When I watch General Conference, I like to look for common themes among the speakers. While every talk is important, if you hear the same topic multiple times, it's probably because that's what we need to hear right now.
One prominent theme that stood out to me was missionary work, though there were a few subcategories. There were multiple talks about how we should make sure that our non-member friends know that we're Christians and also normal people. There were a couple of talks that mentioned that we need to be tolerant and understanding of others, while still living the gospel. Elder Bednar even used his time to speak directly to non-members.
And as much as that topic kept coming up, the one that seemed to come up more than any other was helping the poor and needy. I particularly enjoyed Elder Wong's talk that equated the story of the man with palsy brought to the Savior as the fulfillment of an assignment from a Bishop. The Church has a great reputation through out the world for our humanitarian aid, but the over-arching message was that we need to strive to do better at a local and personal level.
As for what I took away, I think I need to get to know my neighbors better. I usually take a while to get to know people before I'm comfortable really delving into the gospel with them, but once I do, I'm pretty bold. For example, during the three-and-a-half years that I worked at IHOP in Stillwater, I gave away six or seven Books of Mormon and about half as many Bibles. I got to know some of my co-workers to the point where I was comfortable sharing my testimony. While that can happen again with future jobs, I should try to start now with my neighbors. Other than my neighbor Keir, I don't even know any of my neighbors' names. I'm not really sure how to get started being better acquainted with them, but it's something I should work on.
Were there any different themes that you saw?
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