General Conference

As Lydia is getting older, I wanted to make General Conference seem more real to her. I wanted to do more. My goal was to do something everyday to prepare for conference. It was a bit lofty, and didn't happen, but we did do a few activities.

We had a family home evening lesson on conference and talked about King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon. We talked about having a conference tent that she could sit in to watch conference. (Ours was just a Dora canopy.) It got her really excited and she wanted to put up the tent everyday to be ready for conference. Friday night finally rolled around and we put it up. She was so excited she wanted to sleep in it and couldn't wait for conference. Saturday morning she woke up and Jeff helped her get pillows and blankets and she hunkered down with some other activities. She enjoyed the tent for the 1st 10 minutes of Conference, and then wanted to take it down. We spent the remainder of the weekend with the tent sometimes up and sometimes down. And as soon as she took it down, she decided she had to put it back up. It didn't work quite as well as I had hoped (I know it will work better when she is older, but she loves the tent, so I thought we would give it a try).

Lydia and I made I Spy the Prophet spyglasses. We had fun going through old Friend magazines and finding pictures of the Savior, or the prophets and apostles, or temples. For Lydia I helped this recognize many of the people that we hear at conference. The biggest thing is that it helped her to recognize the prophet better. I made a big one for Lydia, and then Lydia said we needed one for Claire too. So I made the little one too. I didn't realize that Lydia meant that she wanted to make one for Claire, so Lydia made one too. Another wonderful thing that came from this activity was Lydia and I had fun together making them. I love finding fun things for us to do while Claire is taking her nap.

While going through the old Friend magazines, I found a cute matching game. Lydia and I cut it out and put it together and talked about how these are some of the things that will be talked about during Conference. She loved playing the matching game! She has recently gotten in to games.

Lastly, I printed out coloring books for them to do during the sessions. They didn't last very long. I figured they wouldn't for Claire, but I thought Lydia's would have lasted longer. Oh well.

Overall, I think that Lydia had a good introduction to Conference. She loved recognizing the primary songs and would even find them on the Friend website in some form or the other (the songs play while you play some of the games on there). She loved seeing the prophet. I had more plans of things to do, but ran out of time (and energy!). Next year we will make some changes, but I enjoyed seeing my little girl get excited about seeing our living prophet.

On an adult note, I loved Conference, and look forward to it every six months. It fills my cup in ways that can't be filled in any other way. I am excited for the written copies to come out so that I can go back and read them. I know I didn't get every message that was there. I loved hearing Elder Bednar remind us that we need to be consistent and that is what will help our children learn. It is a good reminder that our children will gain something out of our efforts. I loved Elder Holland's strong testimony about the Book of Mormon. What a good reminder to read the scriptures. Elder Renlund's reminder that we need to pray and study everyday to stay strong in our faith was motivation to continue doing what I strive to do. I loved hearing President Monson's gentle reminder to serve our fellow men. What a way to be blessed. What a wonderful weekend. I love it! Here's to April...