Hello, Doer of the word!
*We are looking for one Administrative Manager who is willing to volunteer five hours per week for General Conference Applied. If you or someone you know is willing to join us in a big way, please reply to this email and let us know.*
Welcome to General Conference+!
GC+ is a special weekly edition of the GCA newsletter, saving you hours of work by bringing you messages from the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles found anywhere outside of Conference. We look at social media, magazines, devotionals, temple dedications, YouTube, press releases, and more to identify meaningful resources that you won't want to miss.
Note that the Church cross-posts both long videos and shorter excerpts of the same content on multiple platforms. We’ll feature only one instance of a resource if it appeared in multiple places. Social media links will be to Instagram, though you can easily find the same thing on Facebook, X, or as a YouTube Short if you prefer.
Find a resource that inspires you, check out the linked source, and share it with someone you love. Here we go!
Last Week’s Best Resources
President D. Todd Christofferson | Instagram | "Many years ago, we recorded my grandsons Ben and Jake retelling from memory the story of Jesus Christ’s birth as found in Luke 2." What a wonderful retelling of the Christmas story. As I read through the comments, many people also mentioned the incredible example of this angel mother who helped her boys memorize these verses of scripture. This was powerful!
Elder Ronald A. Rasband | Instagram | "[M]ay we be among those Saints and angels who at Christmas prepare Him room in our hearts and come to know Him as your Savior, your mentor, and your friend." Elder Rasband's testimony, delivered at this Utah Valley Institute devotional, touched my heart. I want to "prepare Him room in [my heart]." The full address is also available on YouTube.
Elder Dale G. Renlund | Instagram | "At that point, my father always bore his testimony in heavily accented English, 'I may not be able to hold dat little baby Yesus in my arms, but I know, yust as vell as Simeon knew, dat dat baby vas the Son of God, my Savior and Redeemer. He is real and He lives.' My father then looked at each of us with his piercing blue eyes and said with an emphatic nod, 'And you can know it, too.' My father and mother knew who that babe in Bethlehem was and what He would accomplish. This knowledge transformed them. It has transformed me." Isn't Elder Renlund's dad awesome?! Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world - let's shout it from the rooftops!
Extra Credit
For you overachievers, the following resources might also pique your interest!
Two items in the Church News last week caught our attention (and may have caught yours as well!). First, the Church Handbook has been updated to include guidance on artificial intelligence (see General Handbook section 38.8.47 and this article). Second, the Church has issued guidance on utilizing other Bible translations. Elder Dale G. Renlund stated: "We can confidently gain insights from multiple translations [of the Bible], in part because 'we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.' Latter-day scripture, including the teachings of living prophets, is a good standard for evaluating any doctrinal discrepancies that might come up in different Bible translations." Learn more about the change in this article and in these two timely YouTube videos (1 and 2) that Clay recorded. Finally, Elder Quentin L. Cook (Instagram) shared a Christmas post focused on the valuable lessons we can learn from the angels on the first Christmas.
Take Action
Reply to this email and share what you think about or how you intend to utilize these resources in your own life. Let us know if we can share your response in our newsletter, podcast, and/or on social media to bless others.
Want to Sponsor or Advertise with GCA?
Reach out and we'll see whether it's a good fit. Clay and Mitch volunteer countless hours to create free, faith-building content. It's a labor of love that we treat like a missionary calling, but expenses don't pay themselves. We've got BIG ideas for increasing our reach, improving video quality, and creating useful products, but our time is limited by professional obligations and the cost of upgrading software and video equipment isn't yet justifiable.
If you, someone you know, or an organization you're aware of are interested in supporting GCA and helping us grow, please email us. We'd love to talk!
REFERRAL PROGRAM. Between now and Christmas Day 2025, for anyone who refers five people to the General Conference Applied Newsletter, we will send you (by the end of 2025) the following two general conference invitations files: 1) A Google Spreadsheet with a tab for every October 2025 General Conference address; 2) A PDF with a page for every October 2025 General Conference address. You receive these files one page at a time in each of our Invitations newsletters, but this will package the invitations into one file, and you won’t have to wait an extra five weeks to receive the invitations for all the addresses. To receive this gift, here are the steps:
Reply to any Newsletter email (or email us directly) and provide the email addresses for the five people who signed up for the General Conference Applied Newsletter because of your referral (i.e., this only applies to those who subscribed to the Newsletter after 9:00 p.m. MST on Thursday, December 4, 2025).
As long as those five people are still active subscribers as of Christmas Day 2025, we will email your gift to you.