How to Make General Conference More Special This Year

     

General Conference on my birthday last year:
we went to the conference center!!

General Conference, no doubt, is one of my most favorite times of the year. It is very much like a holiday in our home. I'd say Conference time rivals even that of Christmas. I love it.
     It was not always that way. I remember conferences past, sitting on the couch in my parents bedroom, snuggled under a blanket (because at least if I had to watch church all day for two days, I could do it in my pajamas!), my soul purpose and focus being not to fall asleep, or rather, not to let my mom know I had fallen asleep. In my mind, conference weekend pretty much sucked.
     After a few sessions of General Conference, I can't say exactly what happened, but my mom figured it out. I wasn't the only one struggling to stay awake. Most years, we would listen to my dad snoring in the corner, and we all looked at him with envy. We hated conference, and despite it's high importance, we got nothing out of it. Even when I did decide to sit down with better resolve, nothing.
     So, coming from that, how did conference then become one of my absolute favorite times of the year? My mom. My mom made General Conference mean something, and here's how.

1.) Choose an Attention Grabbing Activity

     Wait... you mean actually getting to hear the words of the Prophet himself, from the Prophet himself is not enough!? Now, yes, then, not so much, especially as a young kid.
     My mom was the bomb. She would spend so much time finding different paper packets and activities for us to do during conference, and they were all conference focused activities, so we actually had to pay attention. For the little ones, some of the activities would include coloring a tie to match each of the speakers. As we got a little older, we started to learn how to journal, and take notes, by drawing a picture for each talk. Our packets were filled with various activities such as these.

2.) Make it a Family Activity

     I think one of the things I dreaded the most about conference as a kid, was sitting for hours on the couch, starting at a screen filled with old people that were not in any way entertaining. How could it have been? I didn't even understand why it was important at the time, and when prophet's and apostles weren't a good enough answer, neither was "family time." Lucky for me and my family, my mom had a way to fix that one, too.
     She did this in a number of different ways, but one of my favorites was when she would put a row of different goodie filled bowls below the T.V., each labeled with something like Savior, Prayer, Prophet, Holy Ghost, or Repentance, and every time we heard one of those words we got to pull a treat out of the bowl.
     Mom used to tell us, "Now you can't just go get a candy because someone else did, you actually have to hear the word!" So then it became a game of who heard the word first.
     As we got older, at least for me, actively listening to the words of the various speakers just became a natural thing. Now, listening to the Apostles has become something sweet to me, and I enjoy every second of it.

3.) Make it Special for Each Individual

     Feeling the spirit is a very personal thing. Conversion, also, is a very personal thing, and so is General Conference. Many of us go into conference with questions, or desires in our hearts that can only be fulfilled by personal experience and revelation. We all take away from the weekend something very different, and often very personal. I am still extremely grateful to my mom for teaching us this very important lesson. 
     My favorite was always the pens. There is just something about a set of brand new, colored pens. The youngest of us would usually get a fun pack of crayons or markers, and we were all encouraged to use them in our packets or journals. If we didn't have a journal, we got a journal. 
     After that, we would either be surprised or we got to pick out a fun treat for our conference BINGO. If we were lucky, the first to finish BINGO got a prize. (Or we just got to finish off our treat.)

4.) Food and Traditions

     In my family, we are all suckers for some good food. It has become tradition that we either have biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and pulled pork sandwiches later on, or cinnamon rolls for breakfast and sloppy joe later on. Some years we would mix things up a bit and get those big Costco muffins, and chocolate milk, and orange juice, and yum! Those things were always a treat to us, since Mom also tried to help us eat healthier throughout the rest of the year. And no one told us no seconds!

5.) Share it with Others

     Really fun, my birthday actually lands right on General Conference weekend some years. There are some years that it is really nice to just be home with family, but others, we make it big. One year, we actually visited some family friends  a few hours away for my birthday, and we were able to share many of our traditions with them. It was a blast. My favorite food that my mom makes has always been her enchiladas, and that year she made the white chicken and green chili kind and the beef and bean kind! It made that year especially fun being able to share it with more of the people I love. 

     What I love most about what my mom did for us was not only the lessons we learned, but the memories that we made. For me personally, I learned how to both listen to, and enjoy, the gospel. I learned how to feel the spirit, and I learned how the gospel is good for me, and applied to me personally. 
     Through the many fun memories, I also learned the importance of spending time together as a family. My love for each member of my family grew every time we gathered together, to learn together, and to grow together. 
     I will never not be grateful for my mom's desire, and the actions that came from it, to bring her family closer to our loving Father in Heaven. 

Shout Out to My Mom Who Has Always Been the Glue
Keeping Our Family Together. We Couldn't Make it to Eternity
Without Her <3

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