General Conference, April 2011

I'm very grateful for General Conference time.

Life, especially work, has been really busy lately. And being able to take a break this weekend has been a huge blessing.

I quite enjoy the messages, music, and the spirit of General Conference. But I also liked the traditions. My favorite tradition is Rae's special snack food she whips up at conference time. We call it "Rae Dip" and it is the yummiest cracker dip ever. It's a mixture of cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and salsa. We usually enjoy it with Wheat Thins. Yummy! Too bad the kids ate both boxes of the crackers on the first day!

Keeping the kids happy during eight hours of General Conference is a bit tricky. At least we can be a bit relaxed in the comfort of our home. Rae found some activities online and printed them out for the kids. They included some Conference-themed bingo cards, coloring pages, and puzzles. Our six-year-old got into the coloring the most. She drew pictures of all the members of the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency. See if you can guess who is in each drawing. These are the drawings she did for the Saturday general sessions:

Priesthood Session

I'm really torn about the Priesthood Session of conference.

On the one hand, I really, really love enjoying a session of conference that I feel like is just for me. It's a time to focus on listening to the messages without the distractions of everyday life, especially the children. The music is usually really awesome at the Priesthood Sessions too.

But on the other hand, I don't get the benefit of being able to sit with my darling wife during the session. Worse, she gets to deal with the challenge of caring for the the children all alone: getting them dinner, ready for bed, etc. Sometimes I wish the Priesthood Session were a little shorter. (Isn't the Young Women meeting only about 90 minutes?) That way I wouldn't be away from the family for so long. And the time of the day is a bit tricky since it's right around bedtime for the children. I also wish adult sessions of Stake Conferences weren't usually at that time for the same reason.

Still, this Priesthood Session was yet another really good one. I especially liked President Uchtdorf's message. It was very motivating to me. When I returned home after the session, we had family prayer time. But instead of our usual Scripture Study time after the prayer, Rae asked me to share with the family a report of what I learned from the Priesthood Session. Boy! Was I glad I took notes on my "smart phone." :) (You'll have to watch President Uchtdorf's talk to hear about that little joke!) It was a nice chance to share with the children why going to the Priesthood Session is so important to me. I was grateful to share with them my testimony of the Gospel. Hopefully the things I learned and shared can help them to build up their own testimonies further.