At our house, almost nothing rivals our love of General Conference. For weeks ahead of time we anticipate the two day fest of Legos, crepes, pie at the Dodo, naps on the couch, time together and the spiritual feast from our leaders. Conference started out beautifully Saturday morning with a talk from Elder Eyring where he acknowledged tests to our faith and invited everyone to enjoy spiritual nourishment at conference:
All of us have had our faith tested by precious blessings delayed, vicious attacks of those who wanted to destroy our faith, temptations to sin, and selfish interests that reduced our efforts to cultivate and soften the spiritual depths of our hearts.
Those who are saddened by the loss of the joy they once had are the blessed ones. Some do not see the withering of faith within themselves. Satan is clever. He tells those he wishes to be miserable that the joy they once felt was childish self-delusion.
Today my message to us all is that there will be a precious opportunity in the next few days to choose to have our hearts softened and to receive and nourish the seed. The seed is the word of God, and it will be poured out on all of us who listen, watch, and read the proceedings of this conference. The music, the talks, and the testimonies have been prepared by servants of God who have sought diligently for the Holy Ghost to guide them in their preparation. They have prayed longer and more humbly as the days of the conference have approached.
They have prayed to have the power to encourage you to make the choices that will create in your heart a more fertile ground for the good word of God to grow and be fruitful. If you listen with the Spirit, you will find your heart softened, your faith strengthened, and your capacity to love the Lord increased.
I’ve never heard Conference start quite like that before. I loved the invitation to soften our hearts and listen.
For the morning session, it was just me and Lizzy. Nice and quiet and peaceful. Mary had to go to a ballet rehearsal all morning but took along her iPod and caught much of the session on the radio.
By Saturday afternoon session, the house filled with people and Legos. We do have to share the married couples but happily they came at the same time.
Ben and Sammie started a new tradition by making personalized Bingo sheets for everyone.
Everyone trades seats at least six times.
In the evening the boys ran off to priesthood session, while we went to the Dodo for pie. It was so insanely crowded we came home to let Lizzy do homework and we melted down Easter bunnies to make our own Dodo pie.
Sunday a.m., slicing strawberries, making crepes…
with even more guests…
In between sessions the entire neighborhood poured outside for backflips, Sunday walks,
riding unicycles…
I wondered where these five disappeared too and found them at home eating pie.
So much joy.
Other favorite talks:
Shannon
Oh yay! I have been waiting for your conference report! They never disappoint. Thank you. And we love RubyGirl at my home.
Gracielle
Hi Michelle! I’m always looking forward to your Gen.Conference post! The opportunity to watch it in our home is not yet available in our country, and I imagine in the future when we can watch it from home that we will be like your family too. It would be such a delight to have everyone at home watching the prophets speak. My family went there to watch it at Salt Lake while we watch it here at stake centers. And you’re right, the Conference gets better every time. I Love You my dear sister in faith 🙂