Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority (7)

As I said on my previous blog post, I was able to attend conference this past week. I was actually in attendance for my favourite talk of the conference, which was delivered by Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. As a part of my writing class we are learning what makes a talk or speech persuasive and effective. This talk made a huge impact on my life and on the lives of my roommates. I want to explain how he was able to be so persuasive and make such an impact using his words.

Firstly, his talk was well presented, having four clear points that he wanted us to pick up on. This made taking notes easy and so I was able to clearly see what he wanted me to learn. Elder Scott listed four tools which the Lord has given us to come unto Christ and exercise faith in His atonement, namely prayer, scripture study, family home evening, and attending the Temple.

We come to conference to be taught, so I feel that the use of the imperative (or command voice) in his talk helped the people feel that they were being taught. I certainly did, as I heard him say, "Choose to converse...", "Make time every day...", "Tell him everything...", "Share with him...". Elder Scott gave us steps to take to effectively use prayer in our lives. He taught us and made it clear what we should do.

Another thing that made his talk so persuasive was his ethos. He didn't just speak to the world-wide congregation, but rather he added his own testimony. "I add my voice with this promise." The members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that Elder Scott is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, a special witness of him. His word is so important to us.

These are just a few literary devices which Elder Scott used to make his talk be influential to the people. It changed my life in a few ways. My roommates and I pray together every night before bed, we made time to attend the Temple on Wednesday and will do so every week, and we read our scriptures after room prayer every night. We also attend our Ward Home Evening activities which always seemed to get in the way of school work. As we attended with happy hearts on Monday, we were able to relax and make new friends. Before, we had been anxious for it to be over so we could continue working.

The words of a prophet make all the difference!