General Conference

Ahhh...General Conference weekend. Gotta love it. Twice a year we get to listen to our church leaders in Salt Lake City on Saturday and Sunday instead of our usual Sunday meetings. In our house, we watch the broadcasts on the internet. Today went SO well. I was so impressed with Brandon and Whitney. They have two choices: They can sit and listen with us, playing a little listening game or they can go play in the playroom. Brandon stayed with us and listened to conference for the whole 4 hours!! And even Whitney probably "listened" for about 2 hours or so.
We let them play a game called "Conference Squares" that I got out of the Apr 2004 Friend Magazine. It's basically BINGO. There are pictures to represent words like prophets, love, prayer, Jesus Christ, temple. They have to listen for the speakers to say the word and then they put an M&M on that square. (Again, violating my self-imposed rule of not using candy as a reward!) At the end of each speaker they can eat the M&M's that they've collected.

Brandon was a GREAT listener. He ended up getting a ziploc baggie and saving some of his M&M's because he'd gotten so many. At the end of conference, I asked him what he learned and what words he had heard the most. He said, "Forgiveness. They said that a lot. And Jesus Christ. They talked about Him all the time because we love Him." So cute.

Here's Whitney enjoying her M&M's, too.

It has been great to have Andrew home for the day and to just chill out at home together and be spiritually fed. I've loved it. There were some really good talks today. I think my favorite was Elder Ballard's where he talked about, "Oh, be wise. What can I say more?" I loved his adice about our church callings and how to serve wisely. I also enjoyed Elder Robert C. Oaks' talk about patience. I'll have to re-read it when it comes out in the Ensign because I missed the beginning while putting Whitney down for her nap. But I liked his quote from Elder Maxwell where he said, "When you and I are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we like our timetable better than God’s." How often do I do that? And I liked his advice to reommit each day to become more patient.

I look forward to another spiritually uplifting day tomorrow!