Uchdorf's talks; he usually has a more conciliatory tone, but not this time. He must have gotten a "talking to" or something. Ballard's was of course horrible.

One thing that I found irritating was Eyring's not acknowledging the opposition vote. Uchdorf at least acknowledged it last conference, but Eyring gets this irritated look on his face and speeds through it, not acknowledging the guy. I mean, why even ask for an opposing vote if you are going to ignore the reply? That's the point of common consent. It seemed to really get to him that someone would DARE oppose. Anyway, it just illustrates to me how out of touch these guys are. When people disagree with me I like to engage them and find out why. I usually learn something, even if I don't change my mind.

I liked Holland's talk; he is pretty hit or miss with me and this one I appreciated. Plus it gave me something positive to say about conference to my TBM DW. Lots of talks about staying in and DW kept asking if each talk helped me with any of the issues I have with the church. "No, pretty much made it worse." So I'm glad the Holland talk was there to show her I am trying to be fair and not just pick each talk to death.