I am just wondering what you and Dave do to prepare your family for General Conference. Any ideas would be helpful!


I loved getting this question when I was sorting out old emails the other day because it made me think.  It was from last September preparing for October conference, but hey, good timing for this conference coming up next week 🙂  


First of all, as a little background for those wondering what in the world “General Conference” actually is:  It is a conference that happens in our church every six months (the first weekend of October and the first weekend of April).  It’s when our prophet and leaders speak to us and give all kinds of inspiring messages (for more detailed info. click HERE).

(picture from mormon.org)


When I got this question it made me think a little more in depth about what we really do in our family to prepare.  I mean, we always make our “conference cinnamon rolls{recipe HERE}, and I print out “Conference Bingo” from the internet (except when we are in China and don’t have great internet or the right ingredients…that was a weird one last October since we were fifteen hours ahead too…).  I hang up pictures of the prophet and Dave and I talk about how excited we are to hear from our leaders.  One year we set up a tent in our family room and watched conference from there so we could be like the people when King Benjamin spoke in what I imagine was a sort of “General Conference” in the scriptures.  


But that question in my email box made me ponder a little more about what we do spiritually to prepare.


I was talking to my sister (Saren) on the phone the other day and through our mini discussion I realized probably the very best thing I to to prepare my kids for conference is the most simple thing I mentioned above: we talk about it in anticipation and show our kids how excited we are.  


I know that may seem too simplistic.  Like we should be doing something more, and of course there always IS more.  But I don’t think you can underestimate the power of and example.  


It’s interesting because it made me think about my anticipation of my sisters and mom coming to visit recently.  Each day I’d tell my kids how excited I was that they were coming.  We got the house all cleaned out and ready.  We talked about the schedule.  My excitement passed so easily to my children.  I mean, that’s sure easy as can be because my sisters and mom aren’t to hard to get excited about, but still I thought about my attitude.  Had I acted like it was a chore to prepare for their arrival I doubt my kids wouldn’t have been as over-the-moon for the visit.  They would have been all resentful that I made them do so many chores and they would have rolled their eyes at our schedule planning.  But their eyes shone bright as the sun when they got to hug those aunts and grandma close because they had helped to prepare so joyfully.


I think it’s the same with conference or any important thing on the horizon.  Our preparation rubs off on these kids of ours, whether it is eager and beautiful or whether it is pure drudgery.  


So, we have been preparing with great anticipation for next weekend through simply talking about how wonderful it will be to hear so many great messages together.


We are all especially excited this time around since we are going to Utah to be at the Conference Center for one of the sessions. 



Hooray!


(It’s always been our plan to take our kids to conference when they turn twelve.  And here we are with max on the brink of turning 18 and every single six months we think it through and can’t make it happen so this year, despite some planning complications, we are making it happen.)

As far as preparing spiritually myself (and I’m hoping to get my teenagers on board this week), I have been listening to the last conference talks on my phone (through the “Mormon Chanel” app.).  I have loved being so inspired by those talks back in October. You can find them HERE.


Conference happens to be on Easter weekend this year (it just happens that way some years).  So we’ve been putting in a little extra preparation preparing for “Holy Week” starting Monday.  As usual I have pulled out my yellow papers and taped them up ready to go for the week.  We will be studying what happened each day of the Holy Week.  Here’s an old picture of Claire pleased as punch about learning about the last week of Christ’s life:

The plan is to replace our morning scripture study with reading the scriptures that go with the events each day of next week.
More info. and pictures of each day of the week back HERE.  Scripture references to go with each day over HERE.
This year I’m planning to add in a few activities from a list of really inspired ideas my sister and her friend put together.  You can find them HERE.  (Check out her other great posts too…so inspiring, especially THIS ONE which made me so grateful for the resurrection!)  There are a ton of ideas in the Easter packet, so I’m just picking through a few that I think will work for our family.  I’m so excited to wash each other’s feet and talk about how significant that was for Family Home Evening on Monday night and try to put together some special meals to help my kids understand the significance of the events in the Holy Week a little better.   That’s the plan…we’ll see how it goes!  Thank you so much Saydi!
***Post edit note:  I would LOVE to hear ideas from others.  There were some great ones in the comments back in this post back HERE that we have incorporated into our family and that we love.  Please send any great ideas along…we’d all benefit from them!
Happy conference/Easter prep!

9 Comments

  1. You inspired and motivated me to make Easter more meaningful this year. On LDS.org they had a great little print out with 7 little pictures you put one on a day for 7 days that talk about what happened each day also. Its right on the home page.

  2. We also do a special Easter Egg hunt for family night the Monday before Easter that has 12 eggs and each one is filled with what happened. Examples: 1. one egg has dice talking about them casting their lots. 2. Another egg has 3 dimes talking about him being sold for three pieces of silver. This was a favorite tradition in our home growing up and I have continued it with my children. If you google "lds resurrection eggs" you can find instructions for how to make your own.

  3. wow. i must say. what beautiful prep you put into your Easter week! our basket of plastic eggs with the Easter story on printed strips of paper, and little emblems of the story, is a tradition that has lasted over 2 decades. the last egg or course, is empty. just as the tomb was.
    as for conference, since we have all boys the food portion of ANY event remains very important, lol! we have ebelskivers and our blessing on the food before it begins, has always been the perfect start as we pray extra hard to listen, learn, and enjoy.

  4. Thank you for always posting about family traditions. These are what get me excited to keep my family growing!

    As I was thinking about this post today and knowing you'll be here for conference, I actually work in the Relief Society Building. And I know we don't know each other, but if you're at all interested, I would love to show you and your family around this beautiful building if you've got free time.

    Enjoy your conference weekend in Utah!

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