My “church vacation” weekendApril 9th, 2008 @ 4:38 pm
Twice a year the LDS (Mormon) church holds a world-wide conference for all of it’s members. It’s called General Conference, and it’s typically held in April and October every year. General Conference is held at the (newly built) Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. While the Conference Center seats over 21,000 people, that isn’t enough. Plus, most Mormons don’t even live in Utah. (Shocking, I know!)
General Conference is meant for all members of the the LDS church to attend. But dude, we all can’t travel to Utah twice a year to do so. Because of this, all of the four two-hour sessions of Conference are broadcast via the internet, radio, and television. That’s right, anyone can watch them from the comfort of their own home. (Check your local cable listings for BYUTV.)
Being as I’m a member of the LDS church, I look forward to General Conference weekend. Normal Sunday church isn’t schedule, and instead we stay home to watch Conference on TV. It’s a time when we to listen to the wonderful messages from our Prophet, and other leaders of the church. They tell stories, teach doctorine, and share their testimonies.
The icing on the cake is that you get to do this all on your couch, in your jammies.
As a child, I admit, participating in General Conference wasn’t as anticipated. In fact in my family we commonly referred to Conference weekend as “church vacation”. It was the weekend we could pack up the trailer and head down to Zion National Park, or some other camp ground. We didn’t have regular church on Sunday, so we weren’t needed to teach our Sunday school classes (or any other responsibilities my parents might have had).
Plus, if we missed what was said during Conference, we could always catch the archives that were published later. (Check out all the languages Conference is translated into. Dude, I don’t know what language “Shqip” or “Hmoob” are, but I think it’s amazing that the LDS church is so prolific in languages.)
I’m not sure how old I was when I first realized that hey, Conference is pretty freakin’ cool! I’m not sure when, or why, the change happened, but I’m glad it did. No longer do I think of Conference weekend as a “church vacation”. I don’t think about where we can go that weekend. Instead, I’m excited about what messages will be shared with me. I look forward to being taught by amazing people, who have been called to be messengers of the Lord. I want to know what they have to say. I want to feast on their words.
Now that I have a toddler, who demands my attention, it’s a little harder to devote 8 hours of a weekend to watching a talking head on the TV. Unfortunatly, looking at this for 8 hours will not hold Babboo’s attention like it will mine:
During the weeks leading up to the latest General Conference I received about 12 million e-mail forwards all containing the same thing; an activity packet to help kids be a little more entertained during Conference. I reluctantly printed out the packet, even though I knew it wasn’t for someone Babboo’s age. I figured, at the least, he would enjoy coloring the word-searches and hidden picture games.
Babboo ended up really enjoying the Conference activity packet. He colored on the pages of past prophets of the LDS church. He even got out his paper punch (which he refers to as “scissors”) and made a few little hole punches. By the looks of this picture, Harold B. Lee seems to be his favorite.
While the activity pack did hold Babboo’s attention, for a bit, it also, surprisingly enough, held my attention. I loved the pages which allowed me to take notes of what the different people spoke on. Plus, I got to color the little ties to match the ties they were wearing. (Too bad I don’t have a color scanner at work!)
Okay, so I didn’t take too many notes, and I did miss a few of the speakers. But that’s only because I got caught up on my ironing. And it’s pretty hard to iron and take notes at the same time.
That’s okay, I can always catch the archives.
———————
Don’t forget to enter my gDiaper give-away, for a chance to win some of their awesome flushable diapers. Just leave a comment on THIS POST.
And did you see my latest New Things post about using Monistat gel as a foundation primer, for your face? Readers are using it and reporting back in the comments (and via e-mail). General consensus? It rocks.
My Sweet Babboo · Me · Churchy Stuff · Back in the day
Brittany
said,
April 9, 2008 at 6:20 pm
My family still thinks of conference as a vacation weekend, and that’s why my dad made Scotty go outside with him and install a trailer hitch on our SUV on Sunday (you know, for the ATVs and whatnot). I’m always the one telling my parents to sit down, shut up, and listen to conference.
For October Conference, Scotty’s whole extended family heads up to the Uintas for Sunday breakfast (and lunch and lots of snacks) and we all listen to the broadcast on the radio. I love that we have such easy access to conference.
Cheers to our redneck families!
Christar
said,
April 9, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Shaun’s parents had a dinner on Saturday night, complete with Shaun’s moms awesome Cherry Cobbler! I can never get enough of the Cherry Cobbler!
motherofbun
said,
April 9, 2008 at 6:46 pm
The activity packets are a pretty cool idea. Looks like you both got alot out of them. That’s really cool that the organization was thinking about the WHOLE family unit and not just adults. Shows a deep respect and love for EVERYONE in the family.
I went to a catholic grade school and went to church EVERY week day as well as once during the weekends. SOmetimes, if there was a holy day or wedding mass, we went twice. But in all of that time of going to church every school day, the priest didn’t once tailor his sermons (or anything else for that matter) to the 300 children (in grades 1-8) there. It was as if we all weren’t even visible. I didn’t get anything out of those sermons. I don’t know if its still the same way in the Catholic faith. I stopped going years later, couldn’t see the value of it all.
So its refreshing and inspiring to see that your religion is reaching out to not only adults but kids too. YEAY!
EdgyK
said,
April 9, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Ha ha I reluctantly printed that out too. My kids grumbled about doing but I made them do it anyway. My oldest and decided we could color most of the ties with a pencil and red crayon. She asked why they mostly wear red ties. I said because it’s easiest thing for them to pick and most men have no sense of fashion. She knew I was joking.
Abbie
said,
April 9, 2008 at 8:43 pm
One things about my church I love is that we don’t allow any kids in the main service. What am I saying? Kids don’t want to be in the main service. They have their own age appropriate classes where they have so much fun that they cry when getting picked up. Imagine, children who don’t want to leave church. And I’m not just talking small kids. My pre teen’s best day is Sunday.
That is the epitome of a great church.
Commenting on the Monistat product. It works. Go out and get it. Stat.
Marci
said,
April 9, 2008 at 8:52 pm
We did use the ‘vacation’ to take a vacation, so I am catching up on Conference now. I am squeezing in one session per naptime and am hoping to be caught up by the time I teach my lesson on Sunday. So I don’t sound like a complete idiot.
I wish my notes had cool pictures of ties to color….
Rhi
said,
April 9, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Babboo isn’t doing word searches yet?
I think the tie coloring thing is the cutest ever, and personally, I could have paid a LOT more attention at the work conference I was at this week if they had given me such a packet.
Tara
said,
April 10, 2008 at 2:45 am
I love the idea of the packet!! Not only for church conferences but for other meetings too…i may just have to come up with something similiar for the woman when i teach my decorating classes at work….maybe if they actually take notes they won’t ask questions that i just answered!! I love it…but i don’t normally wear ties…hmmm….what to make for them to color?!?!
by the way i thought maybe i should introduce myself….i am part of your SDBBE group!! I am reading your book right now!!
nice to meet you!!! i have enjoyed reading your blog….Danielle got me hooked on this “blogging thing” it’s kind of addicting!!! 
Joyful Mama
said,
April 10, 2008 at 2:51 am
We re-upholstered a chair during conference…but I swear we were listening! I agree with you that conference is hard with kids. I had that same packet forwarded to me, but I thought Jambers was too young to get much out of it. I guess I was wrong! When Babboo gets a little older, you should try Conference Bingo, with m&m’s as the bingo chips. We always did that when I was a kid, and it made conference a lot more fun.
Jezer
said,
April 10, 2008 at 3:05 am
Believe it or not, Conference sounds like something I’d really like.
BTW, bought the Monistat today. Will try tomorrow.
Anth
said,
April 10, 2008 at 4:21 am
Lol This post is hilarious. And my mom always irons during Conference!
I didn’t get any kids’ Conference packet! I must not be in the “cool” Mormon email fwd list.
Laurel
said,
April 10, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I love those “old men” coloring pages!! And tie decoration! That is way better (and more relevant) than the general “color this doggie” coloring pages that they give out at my church.