I *heart* conference!

I’m totally geeked for this weekend. I really enjoy General Conference. I watch all the sessions, take notes, sing along with the hymns (even some of the choir numbers, much to my teenager’s dismay), participate in the sustainings, all from the comfort of my La-Z-Boy recliner in my family room. And this year, we don’t even have to do a cumbersome PC-to-TV hookup because our new Roku box gives us access to BYU-TV.

My 11-year old daughter gave a great family night last week about how to get the most out of conference. (Ok, it was awesome. I helped.) She based it on a great article in the New Era and some ideas from The Friend. I’m happy she’s reading those magazines, and I was thrilled that she chose her lesson material from what she read.

We put together a little PowerPoint slide show (she really likes teaching from PowerPoint – we’ve done lessons this way about temples, olive trees and lots of other stuff).

One of the suggestions she pulled from the New Era was that we ought to come to conference with questions. I’ve never consciously done that before, but I’m trying it this year. No, I’m not going to tell you my questions; you’ll have to come up with your own. I certainly have gotten answers to questions from conference before, but that was more random. This year, I’m bringing a question or two with me to see if there is some specific counsel for me in the talks. (I’ll let you know how it goes.)

Another suggestion my daughter recommended: don’t get so caught up in the “games” (Conference Bingo is our favorite!) that you lose track of what’s being said. Since my youngest is 11, we’re moving out of the keep-them-entertained-every-minute mode of conference, which is kind of cool. Of course we’ve had nearly two decades of teenagers (so far), so we’re still in the keep-them-awake mode. But we try not to be drill sergeants about it. (No, I’m not offering space for a rebuttal by my teenager; you’ll have to take my word for it.)

I should point out that my teenager also taught a conference preparation lesson this week in FHE. (He admitted that he didn't remember his sister had taught one the week before, but it was all good.) He included this cool video:



I hope you enjoy conference this weekend as much as I will!