General Conference Fall 2011

This past weekend, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (of which I am a member) held its regular semi-annual General Conference where we are taught and receive instruction (via television)  from the leaders of our faith and ultimately from Jesus Christ himself, as these leaders serve as special witnesses of Him.  As one can imagine, I want to be sure I hear as much of their instruction as possible, however, this can be a little trying with little ones in the home.  So I prepared plenty in advance to keep my kids listening (while entertained) so that we might all be uplifted from the messages prepared and shared at this special event. 

I came across this idea for General Conference and thought I'd share it with you, if you care to use the idea too, because it was such a success for us.

It included simply printing off a picture and a get-to-know-you description of each of the First Presidency and each member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (which I already had saved from a previous General Conference packet).  I then stapled a picture/description to a bag containing either a treat or a quiet craft of some kind that the kids could do while sitting at their little table in the middle of the Living Room in front of the T.V.  With each new speaker, the kids would look through our basket to find the coordinating picture of the speaker, and then they got to either snack on or put together the craft contained in that bag.   I made several extra bags for times when other General Auxiliary leaders might speak as well.

I tried to do as much of the prep work as possible so that I wasn't disturbed or interrupted quite so much during Conference, perhaps selfishly hoping to glean some of the things taught in General Conference too. Most things I included were very simple, such as:  pre-cut string and macaroni in one bag for macaroni necklaces; a toy magazine, paper, glue and scissors in another bag for them to cut pictures out of and make a picture Christmas wish-list; lots of stickers to make cards with; coloring; etc.  I think the kids' favorite craft was making the below pictured masks.

It was so fun to take the kids to the craft store to pick out things and because I had the basket put together in advance and just sitting on my dresser, the kids would eye it and ask over and over, "How many more days 'til General Conference?  I'm so excited!"  Success right?!! 

Of course, we also played Conference Bingo all the while too, which the kids enjoy doing and which I think is a great idea as the kids have to listen carefully for key words from speaker's messages in order to put an M&M on a square to earn a Bingo.

My goal was to keep my kids quiet enough (through a bit of entertainment) that words and even entire messages might reach their little ears and enter their hearts as they hear our leaders speak of the things we need to be taught today - and I believe it worked wonderfully.  Let me share my example of why I believe so:

During President Thomas S. Monson's talk in the Sunday morning session of Conference, he talked a bit about prayer.  He shared a story of a time as a young boy that he had put a hard-earned five dollar bill in the pocket of his jeans and forgotten to take it out before the jeans were sent out to be washed.  He was certain his jeans would return without the five dollars but even as a young boy, he knew he could offer a prayer to our Father in Heaven asking for help, in this case for his jeans to return with his money.  He was relieved to have his jeans returned in a couple days WITH the wet five dollars still in his pocket and offered yet another prayer to Heavenly Father in thanks.  He then bore testimony of how important it is to pray everyday and develop a personal relationship with our Father in Heaven.

This story caught Cash's attention right away, as he is VERY obsessed/worried about/fascinated with money right now.  He and Vanna both receive a quarter each day they've done ALL their chores.  And of course, at their age, money simply burns a hole in their pocket (hopefully we'll get the idea of saving in their heads soon :) They collect their chore money and buy small treats and toys at the store as a reward for all their work around the house.   Anyway, Cash is especially fascinated with money and of late, we'll often find that when we've gone to bed, Cash will lay in his bed with a flashlight counting his money over and over.  We often go to sleep to the sound of his clanking money and hope that he'll tire soon and go to sleep himself.   

SO - President Monson's story regarding his money intrigued Cash.  After this portion of the Prophet's talk (for he continued on with his talk), Cash asked me if he could go into his room for a minute.  I told him, "No, when the Prophet is done speaking, Conference will be ending and you can go into your room then - I want you to stay in the Living Room until Conference is over."  He then asked if he could sit on another chair in our Living Room and I said, "Yes."   He promptly went to that chair, sat down, folded his arms, bowed his head, closed his eyes and offered a sweet prayer.  I immediately thought of the primary song Follow The Prophet (which is Cash's favorite primary song btw) and promised myself I'd remember Cash's example to so quickly, faithfully and obediently follow our prophet's teachings - in this instance - to pray as our Prophet counseled. 

By this and other examples, I know my kids DID hear much of what was taught in Conference and I hope that as we continue to try our best to make Conference something to look forward to with anticipation and as we continue to make Conference a priority, the messages we are taught each Conference will enter into my kids' hearts and touch them - that they might remember and heed the words of our dear Prophet and all our church leaders. 

I hope your Conference experience was a great one as well and hope you'll share any success stories or activity ideas in comments so that I might try them too. Anything and everything helps right!?  And they really DO help, I feel like I learned so much from the messages prepared.  I was truly touched and taught.  How greatful I am for Conference, for a living Prophet and for the Gospel in it's entirety!!!