October 2012 General Conference

This post is late because we went on vacation, but two weeks ago my church had its semi-annual general conference.  This is where we get to hear from our prophet and from other leaders of our church.  If you would like to watch or read it you can go here.

Watching conference with young children is an interesting experience.  Sitting through 8 hours of church can be exhausting for an adult.  We try to make it as a good experience as possible so that the kids will learn to look forward to it.  One way we do this is to have picnics in the living room.  Conference falls over lunch and dinner so both sessions we have a picnic.  Joshua loves that and remembered it from April.  Another thing we do is put conference on the calendar along with other things they are looking forward to, so that they are excited for conference to come.

Joshua was super excited this time.  At the Saturday morning session* I was finishing up lunch for our picnic during the pre-opening song.  Joshua was hollering at me that I needed to come watch conference and listen to the prophet.  The kids were really good during the morning sessions and we were able to listen a surprising amount.  I was even able to take notes during the Saturday morning session.  On the Sunday morning session after the girls went down for their naps, we let Joshua finish listening, and he started taking notes by picking out a key word he heard, and Brian would write it down, and then Joshua would try to copy the word.  The afternoon sessions involved more fussing, but that can be a tough time of day around here any day.

Probably my favorite Joshua conference moment was when the Sunday morning session was starting and Miriam was in her jumpy thing in our laundry room doorway and was not in front of the TV.  Joshua demanded that she be taken out and put into his lap so that she could watch conference.  He then sat there and explained that we were going to listen to the prophet to her. 

 

 

Now here are some of my highlights, most if not all of these come from the Saturday morning session, I can't find my Sunday morning notes, and the afternoon session I wasn't able to take any.

 

At the beginning of conference President Monson announced that boys can now leave on their missions at age 18 after they graduate high school and girls can leave at 19 years old.  This was exciting for my family because I have a 16 year old brother, who now has to decide whether he is going on his mission earlier than planned.

 

One of my favorite talks was Sister Dibb's from the Young Women Presidency.  She came up with a T-shirt slogan to declare our faith, "I'm a Mormon, I know it, I Live it, I Love it!".  She said that we should declare we are Mormons and never be afraid to acknowledge that we are Mormons.  That we should know our faith by studying the scriptures and seeking confirmations from the spirit.   And that gospel knowledge gives us confidence.  For living it she said that we need to do the things we live in the scriptures and remember repentance and forgiveness.  And then we love the gospel and we are children of our Heavenly Father who loves us and cares about us.

 

One last thing I really liked was President Uchtdorf's talk about how living the principles of the gospel can help us live without regrets.  He said that Jesus wasn't bustling about just being busy, he was very purposely making people feel loved.

 

I am so grateful I get to listen to the leaders of our church every 6 months and I can't wait for the Ensign where I can read their messages.

*The morning sessions start at 10:00 Utah time, which is 12:00 in New York.  Even though it doesn't start until noon, I still call it the morning session out of habit.