Thursday, April 2, 2009

Conference Weekend

This weekend our church holds a General Conference for all members all over the world. Saturday and Sunday meetings will be held in a huge Conference Center in Salt Lake City. These meetings will be broadcast throughout the world over the internet (see lds.org), via television broadcasts, and at meeting houses around the globe.

At these meetings, we have a chance to hear directly from the living Prophet on the earth today and from members of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I always love this special weekend when we can gather in our homes and listen to a prophets voice. There always seems to be one or two talks that speak directly to me.

These conferences are held twice a year--once in the fall and once in the spring. To make the occasion more memorable for the kids, we have a few traditions that we do each conference time. 

First, I always make rolls. Sometimes they are cinnamon rolls. This time I am doing orange rolls. I will make the dough tonight and then roll them out and bake them tomorrow. It is great to have yummy food to eat while we watch.

I also try to have activity packets for the kids to do while they listen. If I get too busy to get these together for the kids, I just pull out paper and crayons. Then I ask them to draw a picture for each talk of something that person talked about. Luckily my kids love drawing so this works well for us.

If you are not a member of our church, but have any interest in finding out more about if there is really a prophet today on the earth like there was in scripture times, I invite you to tune in to this conference and give a listen. Conference sessions will be from 9-11 am and 1-3 pm PST both Saturday and Sunday. You can watch on the internet HERE anytime during or after the live broadcast. 

The Prophet's name is Thomas S. Monson. While he will likely not speak at every session, you can be fairly sure to hear him if you tune in Sunday morning. 

And if you listen to conference regularly, what are some of your favorite conference traditions? I am always looking for new ideas to make this weekend special.