2024 Fall General Conference

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 3:18

In the Prayer for Covenant it says O Lord, remove our blindness, forgive our sins and weaknesses, give to us a new heart that we may become children of the Most High God. In the Answer to Prayer for Covenant it says obtain a new heart. We hope to discover some of what it might take to obtain a new heart together.

Conference Info

We are excited to announce the 2024 fall conference that will be held October 25-27th. We want to invite you to labor willingly alongside us in an effort to obtain a new heart together.

Our Vision

Our vision and intention for this event is to create an environment where we can heal our past wounds and deepen our connections with one another.

It is our hope and prayer that through ‘play’ and the act of “becoming as little children”, we will begin to see ourselves and each other as God sees us so that we can do the work required to cultivate our relationships and obtain a new heart together.

We have put together a series of fun and meaningful challenges/activities to take place on Friday and Saturday mornings. Each one has been prayerfully and carefully designed to support our intention. There will be opportunities in each activity for self discovery and self reflection, so we encourage you all to bring a journal and pen, this could add greatly to your experience.

We may discover some of the things that divide, and correspondingly discover more of how to unite better as one. Please remember that this experience is meant to be fun, inviting and non-threatening to all involved. However, we do not pretend it will be easy. We simply wish to create a fun space where we can labor willingly with each other. We invite all ages to participate in the activities throughout the weekend.

In addition to the activities, the speakers have prepared talks to go along with the themes and intention of this conference. We are so grateful for the wealth of information given to us in the Covenant of Christ to help us understand the path needed to be taken to put an end to all disputations. We hope that this weekend will be a time we can all come together and unite our voices as one, as we begin to seek to understand this process. We believe the Covenant of Christ could provide some answers to what we ought to learn.

Sharing What We’ve Learned

We know that the questions “What have you learned? What ought you to have learned?” carry with them a lot of history and is a very sensitive topic. It is a heavy thing to consider, and we are not taking it lightly. You’ll notice we have this conference title worded “What have [we] learned? What ought [we] to have learned?”. That is intentional because we are hoping that we can look inside ourselves as a body with collective pondering, seeking for light on these topics. To acknowledge as a body that our hearts have not been right is no easy thing. In the answer to prayer for covenant we are told twice if your hearts were right… indicating that our hearts (plural) need our laboring together to be changed to a new heart (one).

Beating Our Swords Into Plowshares

And it shall come to pass in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

2 Nephi 8:4

Beating our swords into plowshares and obtaining a new heart is a refining process. This process requires that we take the swords and spears that currently divide us and use them instead to cultivate our relationships. The very issues that have been used to divide us is what is needed to bring us to further light and truth together. This is a process where we, by revelation, will learn of his ways in order to walk in his paths. We cannot skip the process by which revelation comes and a new heart is obtained. We do not fully understand how this process works, but we believe we understand, at least in part, where it must start. We hope this will become a joint effort.

Come ready to share, learn and labor to consider how we as people can be and do better. Can we rise up and sing in harmony together?

We are also very grateful for the hymn book effort that is underway! There will be a lot of music from the new hymns collection that will be shared throughout the weekend. We are grateful for the talent and efforts of all those involved.

Events and Details

We are excited to announce that the conference will be held at the Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort. Before reserving lodging at the Ranch Resort, please read through the registration information page.

We look forward to a variety of fun activities at this conference. In addition to the speakers and family oriented activities, there will also be a few that are geared towards the youth. Please see the Conference Schedule page for more information.

Speakers

At present the following individuals have committed to speak at the conference.

Please see the Conference Schedule page for more information.

Covenant of Christ

The new modern English version of the Book of Mormon, Covenant of Christ, will be an important focus in this upcoming conference. The conference will vote to accept this book on Sunday Morning. We invite you to read the book with us before the conference. To that end, this chart is provided as a suggested reading schedule to help you to get the material read in the time given.

We have organized a series of online meetings to discuss the themes and content of the Book of Mormon as portrayed in the new volume. The schedule is as follows, and links to the recordings will be provided below as they become available.

September 22nd, 7:00 PM – “Obtain a New Heart / Repentance” – Host: Carolyn Barlow – Link to Recording

September 29th, 7:00 PM – “The Word” – Host: Adrian Larsen – Link to Recording

October 6th, 7:00 PM – “Natural Fruit” – Chris Park

October 20th, 7:00 PM – “Voice of the People” – Peter J. Brown

Zoom Link for all meetings: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/79278616862?pwd=zCsd6PpzGXDOr1YnVME0cjZGavb7bO.1

We have gone to great lengths to make this conference comfortable for attendees. We have rented a large meeting tent which costs just under $9000. We have received donations to cover just over 1/3 of that expense. If you are willing to help us to pay for this and any other conference expenses, please do so by using the donation link below. Thank you so much for your help.

Contact Us

If you have questions, they may have already been answered on our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

If you would like to contact the conference organizers, please email us at obtainanewheart@gmail.com.

If you would like to help in any way, please reach out to us. We are in need of individuals and fellowships who would be willing to help with activities, music, sound, etc. Please contact the committee at obtainanewheart@gmail.com if you would like to volunteer.

THANK YOU!