Conference is over! I am so grateful that we have the chance to listen and participate! I would LOVE to hear anyone's thoughts and feelings about conference. Any favorite talks or stories? Any particular things really strike you?
Some of my favorite parts of conference are as follows:
1. The most impressive part to me was the strong confirmation I felt, personally, that President Monson is now God's prophet on the earth. Like Elder Holland, I too felt as though I saw the mantle fall upon him before my very eyes. He was the same, fun President Monson as ever, but different somehow. He seemed MORE than he was before.
2. Elder Wirthlin's talk on Sat. AM...loved his story of himself as a seven year old standing up for someone!
3. President Eyring's talk (I think Sat AM). I always love President Erying. He is one of my favorites!
4. I was impressed with Elder Oaks and Elder Hales talking back to back about testimony in the Sat. PM session. I am excited to get printed versions to use for FHE lessons in the future!
5. I LOVED "High on A Mountaintop" (especially the mighty ending)... the final choir song in the Sunday AM session! I felt like the rooftops of the Conference Center were ringing with the voices of angels!
Finally, I wanted to share this personal experience...
Conference is such an amazing wonderful time. However, in our house it is also very busy. Helping our six very young children sit through eight hours of meetings is a huge challenge. I have to prepare quite a bit in advance. I always buy special coloring things, I print off Conference Bingo for the kids (and buy the candy to go with them) to encourage them to listen, and I printed off the Conference Packets this time (where the kids write about what each apostle speaks about, what color tie they wore, etc). We have a FHE lesson the prior Monday to prepare the kids (Joe gave a great lesson this year on King Benjamin and his conference), and family councils to discuss the importance of listening to our prophet and sustaining our leaders. It is a TON of work...and that is before the eight hours actually begin!
This year, Joe had to work on Saturday, so I had all the kids home by myself that day for the two sessions. The kids were great, although busy. We have no TV, so we watched the sessions on the internet. The kids sat at the table in the kitchen (where our computer is located) and I sat in an umcomfortable kitchen chair. Using the internet enabled us to pause conference, which is a blessing and a curse. We were able to pause often and discuss what things meant, and the kids asked some wonderful questions that blessed me to know they were actually sort of listening. However, this also lengthens conference as well...we often didn't end until 15 or 20 minutes after the actual session had ended. The kids sat well, though, and Ammon even commented on Saturday that the four hours had just flown by.
Sunday morning was sort of a disaster. Bekah had been up most of the night leaving Joe and I with little sleep. We were tired, and I just wanted to lay in bed and listen on the radio. However, I knew I needed to help my children watch and understand the importance of conference. The kids were particularly wiggly and I felt frustrated and grumpy throughout the session. The only talk I really got much out of was that of President Monson's at the end. Joe took Ammon to the Sunday afternoon session, thanks to tickets from Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons. Ammon was SOOOO excited to see the prophet "in real life" for the first time. I was thrilled for them to go. Joe offered to let me go, to get away from the house and enjoy conference, but I felt it was important for Ammon to go with his father. This left me with the kids alone, again. We rushed through cleaning up the morning mess and making lunch before the afternoon session began.
The kids were starting to lose their interest in conference by the Sunday afternoon session. It had been nearly eight (and more, when you count all the extra time from pausing and discussion) hours of listening over two days. That is a lot for adults, much less small children. Anyway, at the very end, Elder Ballard said that he was going to talk to young mothers. My eyes welled up with tears. I was tired of wrestling the kids. More than anything, I just wanted to be able to feast on the spirit and word of the Lord without always needing to deal with my children. I paused the computer and told my three remaining children, Emma, Hannah, and Lizzie (Bekah and Caleb had crashed for afternoon naps by now), that they could go play quietly in the basement if they wanted because I really just wanted to sit and listen to this particular talk. However, to my astonishment, they BEGGED me to let them stay! They promised to not talk at all and to be very reverent. What is a mom supposed to say to that?
They sat quietly as Elder Ballard gave his talk. As he reminded mothers that children are with us for such a short time of our lives, and that mothers must focus their time and energy on them during this vital period of their lives, my eyes finally overflowed and my heart was filled with gratitude for living prophets on the earth. I had been feeling that perhaps it was too much work, and too much time, to help my children listen and learn through conference. It would be so much easier to just let them go play while I listened. Elder Ballard helped me know that the time I do spend is not in vain, and especially it helped remind me that this is such a short period of time in my life! Yes, it is true that I do not get as much out of conference when my children are here. I know, though, that I can spend quiet hours on my own through the next six months reading and reviewing the things that I may have missed. My kids will be gone soon enough. I will have years and years of quietly listening to conference and soaking it all in during the moment. This is a different season in my life, and I am SO GRATEFUL for it.
I knew that Elder Ballard's counsel to enjoy the moments was so inspired. I will never forget the picture of my five young children (Bekah isn't old enough yet) standing and raising their hands to sustain President Monson as a new prophet. They were so solemn and sincere. Even Caleb hurried to stand next to his siblings to raise his pudgy, chocolate covered hand. It was an amazing moment, and one of those "special moments" to which Elder Ballard was referring. I am so grateful for direction and leadership for our Prophet and Apostles! I love them and sustain them. I would love to hear from any of you about your conference experiences!
Bekah (5 months) watches from her exersaucer
Caleb (2) participates in our favorite sport of Aunt Ruth-Hunting
The Boyer clan prepares for the Sunday morning session (some still in their jammies)
Ammon (10) and Joe went to the Sunday afternoon session
An example of one of the girl's work...see if you can decipher what she felt the authorities were talking about
3 comments:
I, too, felt a powerful personal witness that President Monson has been chosen by the Savior to be our prophet. Randon felt it as well. At the end of the last session I felt to turn to Randon and bear my newly gained testimony to him, and then we both bore that witness to Addie. It was special, I hope our children can have these experiences.
BTW, that conference pack you printed off is also something that I used. It was emailed to me from three different people in three different states. I wonder how many people used it last weekend? A whole lot, I bet. Anyway, I spent a good amount of time putting together a specific packet for each child. The only problem was that they blew through the whole thing the first session! So on Sunday, after they finished Bingo (which I had purposely reserved) we were reduced to our old standby: coloring books and wrestling!
I had the packet emailed to me twice AND I found it on MormonTimes.com...the deseret news site for Mormon stuff. We used the coloring things for the first session or two along with bingo. We used the packets for the three final sessions. I'm not sure why my kids took so long to finish them. I'm guessing it was because they were doing Bingo and coloring at the same time. Either that or your kids are just a lot more advanced than mine. :)
You and your family are awesome! Way to go with Conference...I don't know how you do it, but I am impressed. Great pictures and enjoyed reading what you felt during conference.
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