PREPARING FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE

It's that time off year again when we get the opportunity to listen to the prophet and apostles and hear the guidance the Lord has set forth for us.  It is always an exciting time.  What new temples will be announced, what changes might be happening, and best of all what words of comfort and encouragement are we going to receive?

  When we prepare for conference we always get more out of it than if we just sit down and listen.  If we come with questions, it is amazing how many speakers will actually speak about the answers we seek. For some ideas and activities visit our General Conference page.

   Another way that I have found helps to prepare my family for conference is by learning about the prophet and apostles.  When my oldest was younger we did a little activity to help him get to know more about the apostles and when he found out that he and Boyd K. Packer shared the same birthday he thought that was so cool and always made sure that he was listening when Packer spoke.  It wasn't too long after that Packer died but he still remembers it and remembers some of the things he talked about because he wrote them in a journal. There a few different games you can play to help your kids get to know the prophet and apostles better.  There are match games you could do where you print out their pictures and their names and then match the name to the face. You could even find pictures of them from when they were younger (here) and try to match the name with that picture. Another one you could do is split into teams and have all their pictures out and one person is the MC.  The MC will read a story or other interesting fact about a person and then the first team guesses who it is.  If they get it right they get a point but if they get it wrong the other team gets to guess.  If they guess correctly they get the point but if no one does then you remove that picture and no points are awarded.  You can make each person worth the same amount of points or some worth more than others. There are a few versions of the "Red Chair" game but essentially you print out a copy of the chairs the prophet and apostles would sit in and then you have to put them in the correct order of first presidency and then seniority after that. 

   We gave our kids general conference notebooks and they write their questions down in it and then listen for the answers that come. My kids are young (10-4), but they still enjoy writing in their journals or even just drawing a picture.  It helps keep them quiet and helps them stay focused on what the speaker is saying.  They also play BINGO but sometimes that gets a little competitive and rowdy so when that starts happening we encourage them to just draw while listening to the talks or another activity.  One of our favorite fall conference traditions is to make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and bread between conferences.  This is where a homemade pre-packaged mix comes in handy so they can be put together quickly for lunch and then also eaten as snacks during the later sessions. What kind of traditions and things does your family do to prepare for conference and watch conference.  Feel free to share.  I love hearing all the fun things others do and to get new ideas.