General Conference and Me

Weren't those primary children magnificent?? I actually found a blog entry by someone who works behind the scenes of conference; click here if you want to see her crazy schedule.

I've debated whether or not to post my thoughts about conference, just because it's a little more personal (or more spiritual) than what I usually post. But I'm going to anyway, mainly because I want to hold myself accountable. How many times do we set a goal only to forget about it or leave it half-done? I've had several impressions during conference (particularly during Saturday's sessions) that I want to follow through on. I'm hoping making them public will help.

Family Home Evening:

Many, many times I'd be listening to a talk and think "we should do a FHE on this." I made a note of it each time, along with any ideas that would come to me for related object lessons or activities. While there was a (brief) time when I was pre-planning our FHE's, these days more often than not, our FHE's are thrown together about five minutes before they start. I've been unhappy with this and resolving to do better, but... well... I haven't.

I like to work on things in big chunks when I'm feeling motivated. So what worked for me before was to plan out several FHE's at once, print them out on one sheet of cardstock that I kept near my computer, and pick our FHE's from that. I'm going to do that again, and be better about restocking my supply of planned FHE's as they get low. (By the way, that was how we got a lot of John's scout stuff done too.)

I also feel we need some sort of loose curriculum to help me put all my ideas and goals into a format that's not too overwhelming (while eliminating the need to reinvent the wheel every week). For months now I've been wanting to steal an idea from a friend of mine, and utilize this great book called The Other Eminent Men of Wilford Woodruff. I have the book, but that's as far as I've gotten. Now I have all these ideas from conference too. So, to try to get it all organized in my brain, here are my thoughts about this so far:

I'd like a monthly testimony meeting (the Monday before Fast Sunday would be perfect) where we review principles of heartfelt prayer and testimony. We've discovered our children need frequent reminders about this (just like adults do). I think for the first several lessons, I can focus on a single principle from Elder Bednar's fantastic talk (Saturday afternoon session). The activity will be bearing of testimonies.

I know a lot of people spend the six months in between conferences re-reading all the talks. I think that's amazing. It's something I'd like to do myself (especially with President Monson's admonition), but I've had that thought before and never even come close. (Translation: I pretty much never re-read any talks.) So, believing in baby steps, I'm going to select a few talks for us to review for FHE, once a month or so between now and April.

On my list right now:

• President Uchtdorf's Saturday morning talk on Hope (isn't he the most amazing speaker ever???)
• Elder Oaks' great talk about Sacrament meeting worship. (I've tried before to sit quietly before the meeting starts, but it's such a huge part of the culture to talk to and greet each other during that time. How are we supposed to say "I'm trying to contemplate and prepare for the sacrament" without sounding rude? Then it came to me: have my scriptures open on my lap, and either read them, or look like I'm reading them while actually pondering my own thoughts. I don't think people will interrupt that. So that's what I'm going to try. ... Getting there early will probably help too.)
• Neil Anderson's story about the little girl born deaf and the little boy in the wheelchair. I want to share that story with my children again. I may or may not add more to it, using that little girl's statement "Jesus will make everything alright" as our theme.
• President Eyring's talk on unity, particularly family unity.
• I had already planned on a "What's Great About America" FHE (inspired by a scout requirement) that we'll do the Monday before Veteran's Day. I'll also incorporate some thoughts from President Packer's talk on pioneers, persecution, and patriotism.
• Stripling warrior FHE with the theme about how we should not be "consumers of vice" but rather "guardians of virtue," as in Sister Dalton's talk. We'll talk about the 13th Article of Faith too.
• I want to re-read Elder Cook's talk about the two pioneer women. That may be a good FHE as well.

We (I) need to make a set of cards for the apostle memory game. I want all of us to know their names and faces better than we do. That can be our go-to game for FHE when I don't have anything else planned.

Personal Application:

Well... no, this is too personal. I'll keep this goal to myself, but I will say I found Elder Bednar's talk incredibly inspiring.

I also need to revisit Elder Christopherson's talk, because the kids were really distracting me and I missed most of it. I want to see what the three things are we're supposed to do to build Zion.

I loved what he said about being content with what we have. I do believe that is a true principle, and I think I live it for the most part. But there are times when I find myself comparing what I have with others, which is never a good idea. It's good to be reminded of all the great reasons to be grateful and happy, and to focus on the things that really matter. When we leave this earth, what do we really take with us anyway?

I also want to remember what our prophet has counseled us to pray for, in both personal and family prayers.


And those are my thoughts about general conference. It was, as always, an amazing experience. Whenever the last session of conference ends, I always have the same thought: "I can't wait until next time."