General Conference April 2013

What an amazing weekend. Conference weekend really is as good as Christmas for me. Wonderful food, feeling the Spirit and the love of our Savior, it's such a great time of year. Darryl and I look forward to it. My kids look forward to it, and we love staying put for a weekend and being fed, both spiritually and physically. The kids always do well Saturday. The baby napped  through the first session and the kids do their activities and snack and listen for the whole 4 hours. Sunday morning they are antsy and by the afternoon they are tired of sitting still. But I could not believe the difference 6 months makes. I feel that it got easier for them and their attention span is longer.

But, similar to Christmas, the more planning and work I do ahead of time, the better. It's a lot of work keeping the kids busy and the food coming, but it was worth it. We ate strawberry rhubarb pie, french toast, bacon, smoothies, puffy apple pancakes, apple pecan salad, buffalo chicken sandwiches, it was delish. We set up the conference candy store, my kids favourite conference tradition. We set up little framed pictures of things that may be mentioned in conference talks. When the kids hear a topic from a talk, we pay them with play money that they can buy candy with at the end of the talk. This really helps  them pay attention. My kids would do just about anything for a fuzzy peach.

We also have a conference board that I made with all the apostles, general presidencies and other leaders pictures stuck with velcro to the board. The kids search for the speaker, place him on the podium, them search for pictures of what they are talking about. They LOVE this. Carter is so quick to pick the right speaker, he is like his Dad in that he pays attention to small details so well.

Before conference, Darryl tells them about King Benjamin and builds a tent with them to watch from. I give them their own conference folder full of activities and colouring pages and a new set of markers.

I know this is all the "fluff" stuff that is not really what conference is all about. The doctrine we are taught is the true reason we gather together to hear our leaders speak. That being said, because my kids are so little, I really want to try and start traditions and create memories that are on their level, so that conference becomes a time that they look forward to. I also think they subliminally the realize when Darryl and I put a lot of effort into something, it shows it's significance and importance.

I also know when I anticipate and prepare for conference spiritually, I am able to receive the answers I need. The talks we so wonderful. A few of my favourites were Sister Dalton (who was released, so sad) Jeffery R. Holland, Elder Clayton and Elder Ellis. Their talks spoke directly to me and pierced my heart. It's amazing how you can feel like someone is speaking directly to you when they are addressing over 14 million people. These are some of my very favourite parts:


“What-e’er thou art, act well thy part.” At that moment those words went deeply into my heart, and I felt the powers of heaven reach out and give me a message. I knew I was known by a loving Heavenly Father. I felt I was not alone. I stood in that garden with tears in my eyes. “What-e’er thou art, act well thy part.” That simple statement renewed my vision that Heavenly Father knew me and had a plan for my life, and the spirit I felt helped me understand that my part mattered. Later I learned that this saying had once motivated the prophet David O. McKay while he was serving as a young missionary in Scotland. He had seen it on a stone on a building at a discouraging time in his life and on his mission, and the words lifted him. Years later as the building was being torn down, he made arrangements to obtain the stone and had it placed in the garden at the mission home. -Elaine Dalton

One thing we have often been taught is to bloom where we are planted. Yet sometimes we are tempted to migrate to some new area, thinking our children will have more friends and therefore better youth programs. Brothers and sisters, do we really think the critical factor in the salvation of our children is the neighborhood where we live? The apostles and prophets have often taught that what happens inside the home is far more important than what our children encounter outside. How we raise our children is more important than where we raise them. -Stanley G. Ellis

“… It was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul.”We can learn from that voice from heaven. It was not loud, scolding, or demeaning; it was a still voice of perfect mildness, giving firm direction while giving hope. 

The answer to our prayer of how to meet our children’s needs may be to more often technologically disconnect. Precious moments of opportunity to interact and converse with our children dissolve when we are occupied with distractions. Why not choose a time each day to disconnect from technology and reconnect with each other? Simply turn everything off. When you do this, your home may seem quiet at first; you may even feel at a loss as to what to do or say. Then, as you give full attention to your children, a conversation will begin, and you can enjoy listening to each other. -Rosemary Wixom

I have observed that in the happiest marriages both the husband and wife consider their relationship to be a pearl beyond price, a treasure of infinite worth. They know that no other relationship of any kind can bring as much joy, generate as much good, or produce as much personal refinement. They focus first on the home and on helping each other with their shared responsibilities. Their marriages are based on cooperation, not negotiation. Their dinner hour and the family time that follows become the center of their day and the object of their best efforts. They turn off electronics and forgo personal entertainment in order to help with household duties. To the extent possible, they read with their children every night and both participate in putting the little ones to bed. They retire to their bed together. As their duties and circumstances permit, husbands and wives work side by side in doing the most important work there is—the work we do in our own homes. -L. Whitney Clayton

“Straightway,” the scripture says—not slowly nor skeptically nor cynically but “straightway”—the father cries out in his unvarnished parental pain, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” In response to new and still partial faith, Jesus heals the boy, almost literally raising him from the dead, as Mark describes the incident.

Brothers and sisters, this is a divine work in process, with the manifestations and blessings of it abounding in every direction, so please don’t hyperventilate if from time to time issues arise that need to be examined, understood, and resolved. They do and they will. In this Church, what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith.

I said I was speaking to the young. I still am. A 14-year-old boy recently said to me a little hesitantly, “Brother Holland, I can’t say yet that I know the Church is true, but I believe it is.” I hugged that boy until his eyes bulged out. I told him with all the fervor of my soul that belief is a precious word, an even more precious act, and he need never apologize for “only believing.” I told him that Christ Himself said, “Be not afraid, only believe,” a phrase which, by the way, carried young Gordon B. Hinckley into the mission field.¹³ I told this boy that belief was always the first step toward conviction and that the definitive articles of our collective faith forcefully reiterate the phrase “We believe.”¹⁴ And I told him how very proud I was of him for the honesty of his quest. Hope on. Journey on. Honestly acknowledge your questions and your concerns, but first and forever fan the flame of your faith, because all things are possible to them that believe.  -Jeffery R. Holland

We challenged our Young Women at church to attend the Young Women broadcast (which was so full of wonderful counsel for the girls, it was awesome. My mum and my sister surprised me by showing up too) as well as all 4 sessions of conference. Then, if they recorded their feelings in their journal, they could count it as a 10 hour personal progress project. I was so happy to go to Mutual last night and see that so many of them accepted that challenge and completed it. A lot of them brought their Personal Progress books with them to be signed off and I was so proud of them. A lot of them enjoyed conference more than they thought that they would. The shared what they had learned. It was awesome. (I think it helped that I bribed them with chocolate bars. They aren't much different than my kids when it come to treats :)

This is why I feel so fortunate to have this calling. Yesterday was a tough kinda day. Nothing in particular, I was just short on sleep, time and patience and we had a lot that needed to be accomplished. After being with those girls, I was filled with all the sweet memories/feelings from conference. I went home feeling great, apologized for being grumpy, thanked my husband for his patience and was reminded that I could start fresh tomorrow.

I am grateful for the inspired leaders of our church, and so very grateful for the sacred time set aside ever six months to learn from them.