The School of Family Life and the Division of Continuing Education have combined the two family conferences (Family Expo and Families Under Fire) into one annual conference called The BYU Conference on Family Life: If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear (D&C 38:30). This conference will be held Friday, March 27, 2009, and will combine aspects from both of these conferences. It will feature inspirational and academic speakers who will present ways to strengthen families, teaching parents how to raise a righteous posterity and help prevent the problems that often arise in modern family life. There will also be experts in the fields of therapy, counseling, and family issues giving specific hands-on information and hope to families who are struggling or dealing with real and often tragic problems attacking our society, families, and individuals today.

Click here if you are interested in attending or getting more info. There is a fee so be sure to check their site for more info.

Here are some helpful links from LDS.org which will help guide you while making your New Year’s Resolutions.

Remember this scripture: “It is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. … All things must be done in order.” (Mosiah 4:27.)

Keeping New Year’s Resolutions (make smaller goals)
Resolutions (4 top things)
New Years Resolutions (cute and funny)
Gerald’s Secret New Year’s Resolutions
Friend: January Calendar: New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year!!!

Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion.
The Lord has warned and forewarned us against a day of great tribulation and given us counsel, through His servants, on how we can be prepared for these difficult times. Have we heeded His counsel?

Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation,”Ensign, Nov 1980, 32

Click here to read the Ensign Article.

Here’s a great lesson which talks about the Second Coming and how to prepare ourselves.

As we anticipate the Savior’s return to reign on the earth, we must prepare ourselves individually, as families, and as a people. … I would live as if it were to be tomorrow—but I am still planting cherry trees!

Chapter 24: Preparing for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff, 250

Click here to READ the lesson.

Click here to LISTEN / HEAR to the lesson. (MP3 format 7MB)

“But before that great day shall come, the sun shall be darkened and the moon be turned into blood; and the stars shall refuse their shining, and some shall fall, and great destructions await the wicked.” (D&C 34:7–9.) There is a phrase in that quotation that intrigues me: “All nations shall tremble.” Man in his arrogance and the great nations in their boastful power think themselves invincible but their leaders have not read enough of history.

… “For after today cometh the burning … all the proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble; and I will burn them up, for I am the Lord of Hosts; and I will not spare any that remain in Babylon.” (D&C 64:23–24). Some years ago one of our brethren spoke of the payment of tithing as “fire insurance”; that statement evoked laughter. Nonetheless, the word of the Lord is clear that those who do not keep the commandments and obey the laws of God shall be burned at the time of his coming. For that shall be a day of judgment and a day of sifting, a day of separating the good from the evil. In my personal opinion no event has occurred in all the history of the earth as dreadful as will be the day of the Second Coming—no event as filled with the destructive forces of nature, as consequential for the nations of the earth, as terrible for the wicked, or as wonderful for the righteous.

It will be a time of great and terrible fears, of cataclysmic upheavals of nature, of weeping and wailing (D&C 19:5), of repentance that comes too late, and of crying out unto the Lord for mercy. But for those who in that judgment are found acceptable, it will be a day for thanksgiving, for the Lord shall come with his angels, and the apostles who were with him in Jerusalem, and those who have been resurrected. Further, the graves of the righteous will be opened and they shall come forth. (See D&C 88:97.) Then will begin the great millennium (D&C 43:30) period of a thousand years when Satan shall be bound and the Lord shall reign over his people. Can you imagine the wonder and the beauty of that era when the adversary shall not have influence? Think of his influence upon you now and reflect on the peace of that time when you will be free from such influence. There will be quiet and goodness where now there is contention and evil.

I know that you are familiar with all of this and with much more of that which is found in the scriptures, but I have felt impressed to repeat it as a reminder to each of us of the faith and the certainty that we have of these coming events. To know when these events will occur would take from us much of the self-discipline needed to daily obey the principles of the gospel.

Most of us seldom think of these millennial events, and perhaps it is well we do not. Certainly there is no point in speculating concerning the day and the hour in which they will occur. Let us instead live each day so that if the Lord does come while we are yet upon the earth we shall be worthy of that change which will occur as in the twinkling of an eye and under which we shall be changed from mortal to immortal beings. And if we should die before he comes, then—if our lives have conformed to his teachings—we shall arise in that resurrection morning and be partakers of the marvelous experiences designed for those who shall live and work with the Savior in that promised Millennium. We need not fear the day of his coming; the purpose of the Church is to provide the incentive and the opportunity for us to conduct our lives in such a way that those who are members of the kingdom of God will become members of the kingdom of heaven when he establishes that kingdom on the earth. May I suggest just two or three things which, if followed, will assist.

Read the whole article at the link below:
Gordon B. Hinckley, “We Need Not Fear His Coming,” Tambuli, Jul 1982

Click here to listen to D&C 45

Click here to read D&C 45

Details of the 2nd coming.

“When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.” Ezra Taft Benson

We stand on the summit of the ages, awed by a great and solemn sense of history. This is the last and final dispensation toward which all in the past has pointed. I bear testimony and witness of the reality and truth of these things. I pray that every one of us may sense the awesome wonder of it all as we look forward shortly to the passing of a century and the death of a millennium.

Let the old year go. Let the new year come. Let another century pass. Let a new one take its place. Say good-bye to a millennium. Greet the beginning of another thousand years.

And so we shall go forward on a continuing path of growth and progress and enlargement, touching for good the lives of people everywhere for as long as the earth shall last.

At some stage in all of this onward rolling, Jesus Christ will appear to reign in splendor upon the earth. No one knows when that will be. Not even the angels in heaven will know of the time of His return. But it will be a welcome day.

Read entire article at the link below:
Gordon B. Hinckley, “At the Summit of the Ages,” Ensign, Nov 1999, 72